St Patrick's Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba. The diocese covers an area of 487,000 square kilometres (188,000 sq mi). with 48 priests and 57 members of religious orders. There are 77,400 Catholics among the 276,700 total population within the diocese's borders.[citation needed]
Bishop Bill Morris was appointed in 1992 to head the Toowoomba diocese. In 2006 he released a pastoral letter[2] calling for discussion of the ordination of married men and the ordination of women to compensate for the lack of priests in his large diocese.[3]
On 1 May 2011, Bishop Morris announced his early retirement at age 67, stressing the fact that he had not resigned. On 2 May 2011, the Holy See removed Morris from pastoral care of the diocese, attracting international press coverage. The Holy See appointed Brian Vincent Finnigan, Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, to serve as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese.[5]
On 14 May 2012, it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI had named the Reverend Monsignor Robert McGuckin as bishop-elect of the Toowoomba diocese. He was installed on 11 July.
In February 2014 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, a royal commission of inquiry initiated in 2013 by the Australian Government and supported by all of its state governments,[12] began an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse and the response by the Diocesan Catholic Education Office.[13] The former Bishop of Toowoomba, Bill Morris, admitted that "there had been a number of significant systemic failings which led to the failure to properly deal with" the abuse of thirteen young girls at a Toowoomba Catholic primary School in 2007–08.[14]
^"Our Story". Archdiocesan Profile. Archdiocese of Brisbane. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
^Morris, William Martin (17 November 2006). "Advent Pastoral letter"(PDF). Diocese of Toowoomba. Archived from the original(PDF) on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
^"Call to ordain women". The Courier-Mail. Australia. 4 January 2007. Archived from the original on 11 April 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
^"Diocese of Toowoomba". Apostolic Nunciature to Australia (Press release). Canberra, Australia. 2 May 2011. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
^"Letters Patent". Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
