Australian archdiocese gets new shepherd

Vatican City, Jun 18, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Today in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Mark Benedict Coleridge, current auxiliary of the archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia, as archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn.

Coleridge succeeds Archbishop Francis Patrick Carroll, whose resignation the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit of 75.
Archbishop Carroll was quoted by “The Advertiser” as saying that he was delighted with the appointment and that Coleridge, "will be a true pastor to the people of the archdiocese and an effective leader in the wider community."
Archbishop-elect Coleridge was born in Melbourne in 1948, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1974.

Following his ordination, Coleridge studied in Rome and earned a doctorate in sacred scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute.  After serving in academic and pastoral capacities in Australia, he returned again to Rome.  From 1998 to 2002 he worked in the Secretariat of State in Vatican City and in May 2002 was appointed by Pope John Paul II as an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne.

The Archbishop-elect said in a statement today, "I am honored and humbled to follow Archbishop Carroll in a diocese with a history as rich and varied as its landscape…I look forward very much to meeting people, both in the cities and countryside and to serving them as a pastor after Christ's own heart."