Mark Stuart Edwards | |
---|---|
Bishop of Wagga Wagga | |
Church | Latin Church |
Archdiocese | Sydney |
Diocese | Wagga Wagga |
See | Wagga Wagga |
Appointed | 26 May 2020 |
In office | 22 July 2020 |
Predecessor | Gerard Joseph Hanna |
Orders | |
Ordination | 16 August 1986 by Thomas Francis Little |
Consecration | 17 December 2014 by Denis James Hart |
Rank | Bishop |
Personal details | |
Born | Mark Stuart Edwards 14 June 1959 |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Previous post(s) |
|
Alma mater | |
Motto | Learn who you are in the eyes of God [1] |
Mark Stuart Edwards OMI (born 14 June 1959) is an Australian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate appointed as the Bishop of Wagga Wagga. [2] He has served in the past as a teacher and as a rector before his episcopal elevation.
Mark Stuart Edwards was born on 14 June 1959 in Indonesia as one of four children. [3] His father was from South Australia and worked for Shell International in the Netherlands where he met his wife. The two relocated to Indonesia where Edwards and his brother were born before settling in Melbourne. His mother was a practising Catholic and his father was a devout Anglican. [3]
His education was at Saint Leonard's school in Glen Waverley before he began his high school education at Mazenod College in Mulgrave. He obtained a Bachelor of Science from Monash in Clayton. [2]
In 1980 he entered the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Mulgrave and completed his ecclesial studies for the priesthood at Catholic Theological College in Melbourne. Edwards had made his first application aged seventeen though the Oblates delayed his admission because of his age. The Oblates accepted his reapplication when he had finished his BSc. [4] He made his final profession of vows as an Oblate on 17 February 1984 and was ordained as a priest on 16 August 1986. [2] Edwards returned to Monash later for further studies where he obtained a Bachelor of Letters and a PhD in philosophy in 2007.
Edwards taught at Mazenod College from 1986 until 1989 and was then teaching at Iona College in Brisbane from 1990 until 1997. From 1998 to 2004 he served as the Pre-Novice Master at Saint Mary's Seminary in Mulgrave prior to serving as novice master from 2004 until 2007. From 2005 to 2010 he served as a lecturer at Catholic Theological College while from 2007 to 2010 served as the Director of Scholastics at Saint Mary's Seminary. In 2011 he was appointed as the rector of Iona College in Brisbane. [2]
Pope Francis appointed Edwards on 7 November 2014 as an Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne and as the Titular Bishop of Garba. Edwards was in Canberra when the apostolic nuncio delivered the news and he later said that he was "surprised and humbled" to be selected as a bishop though lamented that he could no longer resume his teaching duties. [3] [4] Edwards received his episcopal consecration on 17 December 2014 at Saint Patrick's Cathedral from Archbishop Denis James Hart with Mark Benedict Coleridge and Paul Richard Gallagher serving as the co-consecrators. He serves at present as the Episcopal Vicar for Tertiary Education and Youth. Edwards attended World Youth Day in Poland in 2016.
Pope Francis appointed Edwards on 26 May 2020 to serve as the new Bishop of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. Edwards was installed as Bishop of Wagga Wagga on 22 July 2020 at St Michael's Cathedral, Wagga Wagga.
Bishop Edwards has said that mercy leads us to understand God better and enables for people to be "strengthened" as dispensers of mercy to others. [5] He has said that God's "tenderness is almost tangible" and He invites the faithful to open their hearts to receive the "free gift" of mercy which should be shared with others. Bishop Edwards continued that one's outward life must show mercy to others in order to be shown that same gift in return. [5]
In conversation with 774 ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine, Edwards said that he did not oppose stores selling Christmas merchandise months prior to the event since it showed that the Christian message resonated. He said that the initial preparations enabled people the chance to plan their Christmas celebrations with those around them since "the Christian message is perhaps still meeting people" to coordinate the proper celebration of Christmas. [6] But he expressed his hope that retailers would hold off on the recitation of carols until closer to Christmas and expressed his opposition to churches placing decorations months prior since "Church decorations go up at the start of Advent" to mark the season of preparation. [6]
Edwards is a strong opponent of euthanasia. Following the Lower House affirmative vote on euthanasia he took to Twitter and posted: "This is not good for our vulnerable".
Mulgrave is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 25 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Mulgrave recorded a population of 19,889 at the 2021 census.
Francis Eugene George was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the eighth Archbishop of Chicago in Illinois (1997–2014) and previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Yakima and Archbishop of Portland.
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest later recognized as a Catholic saint. The congregation was given recognition by Pope Leo XII on February 17, 1826. As of January 2020, the congregation was composed of 3,631 priests and lay brothers usually living in community. Their traditional salutation is Laudetur Iesus Christus, to which the response is Et Maria Immaculata. Members use the post-nominal letters, "OMI".
Eugène de Mazenod, OMI was a French aristocrat and Catholic priest. Mazenod founded the congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Alexandre-Antonin Taché, O.M.I., was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, missionary of the Oblate order, author, and the first Archbishop of Saint Boniface in Manitoba, Canada.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is a Latin Rite metropolitan archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Erected initially in 1847 as the Diocese of Melbourne, a suffragan diocese of Archdiocese of Sydney, the diocese was elevated in 1874 as an archdiocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Melbourne and is the metropolitan for the suffragan dioceses of Sale, Sandhurst, Ballarat, and the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Ss Peter and Paul. The Archdiocese of Hobart is attached to the archdiocese for administrative purposes. St Patrick's Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, currently Peter Comensoli, who succeeded Denis Hart on 1 August 2018.
Iona College is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex day school for boys, located in the Brisbane suburb of Lindum Queensland, Australia. Iona is operated by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a religious order that was founded in 1816 by Saint Eugene de Mazenod.
Mazenod College is an independent, Roman Catholic, day-school for boys, located in Mulgrave, Victoria. It is one of three schools run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) and the only one in Victoria. Mazenod College is a member of the Associated Catholic Colleges. Currently, the principal is Dr Paul Shannon with the Rector currently being Fr Harry Dyer OMI.
Mazenod can refer to the following:
The Diocese of Wagga Wagga is a Latin Church suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Sydney, established in 1917, covering the Riverina region of New South Wales in Australia.
Oblate Youth Australia (OYA) is a network of Catholic youth who identify with a particular Charism of the Religious order of The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Created in 2000 by Fr. Christian Fini at St. John Vianney's Parish, the community has grown into a national group, gathering yearly at the National Oblate Youth Encounter and participating in a variety of youth ministry events within Australia and across the world.
Roger Lawrence Schwietz, OMI is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. Schwietz served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Anchorage in Alaska from 2001 to 2016. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Duluth in Minnesota from 1989 to 2000.
Pierre-Paul Durieu, was a Roman Catholic missionary and the first Bishop of New Westminster, in British Columbia, Canada.
Mazenod College is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in the eastern Perth suburb of Lesmurdie, Western Australia. It is one of three schools run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) and the only OMI school in Western Australia.
Joseph Gérard, OMI was a French Catholic priest and a professed member from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; he worked in the missions among the Basotho people in Lesotho and the Free State province of South Africa. His works in the mission are now attributed to a partial degree to a boom in Catholicism in Lesotho, where he was well-known and regarded for his extensive work; he was even working up until a month prior to his own death just before World War I.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate are a Roman Catholic religious order for men. The order was founded on January 25, 1816, by Father Eugene de Mazenod to preach missions in Provençal, France.
David Douglas Crosby, is a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the ninth and current Bishop of Hamilton, having previously served as Bishop of St. George’s Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador (2003–2007) and Bishop of Corner Brook and Labrador (2007–2010).
Hubert Constant born on the 18th of September, 1931 in Camp-Perrin, South of Haiti and died on the 23rd of September 2011 was the Roman Catholic metropolitan archbishop of Cap-Haïtien.
Christopher Charles Prowse is an Australian Roman Catholic bishop. He is currently the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Canberra – Goulburn; appointed to the post on 12 September 2013 and installed as archbishop on 19 November 2013. On 12 September 2016, Prowse was named as apostolic administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga following the retirement of Bishop Gerard Hanna. On 26 May 2020, Pope Francis announced Mark Stuart Edwards would become the sixth Bishop of Wagga Wagga, however Prowse remained apostolic administrator until Bishop Edwards' installation on 22 July 2020.
Louis Lougen, OMI was elected Superior General of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 2010., and re-elected in 2016, the year of their 200th anniversary.