Denis James Hart (born 16 May 1941) is a retired Australian
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...
of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. He was
Archbishop of Melbourne from 2001 to 2018.
Early years and background
Hart was born in
East Melbourne, Victoria
East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...
, the eldest of the three children of Kevin and Annie Hart. He was educated at St John's
Marist Brothers
The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic Church, Catholic religious institute of Religious brother, brothers. In 1817, Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from Fr ...
in
Hawthorn and
Xavier College
Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878.
The ...
in
Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...
. He studied for the
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
hood at
Corpus Christi College from 1960 to 1967.
Ordained at
St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, in 1967, Hart served as a hospital chaplain, an assistant parish priest and then master of ceremonies at St Patrick's Cathedral. He supervised the preparation of the books used in worship, including the
lectionary
A lectionary () is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christianity, Christian or Judaism, Jewish worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, ...
for
Mass
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
. He was liturgy director and assistant master of ceremonies for the 1986 papal visit to Australia.
In 1987 Hart became a
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
priest and in 1996 he became
vicar general
A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...
and moderator of the archdiocese's
curia
Curia (: curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally probably had wider powers, they came to meet ...
. He has served in the parishes of
North Balwyn,
North Richmond and
West Brunswick. In 1997, he was consecrated a
bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
and made an
auxiliary bishop
An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions.
...
in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
Archbishop
In 2001, Hart was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne, replacing
George Pell who became the
Archbishop of Sydney. On 29 June 2001, he received the
pallium
The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...
from
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
in
St Peter's Square.
Within the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, he was a member of the permanent committee from 2002, chairman of the Bishops' Commission for Administration and Information (2002–2012), member of the Bishops' Commission for Liturgy (1998–2012) and vice president of the conference (2010–2012). He has been chair of the ''ad hoc'' committee for the
Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross since 2010.
In May 2012, he was elected president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for two years.
He has been a member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy since 2003 and its vice president (2010–2014). He took part in the Oceania Synod and ''ad limina'' visits in 1998, 2004 and 2011. In 2007, Hart expressed that he was troubled by the remarks of St Patrick's Cathedral priest Geoff Baron.
During 2016, Hart urged schools to be sensitive and respectful to students who want to invite a same-sex date to school dance nights. "These are quite often emotional situations and it's very important that we always have respect for the dignity of the human being involved", he said when Fairfax asked for his response to a previously unreported case at the Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy.
He was appointed a member of the
.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
accepted his resignation on 29 June 2018.
Hart requested a Melbourne parish priest stand down while the priest was investigated by civil authorities for allegedly violating child safety laws.
Controversies
In 2009 during a court case, Hart was accused of having told a woman to "Go to hell, bitch" when she had knocked on his door in the middle of the night in 2004. On the ABC on 14 November 2013, Hart acknowledged making the comment, then immediately asserting that he always followed the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. He apologised for it and described it as unfortunate.
In May 2013, Hart appeared at a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse. He commented, in regard to why it took 18 years to have a priest laicised for sexually abusing children, "Better late than never."
On 15 August 2017, Hart stated that if the law was changed to require clergy to report child sexual abuse learned of during confessionals, he would
break the law and not report such abuse.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Denis
1941 births
Living people
Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II
Roman Catholic archbishops of Melbourne
21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Australia
People educated at Xavier College
Members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Australian Roman Catholic archbishops
People from East Melbourne
Clergy from Melbourne