New Archbishop for Brisbane

New Archbishop for Brisbane

Pope Leo has today appointed Bishop Shane Mackinlay as the new Archbishop of Brisbane.

Archbishop-elect Shane is well known and highly regarded by Archbishop Mark. We are delighted to welcome him to this Archdiocese.

The installation of Archbishop Shane will be held on 11 September 2025 at the Cathedral of St Stephen.  Archbishop Mark Coleridge will continue to serve as Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese until that time.

 

Please find a statement from Archbishop Mark, the ACBC media release, and a brief bio of Archbishop-elect Shane attached to this email.   Please share this announcement with your teams and volunteers.

As we look forward to welcoming him in September, please keep Archbishop-elect Shane in your prayers as he prepares to take up this new ministry.

THE APPOINTMENT TO BRISBANE OF BISHOP SHANE MACKINLAY

For many reasons, I welcome the appointment of Bishop Shane Mackinlay as my successor in Brisbane, where he will be a distinguished addition to the line of Archbishops.

Bishop Shane has shown himself an unusually gifted man in his years as a priest in Ballarat and Melbourne and as a bishop in Bendigo and beyond.

He has a fine mind, and he will bring intellectual firepower to his ministry as Archbishop and

to public debate in Queensland and Australia. He will be able to dialogue intelligently with a

culture which at many points is distant from Christian understandings.

He is also an experienced pastor who knows how to listen and, through his time as Master of Catholic Theological College in Melbourne, has remained a Parish Priest near Ballarat. 

As bishop, he has been able both to shepherd the Diocese of Sandhurst and to accept

Responsibility on the global stage.

He deals well with both the big picture and the nuts and bolts, which is why he is a capable

administrator. That will serve him well in a diocese as large and as complex as Brisbane.

Temperamentally, he is not easily flustered, having about him a poise that makes him a good

driver in heavy traffic. That too will serve him well as Archbishop at a time when the traffic

can be heavy.

At 60, he is also of the right age and maturity to assume greater responsibility not only in

Brisbane and Queensland, as well as nationally and internationally.

As we look to the installation on 11 September 2025, I have no doubt Bishop Shane will bring these gifts and fresh energies to the Archdiocese of Brisbane, where he will be creative in pursuing the path of synodality into the future God is preparing. I am grateful to Pope Leo for this wise choice of a new Archbishop, and I commend Bishop Shane to you and your prayers as he prepares for this new mission.

+Mark Coleridge

18 June 2025

BIOGRAPHY OF ARCHBISHOP-ELECT SHANE MACKINLAY

Bishop Shane Mackinlay was born in Melbourne in 1965 and attended the local government school until his family moved to Ballarat in 1975. In Ballarat, he was a student at St Francis Xavier Primary School and St Patrick's College, where he was dux in 1982. He has two siblings and is the uncle of five nieces and nephews.

He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Clayton, completing theology studies at Catholic Theological College and a degree in physics at Monash University. As a deacon, he served in the parish of Warrnambool before being ordained as a priest for the Ballarat Diocese in 1991, and serving in the parishes of Hamilton, Colac and Ballarat Cathedral. He then undertook graduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he completed both a Master's degree and a Doctoral Degree. Fordham University Press published his doctoral thesis.

Bishop Mackinlay was administrator of the Casterton parish for six months and parish priest of the Sebastopol parish for four years. He was the parish priest of the Bungaree parish from 2005 until his appointment as bishop; from 2009, he also provided weekend sacramental ministry for the neighbouring parish of Gordon.

For several years, he taught philosophy at Australian Catholic University, Ballarat. Most of his teaching has taken place at Catholic Theological College, Melbourne, where he was appointed Master in 2011. The following year, he was appointed Associate Professor by the University of Divinity. From 2012 to 2014, he was the spokesperson for the Catholic Church during the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations. 

He was secretary to the Bishop of Ballarat from 1998 to 2001, and was the chairperson of the Bishop's Advisory Council of the Ballarat diocese from when it was established in 2009. He was a member of the College of Consultors of the Ballarat diocese on two occasions and also served six years as Chairman of the two funds that provide support to the active and retired priests of the Ballarat diocese.

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mackinlay as the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst on 23 July 2019. Since then, he has been elected as Vice-President of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia and one of the Australian delegates to the forthcoming Synod for a Synodal Church. In 2019, he was asked to join the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission and was appointed as its Co-Chair in 2022.

* https://www.sandhurst.catholic.org.au/our-diocese/biography-bishop-shane-mackinlay 

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JUNE 18, 2025

Pope appoints new Archbishop of Brisbane.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has welcomed the appointment by Pope Leo XIV, this evening, of a new Archbishop of Brisbane.

The Most Reverend Shane Mackinlay is currently Bishop of Sandhurst, in regional Victoria.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, welcomed the appointment. 

"The Archbishop-elect's pastoral experience in his home diocese of Ballarat, and his

leadership of the Diocese of Sandhurst, together with his strong academic background,

will stand him in good stead as he takes up the new challenge of pastoral leadership in

The Archdiocese of Brisbane," Archbishop Costelloe said. 

"So, too, will be his significant contribution to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, which

has been a particular feature of his contribution to the work of the Australian Catholic

Bishops Conference." 

Archbishop Costelloe said Bishop Mackinlay had played a significant role as vice

president of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia and a delegate to the 16th Ordinary

General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. 

"We pray that Bishop Mackinlay will help empower the people of Brisbane to discover

and use their gifts, inspire them with a vision of what the Church can be, and provide

new opportunities and resources for all to encounter Christ," Archbishop Costelloe

Said. 

Bishop Mackinlay was born in Melbourne in 1965 and grew up in Ballarat, where he

Graduated dux of St Patrick's College in 1982. 

"I am deeply honoured by Pope Leo's decision to appoint me as Archbishop of Brisbane

– a diocese that has such a strong tradition of fostering the liturgical, spiritual,

evangelising and educational endeavours of the Catholic community, both within the

Archdiocese and more broadly," Bishop Mackinlay said.

He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Clayton, completing theology

studies at Catholic Theological College and a degree in physics at Monash University.

As a deacon, he served in the parish of Warrnambool before being ordained as a priest

for the Ballarat Diocese in 1991, and serving in the parishes of Hamilton, Colac, and

Ballarat Cathedral.

He then undertook graduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven,

Belgium, where he completed a Master's degree and a Doctorate. Fordham University Press published his doctoral thesis.

Bishop Mackinlay served in parish ministry as well as teaching at the Australian Catholic

University, Ballarat, and Catholic Theological College, Melbourne, where he was

appointed Master in 2011.

The following year, he was appointed Associate Professor by the University of Divinity.

From 2012 to 2014, he was the spokesperson for the Church during the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations.

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mackinlay as the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst in July

2019.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge is retiring after 13 years in the Archdiocese of Brisbane and

over 51 years as a priest. "For many reasons, I welcome the appointment of Bishop Shane Mackinlay as my successor in Brisbane, where he will be a distinguished addition to the line of Archbishops," Archbishop Coleridge said.

"He is an experienced pastor who knows how to listen, attuned both to the big picture

and the practical details.

"That combination makes him a capable administrator, well-suited to lead a diocese as

large and complex as Brisbane. "I have no doubt he will bring exceptional gifts and fresh energies to the Archdiocese of Brisbane, where he will be creative in pursuing the path of synodality into the future God is preparing. I am grateful to Pope Leo for this wise choice of a new Archbishop."

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The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - Year C - 22nd June 2025.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. (Corpus Christi). -Year C -  Sunday, 22 June 2025 (EPISODE: 536)
Readings for The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. (Corpus Christi).- Year C
FIRST READING: Gen 14:18-20
Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4. "You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek"
SECOND READING: 1 Cor 11:23-26
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 6:51-52). Alleluia, alleluia! I am the living Bread from heaven, says the Lord. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
GOSPEL: Luke 9:11b-17.

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed. Vector ID: 619558265 - Eucharist symbols of bread and wine, chalice and host. Modern stained glass window style first communion vector Contributor: Thoom.
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. (Corpus Christi). Year C - Sunday, 22 June 2025 - by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-ep-535-the/s-3aJPGHrUZV5
(EPISODE: 536)
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Prologue -

 

We all know that the Eucharist is a central aspect of the church and our faith.

 

A priest I worked with many years ago once had a great image that he'd used to describe the Eucharist, and I still love it to this day. He says that weekly Mass, Sunday Mass, is like a pier on a bridge. The length of the bridge represents the journey of our daily or weekly lives. The upward supports, the pylons of the bridge, are what support the whole length of the bridge and keep the whole thing standing. So, our life is the road, and Eucharist is the vertical struts that support it at regular intervals and need to support it, and need to be on very solid foundations, lest the whole road (the whole bridge) cave in.

 

Like that image of the bridge, it's important that we recognise, and this feast day reminds us of it, that we need regular Eucharist as our weekly and for some daily support along the whole length of our life journey, lest the whole thing caves in under the weight of the world; and what a heavy weight the world is proving to be.

 

Is there anyone who could truthfully say that they can make it on their own, that they don't need God's grace, they don't need the Eucharist to sustain them, to renew them, to nourish them, when so many things are going on around us. So many different voices, so many different values, so many different sources of alleged "nourishment" arising, that ultimately end up proving to be quite empty.

 

So we need this! Jesus recognised that his disciples would need his constant loving, nurturing and nourishing word and sacrament, and so he left this for us as a living monument of his presence. [FHL]

 

HOMILY - 

 

As we know, with the reception of the sacraments, there are three sacraments of initiation in the seven sacraments of the Church. The first and foremost is Baptism. Then we've got Confirmation, where the Bishop, representing the whole Universal Church, with the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, alive in the church, confirms and celebrates and strengthens what they received in Baptism.

 

And then, of course, their Initiation is completed by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ at the Table of the Lord in First Holy Communion. The children are then fully initiated into the life of the Church, and by receiving Holy Communion, they, and all of us who receive it, are truly one with Jesus, united with God, united with all of us who are in communion with God. We are truly in communion of heart, mind, soul and body with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with one another.

 

Jesus unites Himself to us, and us to Him, and draws us into the life of the Trinity, making us in communion with God and one another in the most profound of ways. I always love to tell the First Holy Communion candidates, and I'll be saying it again this weekend, First Holy Communion is a truly very special moment. There's only one thing better than First Holy Communion, and that's Second Holy Communion.

 

And there's only one thing better than Second Holy Communion, and that's Third, and so on and so on throughout our life's journey. This sacrament truly makes the best sense when it's the beginning of a pattern of one's weekly life, and most certainly may it never be thought of as the first and last time one comes to communion at their First Holy Communion, or only occasionally. I truly believe, and the Church truly believes, and the community really believes, that it needs to be not just the first or the rarest of times that one occasionally comes to communion.

 

It is Christ present to us, feeding us, strengthening us, giving us the graces we need, taking away the sins that we've committed, and strengthening us for the life that we're living, which is very difficult and challenging at times. Many, many people at great difficult times of their life have said, and I've said it too, I don't know how we could keep going without our faith, without the strength of Christ and his sacraments. Eucharist is participating in the fullness of our membership as a disciple of Jesus.

 

God knows what we need, and God comes to us with what we need, lovingly, just like a parent gives their child what they need. So God comes to us in a touchable way, in a tangible form, and that is a gift of priceless value that we need to cherish by participating regularly in it, not just for ourselves and our own needs and our family's needs, but also in support and encouragement of others who might be doing it even tougher than us. We all are contributing and receiving and giving in the image of the Trinity.

 

I remember when I was only five or six years old, I remember it like it was yesterday, in church at Canberra. And, by the way, my earliest memories of church was not in a church. In Canberra in the early 70s, they virtually had no churches.

 

There were many, many new areas growing up, and they were so new that we had mass at our local school assembly hall. People would set up the chairs and the table, and the only permanent thing that I could recall is in the Catholic assembly hall, they did have a tabernacle built into the wall at a safe spot so that the sacrament could be reserved. But otherwise, the church gathered literally and transformed into the church by the assembly of the people of God.

 

And that's a very strong memory of the church gathered. It's wonderful to have a church building. It really is a symbol of the abiding permanence of God's presence.

 

But of course, church means God's people gathered by God. And so we had masses in the assembly hall at that time. God was present in the midst of the church, literally the ecclesia, the people of God.

 

I remember as this five or six year old being absolutely in awe and wonder about the mass, and I never want to lose that sense of awe and wonder. Even then, I knew that Jesus came to us in a real way during the mass, and he made his home in our hearts. Though I got a little bit confused about the details of how this happened.

 

I was too young to receive communion, of course, at that age. I somewhat confusedly thought that Jesus was released into our hearts when they opened the tabernacle at communion time. As a child, I thought that Jesus was only in the tabernacle and locked away there.

 

And at communion, they'd go and unlock the doors of the tabernacle and Jesus would fly out and fill our hearts. Well, I didn't quite connect that the host given and the chalice given to the people was Jesus truly present and being food for his people and coming and making a home in their hearts. But when I did understand that, that's even better.

 

That absolutely filled me with greater awe. Jesus being real nourishment. How wonderful is a child's mind and how it works.

 

It's wonderful too that God knows we're physical beings who need touchable ways of connecting to God because we are physical beings who use touch as a way of learning. So it helps us to understand and encounter God who is bigger than what we can see and touch. So our Lord gives us the gift and mystery of his body and blood, real food for our spiritual journey and connecting us to Christ in a very, very real way.

 

We have so much for which to be grateful and it's wonderful that the word Eucharist is the Greek word meaning thanksgiving. The Eucharist is a great prayer of thanksgiving directed to the God who gives us everything and to which everything returns. We give thanks in every mass for our families, our friends, our fellow parishioners who by their lives and example have done what Saint Paul so beautifully says, we hand on to you what we in turn have had handed on to us, the message of Jesus, the gift of Holy Communion and the proclamation of our membership as God's sons and daughters.

 

May the blessings of the body and blood of Christ in this sacrament fill our hearts and lives. May God's presence in the Eucharist fill us up with every grace and virtue and blessing that we need to be faithful and full followers of Christ. May it crowd out any contrary values so there's simply no room for them to reside in our heart but only God's virtues.

 

As we take in the body and blood of Christ, as we take in the word of God which is alive and active, we become more and more the body of Christ. We become more Christ-like in not only our words but even better in our love, in our action, in our practical charity. A real sacrament and sign of God's constant care and presence among us always.

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References:

FR. PAUL W. KELLY

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed. Vector ID: 619558265 - Eucharist symbols of bread and wine, chalice and host. Modern stained glass window style first communion vector Contributor: Thoom.

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The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. (Corpus Christi).  Year C  -(Sunday, 22 June 2025)  (EPISODE: 536 )
2. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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{{May Our Lord's grace and love abide in you}} welcome everyone, we gather -  Ponder with reverence, God's word and sacrament. On this The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. (Corpus Christi).

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.
Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life: Lord, have mercy. 

Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins: Christ, have mercy. 

Lord Jesus, you feed us with your body and blood: Lord, have mercy.

 May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
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Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4. "You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek"

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 6:51-52). ). Alleluia, alleluia! I am the living Bread from heaven, says the Lord. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
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PREFACE: Preface 1 or 2 of Holy Eucharist
Eucharistic Prayer  2
(theme variation: theme 2 )

 

(post version: v2-long)

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{Cheers and thanks, everyone for this time of prayer and reflection - I hope you have a blessed week.}

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to the weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by visiting here:

https://surfersparadiseparish.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=85b9ddd594b242276d423bfe9&id=002282d9e0 

Details relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:

"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993). (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass in Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria,  Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

"Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - In memory of William John Kelly (1942-2017) - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

"Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly.

Microphones: - Shure Motiv MV5 Digital Condenser. And (2024+) Rode Nt-1 + AI-1 Sound Mixer.

Editing equipment: -- MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software v10.49 (NCH Software).

NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 17.63 (NCH Software)

Sound Processing:  iZotope RX 10 Audio Editor (Izotope Inc.)

Text transcription as per the recorded podcast version is transcribed by TurboScribe.ai

{excellent and accurate transcription from voice to text}

[Production -  KER -  2025]
May God bless and keep you.
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