Brisbane Archbishop Shane Mackinlay sat opposite ABC Radio’s Loretta Ryan for an hour, sharing stories from his life and vocation as well as his ideas for the archdiocese at a Brisbane Catholic Professionals lunch. Source: The Catholic Leader.
It was Archbishop Mackinlay’s first time attending a BCP since his installation in September last year and he was happily at a point where he could now “look around the room and recognise many faces and names”.
He said coming to Brisbane meant leading a community with a “wonderful legacy”, which had resources recognised at a national level. That played out in his parish visits, too.
He had visited many parishes now, with many still to go, but what he had seen so far had encouraged him.
He said it was the Church “at our best” – living communities that responded to deep needs, rejoicing in good times and being strengthened and consoled in difficult times.
He said a good parish enriched human life, it looked beyond the individual and was a “community of shared conviction, inspiration and mission”.
Archbishop Mackinlay shared with Ms Ryan the journey of how he became a priest.
He said he did not go to the seminary to become a priest, but to “get it out of (his) system” after the idea popped into his head halfway through Year 12.
He had performed well academically – dux of his college – and had a strong drive to study physics and mathematics, but with a growing interest in the humanities.
The wonderful part about seminary study, he said, was how it provided a rounded and comprehensive understanding of humanity from literature and history to philosophy and theology.
While discerning in the seminary, the decisive moment for his vocation occurred during a 12-month parish placement, the year before his ordination as a deacon.
Living with clergy and working so closely in the faith community shifted his perspective from following a personal “plan” to recognising and saying “yes” to “God’s plan”.
After ordination and as he took on greater responsibilities in his home diocese, Archbishop Mackinlay insisted on remaining a parish priest, even when the hierarchy told him it was unconventional for certain positions to retain a parish role.
He said people who became good bishops were often those attracted to pastoral involvement with people and communities rather than the office of bishop itself.
Archbishop Mackinlay was appointed Archbishop of Brisbane by Pope Leo XIV in 2025 and installed last September.
FULL STORY
Archbishop Mackinlay and Loretta Ryan talk vocations, parishes and the Church in Brisbane (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
