The Roman Catholic Bishop of Parramatta, Bishop Anthony Fisher, has been appointed the ninth Archbishop of Sydney, the Vatican has announced.
Archbishop-elect Fisher will replace Cardinal George Pell in the office and his appointment follows that of Cardinal Pell to the newly created Secretariat for the Economy in Rome.
Archbishop-elect Fisher has been Bishop of Parramatta since 2010, prior to which he was an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney – a role which meant he was the coordinator of World Youth Day when it was held in the harbourside city in 2008.
Born in the Sydney suburb of Crows Nest, he was a lawyer before entering the Dominican Order in 1985 and was ordained a priest in 1991. He later founded the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne and remains professor of moral theology and bioethics there. He also chairs the Catholic Education Commission of New South Wales.
The Archbishop-elect said he was “very excited” to take on the role and “build on the strong foundations” left by Cardinal George Pell. “Sydney is a vibrant, growing city with so much potential to be one of the greatest cities – and faith communities – of the world.”
He said while the Catholic Church had made an “enormous contribution” to the nation, it has to do more to “renew our social capital and ensure that our country fulfils its potential to be a just and compassionate society”.
“The Catholic Church in Australia is going through a period of public scrutiny and self-examination. I hope it will emerge from this purified, humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated.”
The archbishop-elect said victims of abuse “must come first”, that the church must do better in this area and that he was committed to playing a leading role in “regaining the confidence of the community and of our own members”.
A date for his installation as archbishop as yet to be set.
