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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