Christmas is our celebration of the God who is with us.

It’s 10 weeks since I was ordained bishop. In that time, I have visited parishes, schools, healthcare providers, and welfare agencies in various parts of the diocese, and met with groups and committees that are involved with different dimensions of the life of the church, both in the diocese and more broadly. I am on a steep learning curve about the extraordinary richness and diversity of people and activities that are taking place in our region.

Christmas is our celebration of the God who is with us.

It’s 10 weeks since I was ordained bishop. In that time, I have visited parishes, schools, healthcare providers, and welfare agencies in various parts of the diocese, and met with groups and committees that are involved with different dimensions of the life of the church, both in the diocese and more broadly. I am on a steep learning curve about the extraordinary richness and diversity of people and activities that are taking place in our region.

As I take up this ministry of bishop, I am honoured to be welcomed to the ancestral lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung people. I pay respect to the Elders of all the Lands of the Sandhurst Diocese – the Yorta Yorta Nation, the Minjambuta, the Baraparapa, the Dhuduroa, and the Taungurang, and I extend my recognition to their descendants who are present.

I am very grateful for the warm welcome and many messages of support that I have received from people across the Diocese of Sandhurst since I was appointed as Bishop-elect. I look forward to meeting people in the diocese personally, learning the stories of your communities and working collaboratively with you in living out our mission as disciples of Jesus.

Bishop Shane Mackinlay, the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst, was ordained to the episcopacy in Bendigo’s Sacred Heart Cathedral on Wednesday 16 October.

Most Reverend Shane Mackinlay
Eighth Bishop of Sandhurst

In the language of heraldry, Bishop Shane’s personal arms are:

• Gules, two pickaxes in saltire, blades upwards Or; in chief an open book Argent bound Or with the Greek letter Α on the dexter page and the Greek letter Ω on the sinister page both Sable.

or, in plain English:

• On a red field, two gold pickaxes in saltire, blades upwards and, in the top part of the shield, an open silver book bound in gold with the Greek letter Α on the left page and the Greek letter Ω on the right page.

His motto is taken from John 10:10
I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.

The crossed pickaxes are the tools of goldmining, which was integral to the founding of both Ballarat and Bendigo. The bible comes from the arms of Catholic Theological College and reflects its motto, Tolle lege, the admonition that prompted St Augustine to take up and read the bible, which led to his baptism.

As is traditional for the coat of arms of a bishop, the arms are placed before an episcopal cross and are ensigned with a green galero (Roman hat) with six fiocchi (tassels) on each side.

Bishop Shane’s personal arms will be combined with those of the Diocese of Sandhurst by impalement, a traditional way of denoting a bishop’s union with his diocese.

In the language of heraldry, the diocesan arms are:

• Quarterly, per saltire or and azure on the former in fess two roses gules, in chief an estoile (eight-pointed star) and in base a representation of the Paderborn Cross argent.

The gold of the field represents the goldfields, which are located within the diocese. The blue and the roses represent the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, who, under the title Our Lady of Good Counsel, is Patroness of the Diocese. The Paderborn Cross at the base is an ancient Christian symbol discovered in an eighth-century grave beneath the Cathedral at Paderborn, Germany, which was the home city of Dr Henry Backhaus, the pioneer priest of the Bendigo Goldfields.

The diocesan arms and Bishop Shane’s personal arms were designed by Richard d’Apice AM KCSG and Fr. Guy Selvester and illustrated by Sandy Turnbull.

Bishop Shane Mackinlay was born in Melbourne in 1965 and attended the local government school until his family moved to Ballarat in 1975. In Ballarat, he was a student at St Francis Xavier Primary School and St Patrick’s College, where he was dux in 1982. He has two siblings and is the uncle of five nieces and nephews.

He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Clayton, completing theology studies at Catholic Theological College and a degree in physics at Monash University. As a deacon, he served in the parish of Warrnambool, before being ordained as priest for the Ballarat Diocese in 1991, and serving in the parishes of Hamilton, Colac and Ballarat Cathedral. He then undertook graduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he completed a Master’s degree and a Doctorate. His doctoral thesis was published by Fordham University Press.

Bishop Mackinlay was 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 his appointment as bishop; from 2009, he also provided weekend sacramental ministry for the neighbouring parish of Gordon.

For several years, he taught philosophy at Australian Catholic University, Ballarat. Most of his teaching has taken place at Catholic Theological College, Melbourne, where he was appointed Master in 2011. The following year, he was appointed Associate Professor by the University of Divinity.

From 2012 to 2014 he was the spokesperson for the Catholic Church during the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations. He was secretary to the Bishop of Ballarat from 1998 to 2001 and was the Chairperson of the Bishop’s Advisory Council of the Ballarat Diocese from when it was established in 2009. He was a member of the College of Consultors of the Ballarat Diocese on two occasions and also served as Chair of the two funds that provide support to the active and retired priests of the Diocese.

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mackinlay as the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst on 23 July 2019. Since then, he has been elected as Vice-President of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia and as one of the Australian members of the Synod for a Synodal Church. In 2019, he was asked to join the Methodist–Roman Catholic International Commission, and in 2022 was appointed as its Co-Chair.

Pope Leo XIV appointed Bishop Mackinlay as the Archbishop of Brisbane on 18 June 2025.

The Episcopal Ordination of Most Rev Shane Mackinlay, Eighth Bishop of Sandhurst, took place at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, on Wednesday 16 October 2019 at 12:00 noon.

Today the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference released a statement on the outcome of Cardinal Pell's appeal in the Victorian Court of Appeal.

Please read the ACBC's statement here.

THE SANDHURST ‘WHEEL OF PRAYER’ DAY PROGRAM NOW AVAILABLE!
August 3, 2019, 10.00 am – 3.30 pm Mons Peter Jeffery Parish Centre (behind St Brendan’s Church) Shepparton (No Cost. Lunch provided)