Soon after his appointment as eighth Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle was announced, Reverend Bill Wright said, “In 33 years of being a priest I’ve only applied for one position, the rest found me. I’ve come to believe there’s a certain ‘providence that shapes our ends’ and so far, things have turned out all right!”

This statement demonstrated a certain sanguine approach to life, which was backed up when he wrote, for the August edition of Aurora, “I am not much given to panic. I am content to assume that it will all fall into place for me one day…”

This approach has developed across a variety of experiences – personal and ministerial – in a variety of places. Bill Wright is the third and youngest child of Jack and Nan Wright (both deceased). He has a sister, Patricia and a brother, Robert. He was born on 26 October 1952 in Washington DC, where his father, an economist with the Australian Central Bank (Commonwealth, later Reserve, Bank) was seconded to the International Monetary Fund.

The family moved to Australia when young Bill was only a baby. He was educated by the Sisters of Mercy at Pymble and by the Jesuits at St Aloysius’ College, Milsons Point, with two years at Wimbledon College, another Jesuit school, when Jack was London Manager of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Bishop Bill nominates a Jesuit speaker during a Year 10 retreat as a trigger to priesthood, and admits to the feeling, at that young age, that “I’m just what the church needs”! While preparing for priesthood at St Columba’s College, Springwood (1971‐73) and St Patrick’s College, Manly
(1974‐77), and attaining a Bachelor of Theology, he was employed by the parishes of St Mary’s (Western Sydney), Manly and Pymble as a youth worker. He says now that it is the role of young people “to stir, to rebel, to challenge – and to tell me where I’m going wrong!”

Bill Wright was ordained to the diaconate in October 1976 and to the priesthood on 20 August 1977 at St Mary’s Cathedral. After ordination, he gained a BA(Hons), largely in History, at Sydney University.

He has served as follows:

1977-79 Assistant priest, St Michael’s, Stanmore
1980-84 Studies at Sydney University
1985-91 Vice‐Rector, St Patrick’s College Manly
1992-94 On loan to Parramatta Diocese; assistant priest, Holy Family Mt Druitt
1995 Assistant Secretary, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Canberra
1996 Assisting at Fairfield for a few months; Administrator, Enmore‐Tempe (sixmonths)
1997-98 Parish Priest, St Paul of the Cross, Dulwich Hill
1999-2005 Parish Priest, St John the Baptist, Bonnyrigg
2006-07 Assistant priest St Francis Xavier’s, Moree (Diocese of Armidale) ‘on exchange’
2008-2009 Parish Priest, St Patrick’s Sutherland
2009-2011 Parish Priest, All Saints, Liverpool.

Other recent appointments include being a member of the Archbishop’s Council of Priests and Chairman of the Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Board.

Bishop Bill was ordained Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Newcastle, on 15 June 2011. Cardinal George Pell was the chief celebrant, assisted by Emeritus Bishop Michael Malone.

Not long before ordination, he said of the diocese he had only just encountered, “The principles of collaborative decision making and co-responsibility sit comfortably - implementation can be tricky! A large part of the early agenda is just to get around, meet people and see the places.” He does feel strongly that “Bishops can’t take refuge in co-responsibility either…somebody’s got to own the decision. The alternative: responsibility is so diffuse you don’t know how it happened.”

When asked about his hopes for the diocese, Bishop Bill (as he prefers to be called), said, “I would like to see much more evidence of a church of ideas, so that at the heart of things, there are some very strong Christian religious ideas, instead of rote practices or ‘emotional devotionals’. We believe that human reason can attain to truth, so I would like to see in Catholicism a church that really valued the intelligence and rationality of its people, that engaged with questions and sensible answers. Intelligent participation in public affairs, and life, is hard work; you can’t just say, ‘There it is, take it or leave it. If you don’t believe that you’re not a good Catholic.’

Bishop Bill speaks often of a “seriousness of intent” that is central to what the church is about, in responding to education issues, addressing the declining number of clergy, encouraging young people to come on board, repairing the damage done in recent times to the Church’s reputation. There are echoes here of his Jesuit education and he has said that, “It’s only in later life that I realise how much Jesuitism has snuck in by osmosis.” He speaks of “a Jesuitical voluntarism…a decision’s got to be made, make it, do it.” Bishop Bill admits that “I have been known in the past to change my mind - not often.”

‘Down time’ may involve reading (history, church history, modern literature and classics, scriptural studies), tennis, bushwalking (not so far these days) and travel.

That sanguine nature mentioned earlier asserts itself again when he says, “There’s a lot that can, and should, be left in God’s hands.”

Bishop William Wright's Coat of Arms

The left-hand side of the shield is retained from Bishop Malone’s. It represents the Diocese: wheat for Maitland and the interior, Nobby’s Lighthouse for Newcastle and the coast, and a blue Hunter River running through.

The right-hand (personal) side of the shield carries two images. The Sun device, emblem of the Society of Jesus, acknowledges the importance of the Jesuits in Bishop Wright’s early life and education. The Sun, an allusion to a an early mystical experience of the Trinity that St Ignatius described as like gazing into the Sun, surrounds the IHS Christogram, the first letters of ‘Jesus’ in Greek, and the Cross and nails of Christ’s passion. The other image, the open book, could be taken as a reference to the Scriptures, but is in fact intended to represent the study of history that has played a large part in the bishop’s life. The patron saint of church historians is Saint Bede the Venerable, whose emblem, in common with other scholar/writer saints, is the open book.

The Motto In Principio Verbum is taken from the first words of John’s Gospel, ‘In the beginning [was] the Word’. From that context, the motto stresses that our faith is built on Christ himself, the Word of the Father. In its shortened form, In the beginning, the Word, the motto is also intended to signify the importance of the Bible: that we do not make up the Christian faith according to our own tastes, but are to be challenged to respond to all that God has given to us in Scripture and tradition.

Finally, the motto is intended to remind the bishop that his first duty is to preach the Good News, as the Latin will also happily bear the translation, In the first place, the Word.

Previous Bishops of the Diocese
Previous bishops of the Diocese of Maitland include:
• Charles Henry Davis OSB (1848 – 1854) DECEASED
• James Murray (1865 – 1909) DECEASED
• Patrick Vincent Dwyer (1909 – 1931) DECEASED
• Edmund Gleeson CSsR (1931 – 1956) DECEASED
• John Toohey (1956 – 1975) DECEASED
• Leo Morris Clarke (1976 – 1995) DECEASED 3rd JUNE 2006
• Michael Malone (1995 – 2011)

How to Contact the Bishop
You can contact Bishop William Wright at:
PO Box 780 Newcastle 2300 NSW
Ph: (02) 4979 1111 or Fax: (02) 4979 1119 or email