Bishop Shane Mackinlay has been appointed Archbishop of Brisbane, after Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Archbishop Mark Coleridge.
Bishop Mackinlay has been Bishop of Sandhurst, in Victoria, since 2019. Prior to that he served as a priest of the Diocese of Ballarat.
Bishop Anthony Randazzo, Bishop of Broken Bay, who grew up in Brisbane and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese, welcomed the appointment of the 60-year-old bishop.
“I have sent my congratulations, encouragement, and prayers to Bishop Shane Mackinlay,” Bishop Anthony said.
“The people of Brisbane are blessed to have him. I wish him well in his continuing mission serving the people of God.”
Bishop Mackinlay was born in Melbourne in 1965 until his family moved to Ballarat in 1975. He was dux of St Patrick’s College in 1982.
He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Ballarat in 1991 and served in the parishes of Hamilton, Colac and Ballarat Cathedral. He undertook graduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he completed a Master’s degree and a Doctorate.
He then served as administrator of the Casterton parish for six months and parish priest of the Sebastopol parish for four years. He was parish priest of the Bungaree parish from 2005 until 2019, when he was appointed Bishop of Sandhurst.
While Bishop of Sandhurst, he served as Vice-President of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia and was one of the Australian delegates to the Synod on Synodality in Rome.
Archbishop Coleridge had been canonically required to offer his resignation in September 2023 however it had not been accepted until today.
He has been Archbishop of Brisbane since 2012, when he succeeded Archbishop John Bathersby. Prior to that, he was Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn.
The appointment continues a trend of Victorian priests serving in Episcopal ministry in Queensland. Archbishop Coleridge and Bishop Joe Caddy, Bishop of Cairns, were both ordained as priests for the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
The appointment comes at an important time for the Archdiocese, which has been sorely in need of an Auxiliary Bishop since losing both Bishop Ken Howell and Bishop Tim Norton SVD in the past two years to serve in other parts of the country.
The appointment of a new Archbishop will likely pave the way for the appointment of a new auxiliary for the large Archdiocese, which has more than 600,000 Catholics spread over more than 100 parishes.
The appointment of Bishop Mackinlay is the first episcopal appointment made in Australia by Pope Leo XIV.
Bishop Mackinlay will be installed as Archbishop of Brisbane on 11 September 2025. As yet, no one has been appointed to succeed him as Bishop of Sandhurst.