Denis Hart

Early years and background

Hart was born in East Melbourne, Victoria, the eldest of the three children of Kevin and Annie Hart. Educated at St John's Marist Brothers, in Hawthorn and Xavier College in Kew. He commenced study for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College between 1960 and 1967.

Ordained at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne on 22 July 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 for Mass. He was liturgy director and assistant master of ceremonies for the 1986 Papal Visit to Australia. In 1987 Hart became a parish priest and in 1996 he became Vicar General and Moderator of the curia. He has served in the parishes of North Balwyn, North Richmond and West Brunswick. In 1997, he was consecrated a bishop and made an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Archbishop of Melbourne

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 from Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square.

Within the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, he has been a member of the Permanent Committee since 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 visit in 1998 and Ad Limina visits in 2004 and 2011.

In 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 Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Controversies

During a 2009 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 eighteen years to have a priest laicised for sexually abusing children, "Better late than never."

In 2016, Hart banned the federal MP for Indi, Cathy McGowan, from speaking at a church organised event because she supports same-sex marriage and was the co-sponsor of a bill on the issue in the Australian parliament.

On 15 August 2017 the Archbishop 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.