Sandhurst Bishop Shane Mackinlay named new Archbishop of Brisbane by Pope Leo XIV

The new Archbishop of Brisbane has been appointed by Pope Leo XIV.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sandhurst Bishop Shane Mackinlay to be the new Archbishop of Brisbane.

Announced on Wednesday, the Archbishop-elect would take over from Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge in September, who was retiring after 13 years as in the role and 51 years as a priest.

Archbishop-elect Mackinlay, 60, served in the parish of Warrnambool, before being ordained as priest for the Ballarat Diocese in 1991, and served in the parishes of Hamilton, Colac and Ballarat Cathedral.

Master of Catholic Theological College in Melbourne from 2010 to 2019, he was then appointed by Pope Francis as the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst in 2019.

Archbishop Coleridge welcomed the appointment of the Archbishop-elect and said he would be a “distinguished addition to”.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sandhurst Bishop Shane Mackinlay to be the new Archbishop of Brisbane. Picture: Facebook

“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 said.

“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.

Mark Benedict Coleridge is retiring as Archbishop of Brisbane.

“At 60, he is also of the right age and maturity to assume greater responsibility not only in Brisbane and Queensland but nationally and internationally.

“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.”

Archbishop-elect Mackinlay will be installed as Archbishop of Brisbane at St Stephen’s Cathedral on September 11.

Originally published as Sandhurst Bishop Shane Mackinlay named new Archbishop of Brisbane by Pope Leo XIV