THE Reverend Shane Mackinlay will be ordained as new Bishop of Sandhurst in a ceremony at Sacred Heart Cathedral from noon on Wednesday.
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He succeeds bishop Les Tomlinson, who has been Bishop of Sandhurst since 2012.
Pope Francis announced Father Mackinlay as the future Bishop of Sandhurst in July.
The Sandhurst Dioceses is based in Bendigo and encompasses northern Victoria.
Watch the ceremony unfold here (story continues below):
He was spokesperson for the Catholic Church from 2012 to 2014, during the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations.
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Father Mackinlay spoke to the Australian Community Media in July about the church's need to be welcoming to everybody, but hold dear to the values seen in the Gospels.
Father Mackinlay was born in Melbourne in 1965, before his family moved to Ballarat 10 years later. He studied at St Francis Xavier Primary School and St Patrick's College, where he was dux.
Ordained as a priest in the Ballarat Diocese in 1991, Father Mackinlay studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College and Catholic Theological College.
He also completed a physics degree at Monash University.
After serving as a parish minister, Father Mackinlay completed a masters and doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
Father Mackinlay's ordination follows the retirement of Bishop Les Tomlinson, who has served the as Bishop of the Diocese of Sandhurst since 2012.
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Bishop Tomlinson succeeded Bishop Joseph Grech, who died in December 2012.
Father Mackinlay said he had observed Bishop Tomlinson's "generous and diligent service" in Sandhurst over the years, and was grateful for the welcome Bishop Tomlinson had extended to him as successor.
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