John Mackey (Roman Catholic bishop)

John Mackey DD, CBE, (11 January 1918 – 20 January 2014) was the ninth Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand (1974-1983).

Born in Bray, County Wicklow in Ireland, he came at the age of six to New Zealand with his widowed mother to live with Father John O’Byrne, who was his mother’s brother and parish priest of Epsom. He received his secondary education at Sacred Heart College, Auckland and studied for the priesthood at New Zealand’s National Seminary, Holy Cross College, Mosgiel. He was ordained a priest on 23 November 1941 in Auckland and as a bishop in Rome by Pope Paul VI on 30 June 1974. Mackey was Bishop of Auckland from 1974 until his retirement due to a recurring health problem in 1983.

Previously he had been Professor of Church History at Holy Cross College and lecturer in Church History at the University of Otago. He gained a doctorate in education and a Master’s degree in history and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a Graduate Scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, studying there for two years before returning to take up the appointment of Director of Education for the Auckland diocese. With the passage of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975, while he was Bishop of Auckland, Mackey played a key role in the integration of Catholic schools into the state system, developing a close working relationship with the Minister of Education, Merv Wellington. Another important event of his episcopate was the creation of the Diocese of Hamilton out of the area of the Auckland diocese located south of Auckland city.

In the earlier years of his retirement, Mackey was a guest lecturer in New Zealand and abroad and conducted occasional courses in Church History at Holy Cross College. He supervised the preparation of the new faith education programmes for Catholic secondary schools on behalf of the New Zealand bishops. He was the author of three books. Until shortly before his death, Mackey continued to write on a variety of subjects, including reviews and reflections for Catholic publications. His obsequies occurred on 27 January 2014 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland in which his remains were interred near those of one of his predecessors, George Michael Lenihan OSB (1858-1910), fifth Catholic Bishop of Auckland (1896-1910), the only other bishop buried in the cathedral