Posted on 06/20/2025 13:29 PM (CNA Daily News)
Bishop Anthony Ireland was appointed the new archbishop of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia, on June 20, 2025. / Credit: Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference
CNA Newsroom, Jun 20, 2025 / 09:29 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Anthony Ireland, auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, Australia, as the new archbishop of Hobart, marking the second major Australian archdiocesan appointment this week following the naming of Bishop Shane Mackinlay to Brisbane on June 19.
The 68-year-old Ireland will succeed Archbishop Julian Porteous, who is retiring after nearly 12 years leading Tasmania’s Catholic community.
The appointment was announced Friday by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
“With a heart full of quiet joy, I have received the news of this appointment, humbled and grateful for the trust placed in me to shepherd a diocese,” Ireland said in a statement.
“As a parish priest, I found deep fulfillment in the pastoral relationships formed through shared faith and mission. I now look forward with great hope to walking that same path of grace with the people of Tasmania.”
Born and raised in Melbourne, Ireland studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, a regional seminary. Ordained in 1987, he served across several parishes in the Melbourne Archdiocese.
The archbishop-elect pursued advanced theological studies in Rome beginning in 1990 and earned higher degrees in both moral and spiritual theology. He completed doctoral studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Australian prelate held teaching roles at Catholic Theological College in East Melbourne, where he lectured in moral theology and served as head of the Department of Moral and Practical Theology for eight years.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, SDB, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, praised the appointment, highlighting Ireland’s “considerable experience also in parish ministry and the ministry of health care” as well as his academic and spiritual formation roles.
“The archbishop-elect’s experience in the Archdiocese of Melbourne will stand him in good stead as he takes up the new challenge of pastoral leadership in the Archdiocese of Hobart,” Costelloe said, noting that Ireland’s episcopal motto — “Confirm, strengthen, and support” — would be warmly welcomed by Tasmania’s Catholic community.
While an official installation date has not been announced, sources in the archdiocese indicate Ireland will be installed as archbishop in the coming weeks.
Posted on 06/20/2025 10:04 AM ()
Pope Leo XIV authorizes several decrees, including a Spanish diocesan priest, more than 100 martyrs, a seminarian, and four servants of God.
Posted on 06/20/2025 10:00 AM (CNA Daily News)
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Linz, Austria, is the largest church building in that country. / Credit: Dein Freund der Baum, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Here’s a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:
The Catholic Church in Austria is recording a positive trend in priestly ordinations for 2025, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
At least 26 men have been ordained priests across Austrian dioceses, a Kathpress survey estimated, though the number could be much higher. Over the past decade, the average number of ordinations has been 22 per year.
The Christian presence in the Holy Land, already a dwindling minority, is under unprecedented threat amid ongoing regional conflicts, reported ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner. With the Gaza war still raging and tensions between Israel and Iran escalating this month, Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, and Gaza are facing mounting hardship.
According to ACI MENA, Bethlehem’s economy has cratered, forcing dozens of hotels and shops to close, while in Gaza, the Christian population has halved since October 2023, with churches damaged and civilians killed while sheltering inside. Church leaders warn of a “silent, systematic displacement” as political instability and economic collapse push Christian families to emigrate. Sami El-Yousef of the Latin Patriarchate said remote operations have resumed post-crisis, but the humanitarian need has soared.
The passing of Chaldean Bishop Paul Thabet Habib Yousif Al Mekko of Alqosh, Iraq, has brought renewed focus to the suffering of Iraq’s Christian population, ACI MENA reported. A steadfast spiritual leader during ISIS’ occupation in 2014, Thabet returned to his hometown of Karamles after its liberation in 2017, where he discovered the desecrated statue of the Virgin Mary, later restored and blessed by Pope Francis in Erbil during his historic 2021 visit.
Thabet was deeply committed to helping displaced Christians return home, leading rebuilding efforts and blessing fields as symbols of resilience. His work featured in international exhibitions spotlighting Christian persecution. A scholar and writer on Chaldean liturgy, he was mourned as both a religious and national figure. “We lost a man of peace and coexistence,” said Nineveh Gov. Abdel Qader Dakheel, echoing the sentiments of many Christians across Iraq.
The United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical group that monitors incidents of religious persecutions, has found that more than two Christians per day are attacked in the country, according to a UCA News report.
UCF recorded 313 incidents from January to May. “If this trend is not stopped immediately, it will threaten the identity and existence of the Indian Christian community in its motherland,” UCF’s national convenor A.C. Michael told UCA. The organization recorded a total of 834 incidents throughout last year.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, Kenya, has initiated a three-day “marathon of rosaries,” interceding for respect of human life in the East African nation after protests earlier in the week culminated in violent clashes with Kenyan police.
“We are calling on all Catholics in our Archdiocese of Nairobi and beyond to pray the rosary, a marathon of rosaries for the next three days for the respect of human life and dignity,” Archbishop Philip Subira Anyolo said in a statement on June 18. The protests erupted after the murder of a teacher and blogger, Albert Ojwang, in police custody, reported ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa.
Catholic churches across the Middle East and beyond are celebrating Corpus Christi — also known as the feast of the Body of Christ — with processions that reflect both Eastern and Latin traditions, ACI MENA reported.
Syriac Catholic priest Father Boulos Affas explained to ACI MENA that, although street processions are rare in urban Iraq, rural Christian villages still observe the tradition with solemn rituals, crosses, incense, rose petals, and hymns accompanying the Blessed Sacrament.
The Chaldean Church has also added a distinctive nine-day novena honoring the Eucharist, featuring penitential prayers and adoration rites. Father Antoine Zeitouni of Qaraqosh told ACI MENA this tradition symbolizes the deep reverence for the Eucharist in Eastern liturgy.
Posted on 06/20/2025 09:20 AM ()
The Editorial Directorate of the Dicastery for Communication presents the documentary, “León de Perú”, featuring footage that retraces the mission of Robert Francis Prevost in Peru before he became Pope Leo XIV.
Posted on 06/20/2025 08:30 AM ()
On the eve of World Refugee Day the Sant’Egidio community holds its annual prayer vigil in memory of all those who lost their lives on their journey to Europe.
Posted on 06/20/2025 05:43 AM ()
Pope Leo XIV thanks priests of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy who have completed a year of missionary service for their dedication and urges them to live their priesthood with humility, closeness, and faith, wherever the Church may send them.
Posted on 06/20/2025 05:36 AM ()
The priests of West Africa recently concluded their 11th annual ordinary Congress with Holy Mass at Saint Michael Parish in Cotonou, Benin. In their final communiqué, the Union of Priests of West Africa notably called for peace and security in the sub-region while denouncing cases of kidnapping and assassination of pastoral agents in the exercise of their ministry.
Posted on 06/20/2025 04:50 AM ()
Pope Leo calls on religious to never cease to bring consolation to those being persecuted for their faith, as he thanks the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and Trinitarians on the occasion of their General Chapters.
Posted on 06/20/2025 04:50 AM ()
When faced with the "exceptional product of human genius" which is artificial intelligence, Pope Leo XIV warns it raises pressing questions, must never forget human dignity, and cannot interfere with the proper human and neurological development of young people and children.
Posted on 06/20/2025 03:35 AM ()
Amid the escalation of war in the Holy Land and the suffering and fear it is causing, Father John Luke Gregory, Franciscan Father of the Custody of the Holy Land, reflects on the many challenges posed by the current situation and on how faith gives us the power to look to the horizon with hope and even find joy amid despair.
