Many faces and names from the life and ministry of Archbishop Emeritus Mark Coleridge welcomed the launch of his autobiography, A Strange Way Home, at Australian Catholic University in Brisbane. Source: The Catholic Leader.
St Stephen’s Cathedral dean Fr Anthony Mellor likened the turnout to the book launch on September 15 to the eagerness of family welcoming a new child.
He said it was a night “recognising the value of storytelling” and acknowledging Archbishop Coleridge’s substantial contributions to the Church and Australian society.
Published by Connor Court Publishing, A Strange Way Home chronicles Archbishop Coleridge’s journey from Melbourne to Rome and his years of leadership in the Church in Australia.
Officially launching the book, ACU chancellor Martin Daubney praised the autobiography’s lyrical style and historical resonance.
Mr Daubney described the autobiography as “a personal”, “spiritual” and an “historic journey”.
He said Archbishop Coleridge was an eyewitness to major developments in the modern Church.
“This work by [Archbishop Coleridge] is the journal of a witness who not only saw and heard, but lived and was closely connected with much of the impact and consequence” of post-Second Vatican Council history, Mr Daubney said.
He said the book “will, I would say, in due course stand as an important historical artifact of this time in the life of the Church”.
Archbishop Coleridge explained that crafting the 100,000-word book following his retirement and heart surgery was a personal task.
He said the writing process was like “carving a woven narrative out of this amorphous overwritten gob of chronicle and anecdote” to reveal the threads of divine providence.
He emphasised that the autobiography served a broader purpose beyond personal reflection.
He hoped readers might also find in it something “to help you and whoever might care to read it, to see the shape of your own story more clearly, and to find your own way”.
FULL STORY
Archbishop Coleridge launches autobiography as witness to providence and post-conciliar Church (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
