Archbishop Shane Mackinlay was welcomed by the people of Brisbane at his installation Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral on 11 September.
He becomes the eighth leader of Brisbane archdiocese.
“While I come from somewhere else, I don’t come as an outsider,” Archbishop Mackinlay said in his homily.
“Whenever we gather as Christians, we gather as part of the one church of Jesus Christ, as parts of his body into which each of us has been baptised and as which we have together been entrusted with his mission,” he said.
He highlighted the local contribution to the Mass, saying, “The people, the communities and the activities of the archdiocese are so well represented in those who are here today”.
“We are also enriched by the inspiring presence of the Indigenous communities of this area with us today, whose ancient history and spirituality goes back many thousands of years before the first texts of the Bible,” he said.
Archbishop Mackinlay affirmed the outcomes from last year’s archdiocesan synod and expressed his hope to continue implementing them.
He said Brisbane was “a vibrant community of faith that lives out its commitment to carrying on in our own time the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us.”
“I look forward to serving the church of Brisbane as we develop our response to God’s Word in our place at our time,” he said.
Crowds gathered for the installation Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral from early in the morning.
The ceremonies began outside at 10.45am where dignitaries including Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Queensland Premier David Crisafulli were welcomed to country with Archbishop Mackinlay.
Archbishop Mackinlay then processed to the front door of St Stephen’s.
There, he hammered on the closed door, where he was greeted by Cathedral dean Fr Anthony Mellor.
At the start of the Mass, Aposotolic Nuncio Archbishop Charlves Balvo welcomed Archbishop Mackinlay and offered a word of thanks to outgoing Brisbane Archbishop Emeritus Mark Coleridge for his 13 years of leadership.
Archbishop Balvo then asked for the papal bull to be read.
Archdiocesan chancellor Pat Mullins read the bull, proclaiming Pope Leo XIV’s words to affirm Archbishop Mackinlay as the Archbishop of Brisbane.
Archbishop Mackinlay then took his place on the cathedra, where he greeted groups from around Brisbane archdiocese’s agencies, ministries and communities.
In his homily, Archbishop Mackinlay spoke about how many modern Australians were “feeling more anxious and less hopeful” about the future.
He said there had been a recent study that “found that only 19 per cent of Australians feel hopeful about the next few years compared with 24 per cent… only 12 months earlier.”
He said the study also identified the three factors most likely to improve a person’s sense of hope were religious faith, connection to others and being involved in shared action.
Archbishop Mackinlay said these three factors mirrored the “three-fold relationship that we enter at baptism” – being united to Christ in faith, connected to others through communion, and commissioned for shared action in the world.
He said the 50 action plans developed by the archdiocesan synod were “very concrete ways of strengthening our faith, our connection to one another and our capacity to engage in the shared action that is needed to build hope and possibility in our world”.
He encouraged the community to live out Jesus’ example of radical love and “placing our hope in what God continues to do amongst us”.
This is an edited version of an article originally published at The Catholic Leader, reprinted with permission.
