Supporter of women’s diaconate appointed Australian archbishop
June 19, 2025
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Shane Mackinlay of Sandhurst, Australia, as archbishop of Brisbane.
Bishop Mackinlay, 60, succeeds Archbishop Mark Coleridge, 76, who was appointed Brisbane’s archbishop in 2012 and served as president of the bishops’ conference from 2018 to 2022.
Bishop Mackinlay was vice president of the 5th Plenary Council of Australia. In 2022, he expressed disappointment when a resolution in favor of women’s ordination to the diaconate failed to gain the requisite number of votes.
“This is not the way we were anticipating or hoping the process would go,” he said. “It is disappointing and a lot of people—women and men, priests and laypeople and bishops—were very distressed.”
In October 2023, during the first assembly of the synod on synodality, Bishop Mackinlay was elected by fellow Synod participants as one the members of the Synod’s Commission for the Synthesis Report. He told the National Catholic Reporter at the time that “the question of the ordination of women is clearly something that needs to be addressed universally ... And if it were to be that the outcome was for ordination to the diaconate to be open to women, I’d certainly welcome that.”
In October 2024, during the second assembly of the synod on synodality, Bishop Mackinlay was elected as Oceania’s representative on the commission that prepared the synod’s Final Document.
For all current news, visit our News home page.
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
-
Posted by: feedback -
Jun. 19, 2025 6:26 PM ET USA
Sadly, this appointment sets the new Archbishop on an instant collision course with Catholic clergy and laity who uphold the Catholic Church's position and reject the possibility of female "ordinations." Paraphrasing Mackinlay's own words: This is not the way we were anticipating or hoping the process of appointments of Bishops by the new Pope would go. It is disappointing and a lot of people — women and men, priests and laypeople and bishops — will be very distressed.
-
Posted by: kmmcki -
Jun. 19, 2025 6:22 PM ET USA
Bishop Mackinlay's appointment by Pope Leo, as Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia; is yet another 'tell'. The good Archbishop supports women's diaconate. If you wish to quell the belief, you don't appoint one who holds that belief. Beginning w/ Pope Francis, the Church is gradually drifting WOKE. This continues to further the demystification of our Faith and our Lord. The ordinariness is married to any current social/political cause, then thru the use of illogical calisthenics, justified.
-
Posted by: miketimmer499385 -
Jun. 19, 2025 9:57 AM ET USA
This smells of the first hint of what will be more to come. Having been in the position to recommend new bishops to Pope Francis, the new Pope can't be unaware of Mackinlay's apparently strong commitment to women deacons. Of course it would only be a matter of time before there would be women priests (bishops...popes). We have heard only soothing speech to this point, but it is actions that will make obvious Leo's plan for the Church.
