‘Mud on boots’ of new chief Catholic Anthony Fisher

The Australian
September 19, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/mud-on-boots-of-new-chief-catholic-anthony-fisher/story-e6frg6nf-1227063358658

POPE Francis last night promoted the Bishop of Parramatta, ­Anthony Fisher, 54, as the new Archbishop of Sydney to replace Cardinal George Pell.

Bishop Fisher, a member of the Dominican Order of Preachers, is the first religious order priest appointed to Australia’s most senior church job since ­English Benedictine Roger Bede Vaughan in 1877.

Bishop Fisher, a qualified lawyer with a doctorate in Bioethics from Oxford University, attended St Ignatius College, Riverview, in Sydney where he was dux. He grew up in Lakemba in western Sydney when it was “an ordinary working class Anglo suburb”. His father, Colin Fisher, who turned 80 earlier this year, ran a pharmacy in the suburb and saw it change over the years to become a stronghold for Vietnamese migrants and later the Muslim community. His mother, Gloria Fisher, has a Spanish background and grew up in China and the Philippines. “Like many people in Parramatta and Sydney, I come from a multicultural background,’’ he said.

Last night, Bishop Fisher asked “all Catholics and other people of good will to pray for me that I might be a good shepherd after the heart of Jesus Christ”.

He said the Catholic Church in Australia was going through a period of public scrutiny and self-examination. “I hope it will emerge from this purified, humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated,’’ he said.