Archbishop Shane Mackinlay

On 18 June 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop Shane Mackinlay as the seventh Archbishop of Brisbane. 

Calendar

Archbishop Shane keeps a busy schedule of public engagement across the Archdiocese. Here you can check his upcoming commitments and enjoy his latest articles and coverage. You can also view his latest articles.

Biography

Archbishop Shane Mackinlay was born in Melbourne in 1965 and attended the local government school until his family moved to Ballarat in 1975. In Ballarat, he was a student at St Francis Xavier Primary School and St Patrick’s College, where he was dux in 1982. He has two siblings and is the uncle of five nieces and nephews. 

He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Clayton, completing theology studies at Catholic Theological College and a degree in physics at Monash University. As a deacon, he served in the parish of Warrnambool, before being ordained as priest for the Ballarat Diocese in 1991, and serving in the parishes of Hamilton, Colac and Ballarat Cathedral. He then undertook graduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he completed a Master’s degree and a doctorate. His doctoral thesis was published by Fordham University Press. 

Archbishop Mackinlay was administrator of the Casterton parish for six months and parish priest of the Sebastopol parish for four years. He was parish priest of the Bungaree parish from 2005 until his appointment as bishop; from 2009, he also provided weekend sacramental ministry for the neighbouring parish of Gordon. 

For several years, he taught philosophy at Australian Catholic University, Ballarat. Most of his teaching has taken place at Catholic Theological College, Melbourne, where he was appointed Master in 2011. The following year, he was appointed Associate Professor by the University of Divinity. 

He was secretary to the Bishop of Ballarat from 1998 to 2001 and was the Chairperson of the Bishop’s Advisory Council of the Ballarat Diocese from its establishment in 2009.  He was a member of the College of Consultors of the Ballarat Diocese on two occasions and also served as chair of the two funds that provide support to the active and retired priests of the diocese. From 2012 to 2014 he was the spokesperson for the Catholic Church during the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations 

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mackinlay as the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst on 23 July 2019.  Since then, he has been elected as Vice-President of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia and as one of the Australian members of the Synod for a Synodal Church.  In 2019, he was asked to join the Methodist–Roman Catholic International Commission, and in 2022 was appointed as its Co-Chair.  

Archbishop Shane Mackinlay of the Sandhurst Diocese succeeded Archbishop Mark Coleridge and was installed as Archbishop on September 11, 2025, thus commencing his episcopal ministry in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. 

Archbishop Shane’s Coat of Arms

In accordance with tradition, the Archbishop’s arms will generally be seen joined on one shield with the arms of the Archdiocese of Brisbane symbolising the spiritual union between the Archbishop and the people of his Archdiocese. His personal arms appear on the right of the shield and the arms of the Archdiocese appear in the position of greater honour on the left of the shield. The arms are placed before an archepiscopal cross (with double transverse arms) and are ensigned with the green galero (Roman hat) with ten fiocchi (tassels) on each side. These are the traditional distinguishing features of the coat of arms of an archbishop.

Archbishop Shane Mackinlay’s personal arms combine reference to the Diocese of Ballarat into which he was incardinated on his ordination (the crossed pickaxes being the tools of the goldmining industry) and to Catholic Theological College (the Bible from its arms which reflects the motto of CTC, “Tolle, lege”, the admonition to take up and read the Bible, to which St Augustine responded).

The Archdiocese of Brisbane arms combine the black field and the checked chevron from the personal arms of Sir Thomas Brisbane, with two bezants alluding to the stones which were the instruments of the martyrdom of St Stephen, patron of the Cathedral, and the palm of victory which is the symbol of martyrdom.

Contact the Archbishop

Episcopal Offices
GPO Box 282, Brisbane, Queensland, 4001
Email: aomail@bne.catholic.net.au
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