Gold to Father Mike

Fr Mike Delaney (svc 1964-68) is about to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. 

Father Mike was born in Hobart 1951, the eldest of seven children of Trevor and Betty Delaney. He was educated at Sacred Heart, New Town, at Savio College (now Dominic College), at St Mary’s Technical College Geelong, and from mid-1964 to the end of 1968 at St Virgil’s College, Hobart. After Seminary studies at Corpus Christi College Werribee, Glen Waverley and Clayton he was ordained on 20th August 1975 in St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart. 

Fr Mike has served as an assistant in the parishes of Launceston, Bellerive, Cathedral and Sandy Bay/Taroona before being appointed Parish Priest of Deloraine. Following the death of Archbishop Sir Guilford Young in 1988, he was appointed to act as Administrator of the Church of Apostles, followed by his appointment as Parish Priest of Glenorchy and later New Norfolk.

After the “Call to Change” process in 2000, he was appointed Moderator of the Central Tasmania Parish. After 10 years living at New Norfolk, he then served for three years as a priest in the Launceston Parish. His next appointment was to the West Coast and at the beginning of 2014 he was appointed Parish Priest to the Mersey-Leven Parish on the north-west coast. Father Mike is currently the parish priest of Christ the Priest Church in Kingston.

Fr Mike has stated that “The communities are bigger," and "One of the sadnesses is it will be much harder for me to be personal." However, he has also stated that “I'm always sad to leave wherever I am but happy to go wherever I’m needed”.

In 1977 Archbishop Young asked him to train as an Industrial Chaplain. In this role, he worked with the Inter-Church Trade and Industry Mission for the next 15 years as a part-time chaplain with Tasmania Police, Tasmania Fire Service and Humes-CSR, followed by positions on the State and National Management Boards of the Mission. 

Since 1979 Fr Mike has also been involved on the Executive of the Tasmanian Council of Churches along with a nine-year membership of the Christian World Service Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Fr Mike was commissioned in 1983 as an Officer in the Royal Australian Navy and has served as a Reserve Chaplain in active service until 2012. During his service he has worked in almost every shore-based establishment within Australia as well as tours of duty on board HMAS ships STALWART in Australian waters, SYDNEY in the South China Sea, TOBRUK in Australian waters and DARWIN as part of Operation Catalyst in the Arabian Gulf.   

As a priest of the Archdiocese, he has been a member of the Council of Priests and has been a Consultor to both Archbishop Doyle and Archbishop Porteous.

Fr Mike Delaney’s dedicated service to the Archdiocese has amply demonstrated that he meets the criteria to be admitted to the Old Virgilians Heritage Roll of Honour in 2015 and is the current chaplain of the Old Virgilians Association.