Former Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has received an Honorary Doctorate from Australian Catholic University in recognition of a lifetime of service to the Church as pastor, leader and teacher.
Archbishop Emeritus Coleridge accepted a Doctor of the University (Honoris Causa) during an ACU Brisbane Graduation Ceremony yesterday.
The 77-year-old, who retired as leader of the Brisbane Archdiocese last year, said he was surprised and pleased to accept the honorary award from ACU.
“I don’t look for any awards or honours beyond those that have come my way already – I don’t need to add to my postnominals – but I have a quiet sense of satisfaction with this one,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
Archbishop Coleridge served as president of the ACU Corporation for many years, contributing to the university’s governance and Catholic mission.
“What distinguishes ACU is the possibility of bringing those understandings into fresh dialogue with the wider culture, in the belief that the marriage of faith and reason which grounds those understandings is important not just for Catholics for the wider culture as well,” he said.
His advice to students embarking on their graduation was to not be afraid to take the plunge.
“If you wait for some absolute certainty, you’ll find yourself paralysed,” he said.
“Certainly don’t be afraid of saying yes to Jesus Christ – the real Jesus who’s here and now or nowhere and never.
“You lose nothing saying yes to him; in fact, you gain everything. That has been the truth of my life.”
Archbishop Coleridge was leader of the Brisbane Archdiocese for 13 years between 2012 and 2025. Prior to his appointment in Brisbane, he led the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese for six years.
Now enjoying retirement at a “bayside bungalow”, the long-serving pastor said he was experiencing “the slow awakening to the deeper nature of priestly and episcopal ministry”.
“I’ve come to see things which I wish I’d seen more clearly earlier in life, but that isn’t the way God works – things like the absolute importance of listening, the slow and painful learning of humility, prayer not just as part of my life but as my whole life which is to be a constant listening to the God who never ceases to communicate, learning to speak out of that listening,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
FULL STORY
Retired archbishop receives university’s highest honour (ACU)
