CHARLESTON — The Diocese of Charleston has two new staff members serving in positions at the Chancery.
Father Titus Fulcher has been hired as Bishop Robert J. Baker’s assistant for special administrative affairs and as director of the Office of Child Protection Services. He replaced Jeffrey Silleck as of June 1.
Stephen Gajdosik has been hired as the bishop’s diocesan press officer. He replaces Maria A. Aselage, the former spokeswoman for the diocese.
Father Fulcher was formerly a Greek Orthodox priest, but says he found his way home to the Catholic Church. He is the pastor of the Melkite Greek Catholic Community in Charleston.
He is a former junior high teacher at St. John School in North Charleston. He attended seminary at Duke University and at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass., focusing on Greek Orthodox church history and patristics.
He said that he accepted the new position because protecting children is an important job.
“Restoring a right level of trust in the church for all its members is restoring the dignity of each human person — for children, for all our people — so we can better fulfill our mission to live and spread the Gospel,” he said.
He and his wife, Karen, have a daughter, Katherine, a rising eighth-grade student at St. John.
As press officer, Gajdosik will act as spokes-man for the diocese. He will also maintain his current position as founding president of the Catholic Radio Association, working in both positions to ensure the success of this new apostolate in the state, as well as the nation.
Gajdosik holds a master’s degree in theology from Ave Maria College in Michigan. He and his wife, Tonia, have five children, with a sixth on the way.
He told The Miscellany that he hopes to enculturate the Gospel in the entire diocese. He hopes also to achieve holiness for himself and those he serves.
“I think the church has taken a beating in the press,” he said, “some of it because of her own negligence. I hope to bring to society at large an understanding of the importance of the church as a leaven within society, as a bulwark against man’s lower passions, as a shining beacon to what God has called us to do.”