Fr Tim NortonSVD Auxiliary Bishop for Brisbane

Former student of Marist Brothers Eastwood, Fr Tim Norton SVD, was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Brisbane at St Stephen’s Cathedral earlier this week.  Bishops from across Australia attended the episcopal ordination of the Sydney-born priest, who until recently ran ministry programs for his religious order – commonly known as the Divine Word Missionaries or SVDs – in Italy.

Born in 1958, Fr Norton graduated from Marist Brothers Eastwood before commencing studies as a seminarian in Mexico in 1986. He was ordained in 1991. Since June 2020, Fr Norton has been working full-time with consecrated women and men promoting interculturality, something his order is renowned for both worldwide and in Australia.

Fr Norton said ministry to multicultural communities is an important way his order is already involved in Brisbane Archdiocese.

While formerly serving as head of the Australian province, he worked with Archbishop Coleridge to establish a Divine Word Missionary presence in two parishes.

“The SVD are active in the parishes of Inala and Kingston-Marsden, both very multicultural, and therefore places where the SVD confreres do their best work,” he said.

Fr Norton said he would bring to his ministry in Brisbane “an intense interest in culture, and the mission of God in the world, whatever shape or form that may take”.