Shane Mackinlay

Shane Anthony Mackinlay (born 5 June 1965) is an Australian Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Brisbane since 2025. He was previously Bishop of Sandhurst from 2019 to 2025. He was the master of Catholic Theological College in Melbourne from 2010 to 2019.

Life and career Shane Mackinlay was born in Brunswick, Melbourne, on 5 June 1965. He studied at Corpus Christi College and obtained a bachelor's degree in theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity and a degree in physics from Monash University. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven in 2005.

From 2012 to 2014, during the inquiry conducted by the Parliament of Victoria into how the Catholic Church and other institutions had handled child abuse, Mackinlay served as spokesperson for the church. In September 2012, when the church submitted its report to the inquiry, Mackinlay said it had been difficult for the church to recognise the reality and extent of child abuse because "We had a very strong clerical culture which made it very difficult both for laypeople, for the families of these victims, for people in our schools, for people in our parishes and certainly for people in leadership and authority to accept that priests and religious [that is, members of religious orders] could do these evil things." The next year he was criticised by inquiry officials after he traced the origins of the abuse crisis to the social mores of the 1960s and 1970s and attempts to lower the age of consent. One official called his remarks disingenuous.

On 23 July 2019, Pope Francis appointed Mackinlay as Bishop of Sandhurst. On 16 October 2019, he was consecrated a bishop by Peter Comensoli, Archbishop of Melbourne, at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, and installed as Bishop of Sandhurst.

On 18 June 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed him Archbishop of Brisbane. His installation was held at the Cathedral of St Stephen on 11 September 2025.