The Bishop of Sale, Christopher Prowse, has been appointed as the new Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn.
The Archbishop-designate is yet another former Melbourne cleric appointed to a key position in the Church in Australia.
Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide is now the only Archbishop in Australia who is not a former priest of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
The Papal announcement was made on September 10, and the new Archbishop will be installed on November 19.
In a letter to the people of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Archbishop-elect Prowse said the appointment came as a “great surprise” to him.
“The work of evangelisation will continue afresh in the Archdiocese,” he said. “Already you have done much. Let us gather even closer to God’s favourites: the poor and marginalised.
“There is a sense of urgency in the mission that still awaits us. Let us place again Jesus at the very centre of this mission right now.”
Canberra and Goulburn has been without an Archbishop since April 2012, when Archbishop Mark Coleridge was appointed leader of the Church in Brisbane.
For the past 17 months, Mgr John Woods has been in charge of the Church in Canberra and Goulburn, filling the role of Archdiocesan administrator.
Bishop Prowse served as the Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne from 2003 to 2009, before his appointment to the Diocese of Sale in Victoria.
The 59-year-old becomes the seventh Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn.
News of the appointment was warmly welcomed by several leaders of the Church in Australia, including the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart.
“After distinguished service in Melbourne as pastor, lecturer, vicar general and auxiliary bishop, he has always shown compassionate and gifted service which has continued in his leadership of the diocese of Sale since 2009, and in his service of the universal Church,” he said.
Archbishop Coleridge also passed on his congratulations to his successor.
“I know both Bishop Prowse and the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn well, and I am certain that he has the gifts and experience to serve splendidly in the Archdiocese which I was privileged to lead for some years,” he said.
“Bishop Prowse has all that is required to engage the various cultures in the national capital, and his experience as Bishop of Sale has equipped him well to understand the rural parishes of the Archdiocese at a time of great change in rural Australia.