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Toowoomba's new bishop ordained in moving ceremony

Published: July 11, 2012

The symbolism of former Toowoomba Bishop William Morris handing over the reins of the diocese to his successor Bishop Robert McGuckin yesterday was not lost on many of the 1500-strong congregation which packed St Patrick's Cathedral, reports the Toowoomba Chronicle.

After more than a year without a leader, the Toowoomba Diocese again has a bishop after the ordination of Bishop McGuckin, Toowoomba's sixth bishop.

However, it was at the request of the incoming bishop that his predecessor play a role in one of the more significant parts of the ordination ceremony.

"I wanted Bishop Morris involved (in the ceremony). He's been bishop of the diocese for many years," Bishop McGuckin said after his ordination. "He's a wonderful man.

"I particularly wanted him involved in the handing over of the crozier (Bishop's staff) and walking me to the cathedra (Bishop's chair)."

As the official part of the two-hour service drew to a close, Bishop McGuckin addressed his diocese for the first time as its new shepherd.

The congregation burst into prolonged applause when he thanked Bishop Morris for his years of service to the diocese and his help more recently in helping Bishop McGuckin settle into his new role.

Bishop Morris told The Chronicle he was "very touched" by the applause from the congregation.

FULL STORY New era begins for Toowoomba Diocese (Toowoomba Chronicle)

HOMILY BY ARCHBISHOP COLERIDGE

www.cathnews.com/uploads/doc/2012/07/Archbishop%20homily%20at%20Bishop%20McGuckin%20ordination.docx

 

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Recent Comments

  1. To participate in the ceremony, Bishop Bill showed what a truly wonderful man he is.
    A way better person than I who if was placed in the same sort of position would have being telling the authorities exactly what they could do with the request to participate.
    I take my hat off to you Bishop Bill!

  2. Why have the new Archbishop and the new Bishop in Queensland been from interstate?
    I am sure there are plenty of eligible priests in our State who could fill these roles.

  3. Thank you, Bishop McGuckin, for your kindness to Bishop Morris.
    Bishop Bill will always be loved and never forgotten.
    God bless and protect both our bishops.

  4. Pat: I suspect that it has something to do with the episcopal version of king-making. Brisbane is not alone in this - Archbp Coleridge came from Melboune via Canberra and Perth's Archbishop was also drawn from Melbourne.

  5. Well, Pat, we are a universal church, for a start - that's what 'catholic' means.

  6. Congratulations to Bishop McGuckin on a generous and imaginative gesture, and to Bishop Morris for accepting it.

  7. Bp Morris has once again taught us the importance and value of grace, dignity and surrender against impossible odds!
    I hope, however, that, for the record's sake, this is not the last we shall hear of his much anticipated memoir, because he doesn't have four evangelists to record the story from his perspective.

  8. In response to Peter about the fact that we are a universal church - can we then expect the next Pope to come from the South Pacific area, particularly Australia?

  9. I wish to formally withdraw my above self-serving, divisive and theologically illiterate comment.
    As ever, Bishop Morris has taught us all an almost unbearably poignant lesson in what guts it takes to be the Suffering Servant!

  10. I wish also to join others in welcoming Bishop McGuckin.
    The practice of comparing the charisms of one bishop with another, except with the benefit of well-researched historical evidence and time, can be tempting but unjust.
    Bp Kelly, Bp Morris's predecessor, was a great builder and a man of his time. Bp Morris, most appropriately, was a man who exuded pastoral intimacy in all his decisions.
    Bp McGuckin comes to us from the vibrant diocese of Parramatta, where social justice takes second place to nothing else. Might we hope that he brings with him some of the charism of Bp Bede Heather, and the superlative practices of the Parramatta Catholic Education Office, which services Australia's most forward-looking multicultural school system (and which is arguably the hallmark of Australia's Catholic, educational and evangelical future)?
    Parramatta has also gifted Australia with two of the most forward-looking Catholic educators of recent times, viz. Dr Ann Clarke and Professor Michael Bezzina, who dedicated their education ministry to the preferential option for the poor.
    I have little doubt that Toowoomba will bring out the best in +Robert to build on a diocesan culture committed to challenging the values of a friendly though sleepy and somewhat mono-cultural society, accustomed to a wide variety of public and private schools and other institutions, in which social and cultural differentiation, and a kind of entrenched conservatism that perpetuates a fixed social order, is still deeply historically embedded and somewhat more resistant to change than in other parts of Australia.

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