Fr Leo received all his Sacraments in the Sandhurst Diocese and attended school at St Patrick’s Primary School in Tongala, St Augustine’s College in Kyabram, and Salesian College in Rupertswood, which is now known as Salesian College Sunbury before commencing his training to become a priest with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. 

Fr Leo is currently serving as Parish Priest in the remote parish of Wadeye in the Northern Territory, a position he took up in 2005 having cut short his sabbatical study to fill the vacancy. Wadeye, is one of Australia's largest remote Indigenous communities, located approximately 420 km south west of Darwin. It is accessed by unsealed road during the dry season and by light aircraft or barge during the wet season.  

Over the past forty years, Fr Leo has served in the Tiwi Islands, Papua New Guinea and East Timor, places in which he retains a strong interest. 

He is a member of Diocesan College of Priests and plays a significant role on the Diocesan Aboriginal Council. In addition to these roles, he is on the Provincial Council for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Congregation [MSC] in Australia and is the Religious Superior for the MSCs in  the Northern Territory. 

In 1999, Fr Leo was presented with the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal (HOSM) by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for his service in East Timor, amidst intensely difficult and dangerous conditions. 

The Bishop of Darwin, the Most Rev. Charles Gauci congratulated Fr Leo on the 40^th anniversary of his ordination and thanked him for responding to the call to serve God’s people through the ministerial priesthood. 

Fr Leo was also congratulated by many of those he has worked with over the past four decades, and was thanked for the extraordinary contribution he has made to the lives of so many people. 

Fr Leo enjoys returning to the Sandhurst area to visit his many friends and family, including his 93-year-old mother Marie Wearden who resides in Kyabram.