Michael McKenna

Michael Joseph McKenna (8 December 1951 in Bairnsdale, Victoria), an Australian suffragan bishop, is the eighth Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Bathurst, appointed in 2009.

Early years and background The eldest of the eleven children born to Maxwell and Marie (née Warburton) McKenna, Michael McKenna was educated at St Patrick's School, Stratford, and at St Patrick's College, Sale. From 1971–74, he studied in the Honours Schools of Political Science and English Literature at The University of Melbourne. With an early interest in audio and video technology, McKenna worked as a producer and presenter on 3RRR-FM and showed works at the Melbourne Fringe and St Kilda Film Festivals. He commenced studying for the priesthood at St Paul's National Seminary, Sydney, and in 1983 was ordained priest by Bishop D'Arcy; graduating in theology from the Sydney College of Divinity in 1984.

Returning to Victoria, McKenna was appointed an Assistant Priest in the parish of St Joseph's, Warragul in the Diocese of Sale before moving to an administrative role as Bishop's Secretary, Diocesan Secretary and Chancellor where he was a regular columnist in the diocesan monthly newspaper, Catholic Life. While undertaking postgraduate studies from the Gregorian University in Rome, in 1991 McKenna was elected as General Secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, based in Canberra. During 1998 he was Administrator of Lumen Christi Parish, Churchill before taking up a Resident Fellowship in the Divinity School of Harvard University. Bishop of Sale. It was the first time since the consecration of Bishop O'Farrell in 1920 that a bishop had been consecrated in Bathurst, though he was not consecrated in the Cathedral of St Michael and St John, but at St Stanislaus' College.