CNA Newsroom, Jun 19, 2025 / 10:06 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has named Bishop Shane Mackinlay — an influential voice in the Synod on Synodality — as the next archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.
The 60-year-old prelate succeeds Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who is retiring after 13 years of episcopal leadership.
Mackinlay will be installed at St. Stephen’s Cathedral on Sept. 11, taking pastoral responsibility for Australia’s second-largest diocese, which includes over 684,000 Catholics across 94 parishes in southeastern Queensland.
During his first visit to Brisbane following the announcement, Mackinlay emphasized the importance of missionary clarity in a society increasingly indifferent to religious belief.
“We need to be clear and unembarrassed about our faith — and about why it matters to us,” he told the Catholic Leader.
Quoting Christ’s invitation to the first disciples, he added: “I don’t think we should be telling people what to do. We should be inviting people to come and see, and offering a witness that is attractive and compelling.”
A synodal voice in the global Church
Born in Melbourne in 1965, Mackinlay studied physics at Monash University. He later pursued doctoral studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, where he completed his dissertation on hermeneutics.
Ordained a priest for the Diocese of Ballarat in 1991, Mackinlay served in parish ministry before being appointed master of Catholic Theological College in Melbourne, a role he held from 2011 to 2019. That year, Pope Francis named him bishop of Sandhurst, based in Bendigo.
Mackinlay has played an increasingly visible role in synodal processes. As a prominent member of Australia’s Fifth Plenary Council and a delegate to the Synod on Synodality in Rome, he was elected by his fellow bishops to the Commission for the Synthesis Report — the body tasked with drafting the final synod document.
Mackinlay has expressed willingness to engage with questions under discernment, including the possibility of admitting women to the diaconate. He told the National Catholic Reporter in 2023 that he would “welcome” such a development if it were eventually approved by competent ecclesial authority.
On questions related to pastoral outreach, Mackinlay emphasized fidelity to the Church’s doctrine alongside authentic personal accompaniment. Reflecting on discussions concerning Catholics who identify as LGBT, he stated that there was a “very clear reaffirmation of the Church’s doctrine and teachings” at the synod, while also recognizing the need for pastoral care that respects individual dignity and encourages conversion in light of Christ’s truth.
In 2023, Mackinlay participated as an official observer of the German Synodal Way.
In an interview with German Catholic media outlet Domradio in April of this year, he expressed “great respect” for the approach of the controversial German process and praised the Synodal Way’s “findings and documents” as “a very enriching source for the theology of the coming years and decades.”
Firepower and competence
Brisbane’s retiring archbishop welcomed the appointment of his successor, describing Mackinlay as “an unusually gifted man” whose strengths lie in both intellectual clarity and administrative competence.
“He has a fine mind and will bring intellectual firepower to his ministry,” Coleridge said. “He will be able to dialogue intelligently with a culture that, at many points, is distant from Christian understandings.”
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, also welcomed the appointment, noting Mackinlay’s theological background, experience in seminary formation, and his leadership in Sandhurst.
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Sounds a bit on the sketchy side