Pope Benedict XVI has appointed the bishop who organized World Youth
Day 2008 in Sydney Bishop of one of the biggest dioceses in Australia.
Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, who at 49 is the youngest prelate in Australia, was appointed on 6 January as the third Bishop of Parramatta, a part of western Sydney that was separated from the Archdiocese of Sydney in 1986.
Bishop Fisher succeeds Bishop Kevin Manning, whose retirement was accepted by the Pope according to a 6 January statement from Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, the Apostolic Nuncio to Australia.
Bishop Fisher, a Dominican friar and ethicist, has for the past seven years been parish priest of Watson’s Bay and an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney. He will be installed as Bishop of Parramatta on March 4 at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Bishop Fisher said in an 11 January statement that his major priority will be to promote priestly and religious vocations.
“As a priest and religious myself, I honour the role that priests and consecrated women and men have played in the history of Western Sydney.
Priests are the backbone of our parish life and religious today contribute to education, welfare, health and aged care, as well as to parish and spiritual life. Naturally, promoting priestly and religious vocations will be a major priority for me,” Bishop Fisher said.
“It is a very great privilege to be entrusted with this role of leadership and service in the vibrant young diocese of Parramatta.
“I have a passion for preaching, teaching and formation, and so I will be very interested in the distinctive contribution the Catholic Church makes in this regard in the Diocese of Parramatta.”
Bishop Fisher studied History and Law at the University of Sydney and practised in a city law firm before entering the Order of Preachers in 1985.
He studied theology in Melbourne, was ordained a priest in 1991 and completed a doctorate in bioethics at the University of Oxford in 1995.
From 1995 to 2000 he lectured at the Australian Catholic University. From 2000 to 2003 he was the foundation Director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne where he is still a Professor.
He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia and Deputy-Chancellor of the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
Until now he has also been Episcopal Vicar for Life and Health and Chairman of the Sydney Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Board.
His new diocese in western Sydney is one of Australia’s fastest growing areas, with a median age of 32, Bishop Fisher said, with many young families and numerous ethnic communities. With a third of the locals identifying as Catholic in the last census (319,215), Parramatta is Australia’s most Catholic area, with 49 parishes, 76 systemic schools (54 primary and 22 secondary) and six congregational schools.
The Diocese of Parramatta includes the shires of Baulkham Hills, Blacktown, the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Holroyd, Parramatta and Penrith, and parts of Wollondilly and Liverpool.
“I don’t come with any agenda apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church,” he said.
Bishop Fisher is also the Chairman of the NSW Catholic Education Commission and a member of the Australian Bishops’ Commissions for Doctrine and Morals and for the Health and Community Services.
He is also a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life.