Former Bishops
Bishop O'Regan was born in Bathurst on October 8th, 1958. He was one of four children who grew up in the village of Perthville, located 10 km south of Bathurst.
He was educated at St Joseph's Primary School, Perthville, and St Stanislaus’ College, Bathurst. He studied for the priesthood at St Columba’s College, Springwood (NSW), and St Patrick's College, Manly (NSW), before being ordained a priest for Bathurst Diocese on September 2nd, 1983. He served as assistant priest at Lithgow, Cowra, Orange and Bathurst before undertaking higher studies in France in 1994-95.
He returned to Orange as assistant priest for 8 months, before being appointed Parish Priest of Wellington in 1997, where he served until 2001-02 when he again undertook higher studies in France, obtaining a Licentiate in Liturgical and Sacramental Theology from Institut Catholique in Paris.
He returned to Bathurst Diocese in 2003 and served six years as Parish Priest of Blayney, before being appointed Diocesan Administrator following the retirement of Bishop Patrick Dougherty in November 2008.
When Sale Diocese priest Fr Michael McKenna was ordained Bishop of Bathurst on June 26th 2009 - Fr O'Regan became Diocesan Chancellor. From 2010-15, he was Dean of the Cathedral, and became Vicar General of the Diocese in 2011.
Bishop Patrick Michael O'Regan was ordained as the ninth Bishop of Sale in a ceremony before 1600 people on February 26, 2015. The ordination took place in the Bishop Phelan Stadium at the St Patrick's campus of Catholic College, Sale.
In May 2016, Bishop O'Regan was appointed by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference as the Australian representative on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). He was also appointed chairman of the Bishops' Commission for Liturgy.
In addition to this work, Bishop O’Regan is an avid reader and has a keen interest in photography and computers.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Patrick O’Regan as the 12th Archbishop of Adelaide on 19 March 2020.
His achievements as Bishop of Sale included the establishment of Diocese of Sale Catholic Education Linited (DOSCEL) and calling the 2019 Diocesan Assembly, the first of its kind in over 15 years.
He was installed as the Archbishop of Adelaide on 25 May 2020.
Bishop O'Regan's coat of arms feature a boat, which is an ancient image of the Church. The yellow boat sails on a blue background and features the Chi Rho symbol on the sail. The symbol is one of the earliest Christograms made up of the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ.
When developing his arms, it was discovered that a boat featured on the original arms for the Diocese of Bathurst, and also on those for the City of Paris where he studied.
Two blue dolphins at the top of the shield come from an O'Regan coat of arms and a green shamrock denotes his Irish heritage.
Bishop O'Regan's motto, “Ut Sit Deus Omnia in Omnibus”, is taken from 1 Corinthians 15:28, “So that God may be All in All”.