The Most Reverend Mark S Edwards OMI PhD DD
Sixth Bishop of Wagga Wagga
Mark Stuart Edwards OMI was born in 1959 in Balikpapan on the island of Borneo in Indonesia the first child of Graham Edwards from Adelaide, who was working there in the oil industry, and his wife Christina (aka Tineke) from The Hague in Holland. They returned to Australia in 1962 and the family, to which were added in due course Keith, Karen (now Herford) and Donald, moved several times before settling in Melbourne in 1968. A parishioner of St Leonards in Glen Waverley and Holy Saviour, Vermont South, he attended Saint Leonard’s Primary School Glen Waverley and later Mazenod College, Mulgrave, where he made his first contact with the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate who conducted the College.
He joined the Oblate novitiate in 1980 after completing a Bachelor of Science at Monash. Mark received his academic priestly formation at Catholic Theological College of Melbourne, a college of the then Melbourne College of Divinity (now University of Divinity). After his priestly ordination on 16 August 1986, Father Edwards served as teacher at Mazenod College (1986-1989) and teacher at Iona College in Brisbane (1990-1997), returning to Saint Mary’s Seminary in Mulgrave as Postulant Master (1998-2004); as Novice Master (2004-2007) and as Rector (2007-2010). He was concurrently studying at Monash University for a PhD in Philosophy and a lecturer at Catholic Theological College in Melbourne (2005-2010). In the years 2001-2010, he served on the Provincial Council of the Australian province of the Missionary Oblates.
Fr Mark served as Rector of the Iona College in Lindum, Brisbane (2010-2014) until, on 17 December 2014, he was ordained to be titular Bishop of Garba and Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne. In Melbourne, Bishop Mark served as Auxiliary Bishop with pastoral responsibility in the Eastern Region and later in the Western Region. He also supported the Archdiocesan Office for Youth and the Tertiary Chaplains in the Archdiocese. Whilst in Melbourne, he served on the Bishops Commissions for Catholic Education, for Family, Life and Youth and for the Plenary Council.
On 26 March, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mark as 6th Bishop of Wagga Wagga in succession to Bishop Gerard Hanna who retired due to ill health in 2016. Bishop Edwards was received into the Diocese of Wagga Wagga at a Liturgical Reception and Solemn Mass held at St Michael’s Cathedral Wagga Wagga on 22nd July 2020.
Bishop Edwards continues to serve on the Bishops Commissions for Catholic Education and the Plenary Council, and the National Catholic Education Commission.
