PORTLAND — Monsignor Paul F. Stefanko has been appointed pastor of St. Joseph Parish and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish effective Oct. 1. In addition to his new pastoral duties, Stefanko will remain judicial vicar and director of the Diocesan Tribunal for the Diocese of Portland, which is the court of the bishop that adjudicates ecclesiastical judicial cases, including marriage annulment cases.

Stefanko is a native of Norwalk, Conn., and attended St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn. He also studied philosophy at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland; theology at The Catholic University of America and Theological College in Washington, D.C.; and Canon Law at The Catholic University of America. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Edward C. O’Leary at St. Ladislaus Church in South Norwalk on May 15, 1976.

Stefanko’s association with the Diocesan Tribunal began in 1977 when he served as a regional auditor. He was assigned full time to the tribunal staff in 1983. In 1989, he was appointed adjutant judicial vicar and tribunal director, and, in 1992, he was named judicial vicar. Currently, Stefanko serves as parochial vicar of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Scarborough, St. John and Holy Cross Parish in South Portland and St. Bartholomew Parish in Cape Elizabeth.