New appointments for Australian bishops
By Catherine Sheehan
There has been a flurry of appointments among Australia’s bishops in recent months as positions were filled in the Roman Curia, the Chaldean Catholic Church, as well as in the dioceses of Perth, Rockhampton and Sandhurst.
The most significant news was that of Pope Leo’s appointment of Bishop of Broken Bay, Anthony Randazzo, as Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, effectively making him the Catholic Church’s supreme authority on interpreting the Church’s laws and ensuring their correct application around the world. The appointment also includes an upgrade of his title to that of Archbishop.
“I am profoundly grateful to Pope Leo for the confidence and trust he has placed in me,” Archbishop Randazzo said following the announcement on 25 March.
President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, welcomed the news.
“Archbishop Randazzo’s formation and long experience in canon law has been a profound gift to the Church,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
Archbishop Randazzo was born in Sydney but grew up in Queensland. He was ordained a priest in 1991, completed a degree in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and worked in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for five years.
He was ordained a bishop in 2016 and appointed the fourth bishop of Broken Bay in 2019.
Another prominent appointment was that of Archbishop Amel Nona, leader of the Chaldean Diocese of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Australia and New Zealand, who was elected worldwide Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church on 12 April.
He was elected by the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Church and has chosen the name of His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Paul III Nona.
Archbishop Nona was born in Alqosh, Iraq, and ordained in 1991. In 2009 he was elected Archbishop of Mosul and ordained a bishop in 2010.
When terrorist group, Islamic State (ISIS), seized control of Mosul in 2014, Archbishop Nona was forced into exile and has been living in Sydney since 2015.
Pope Leo also appointed Perth priest, Fr Nelson Po, as Auxiliary Bishop of Perth on 2 February and his episcopal ordination took place on 16 April.
Bishop Po was born in the Philippines and arrived in Perth in 2003 at the invitation of Archbishop Hickey to continue his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained in 2005.
On 1 April the Pope appointed Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Meagher as the 11th Bishop of Rockhampton. Bishop Meagher grew up in Sydney, ordained in 1995, and served as Rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd from 2015 to 2020. He was ordained a bishop in 2021.
And finally, on 11 April, Pope Leo appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne René Ramirez RCJ as the Ninth Bishop of Sandhurst.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Bishop Ramirez was ordained a priest in 1998 and a bishop in 2025.