The Archdiocese of Brisbane leadership consists of Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General Bishop Ken Howell and Auxiliary Bishop Tim Norton SVD.
- Archbishop Mark Coleridge
Archbishop Mark Coleridge
Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane
Archbishop Mark Coleridge
Archbishop Mark Benedict Coleridge is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
Please see our Archbishop section for more information about Archbishop Mark Coleridge including his biography, past homilies, pastoral messages and more.
- Bishop Ken Howell
Bishop Ken Howell
Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane
Bishop Ken Howell
Born in 1958, Bishop Ken Howell was educated at St James College, Fortitude Valley, and joined Queensland Rail after his school years working as a clerk in the Chief Engineers Office.
In 1977, he entered Pius XII Regional Seminary, and he was ordained a Priest on 24 June 1983. From 1983 to 1994, he worked as Assistant Priest in the Parishes of Noosa Districts, Burleigh Heads and the Cathedral, Brisbane.
Between 1994 and 1997, he completed a Licentiate in Sacred Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute Sant’Anselmo in Rome. He served as Secretary to the then Archbishop John Bathersby from 1997 to 2010. During this time, Bishop Howell served at the Cathedral as Associate Pastor and Director of Worship from 1997 to 2005, Dean of the Cathedral between 2006 and 2012 and as Vice Rector of the Holy Spirit Seminary between 2002 and 2008. In 2009, he took on a concurrent appointment as Administrator of St Mary’s Parish, South Brisbane.
In 2013 he became the Parish Priest at Burleigh Heads. The Bishop has been a long-standing member of the Council of Priests and Chairman from 2008 to 2013. He is also a member of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission, which he was chairing at the time of his appointment by Pope Francis on March 29, 2017.
At the time of that announcement Bishop Howell said he looked to the future with confidence “with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the love and prayers of the people of God who have supported my ministry”.
“I ask you to pray for me as I accept the invitation of our Holy Father to serve the Church as a member of the College of Bishops”.
Bishop Howell’s Episcopal Ordination was held on June 14, 2017.
On 1 February, 2021 Bishop Ken was appointed to the position of Vicar General of the Archdiocese.
- Bishop Tim Norton SVD
Bishop Tim Norton SVD
Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane
Bishop Tim Norton SVD
Bishop Tim Norton SVD was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Brisbane in St Stephen’s Cathedral on 22 February, 2022.
He was born in Sydney in 1958 to Joseph and Dawn Norton (nee Spillane). He also has an older brother Chris and a younger sister, Julie Holmes.
Bishop Norton SVD graduated from Marist Brothers Eastwood before commencing tertiary studies for a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy at Cumberland College of Health Sciences, Sydney.
Considered a late vocation, he professed as a seminarian for his religious order – commonly known as the Divine Word Missionaries or SVDs – in Mexico in 1986. He was ordained in 1991.
Although much of his seminary formation was conducted in Mexico he spent time as a part time physiotherapist in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne during 1989/90.
His first parish postings were to Mexico, where he ministered from 1991 – 1996.
Postgraduate study in Spiritual Direction followed in Melbourne in 1997.
That prefaced terms serving as the Order’s prefect for theology students and novice and postulant director, alternately based in Melbourne or Sydney, between 1998 and 2004.
He then served as leader of the SVD Australian province (which also includes New Zealand & Thailand) from 2005 – 2013.
From 2014 until 2021 he was offering ministry in Italy, in particular working full-time with consecrated women and men in the promotion of interculturality, something for which the SVD order are renowned worldwide, including in Australia.
Bishop Norton SVD was pleased to note ministry to multicultural communities is an important way his order is already involved in the Brisbane Archdiocese.
Whilst serving as head of the Australian province, he worked with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge to establish a Divine Word Missionary presence in two parishes – Inala and Kingston-Marsden.
Both of these are very multicultural communities, and therefore places where the SVD confreres do their best work.
Bishop Norton SVD is hopeful he will bring to his ministry in Brisbane “an intense interest in culture, and the mission of God in the world, whatever shape or form that may take”.
