His reputation preceded him to Canberra and it seemed likely then it was not a long-term appointment.

Perhaps aware of this, soon after his arrival he declared, ''My expectation is that I will be laid to rest in my great old age in the crypt of St Christopher's Cathedral.''

But unprompted he continued, ''Some people have called me ambitious.'' Indeed, many people since then, including his mother, have called him ambitious.

His move to Brisbane has been widely anticipated in church circles. Even critics of Archbishop Coleridge have argued he is well qualified for that position.

Born in Melbourne on September 25, 1948, Archbishop Coleridge was ordained a priest in 1974 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne.

He was an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne when appointed to Canberra and Goulburn.

He was embarrassed in 2007 when a book review he wrote for The Australian newspaper on The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, was found to include six very similar passages to those of an earlier review by British literary critic Terry Eagleton. Archbishop Coleridge said he accepted the blame lay with him.

''Had I been aware of the danger of plagiarism, I would have asked either that the piece be withdrawn or that it be sent back to me for re-writing,'' he said in March 2007.

His relationship with The Canberra Times soured further after our report of April 29, 2009, of a visiting US priest, Father Wade Menezes, who told a mission of Canberra's St Christopher's parish that swine flu and a recent earthquake in Mexico had been the judgement of God for that country's abortion laws.

The visiting priest came at the suggestion of Archbishop Coleridge.

He later incurred the wrath of the Little Company of Mary Health Care by effectively thwarting the order's sale of Canberra's Calvary Hospital to the ACT government.

The sale was agreed in principle but negotiations collapsed in February 2010 when the sisters withdrew from the sale after Archbishop Coleridge made clear to them the hospital's sale would likely meet significant delays in achieving Vatican approval.

Meanwhile, the financial pressures which he inherited continued as did a marked decline in regular Mass attendance.

Archbishop Coleridge said last year the archdiocese was poor though not insolvent.

He says normally the Catholic Church in Australia was asset rich and cash poor.

But Canberra and Goulburn tended to be asset poor and cash poor.

''I might add that there is no well concealed bottomless pit of Church funds from which we can draw if necessary.''

In November last year he called an assembly of his archdiocese to consider numerous challenges facing the Church.

Many of the recommendations of that assembly are still to be implemented but it is clear fewer Masses will be available, particularly where attendance is small.

In 1984 he completed a Licence in Sacred Scripture at the Biblicum in Rome. For the next six months he studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Jerusalem.

He returned to Australia to the staff of Catholic Theological College Melbourne.

In 1988 he returned to Rome to complete his Doctorate in Sacred Scripture.

He was lecturer and deputy master at Catholic Theological College from 1992.

From the end of 1994 he was the official media spokesman for the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

In 1998 he returned to Rome and worked in the Secretariat of State, Vatican City and in December 2001 became the Pope's Chaplain.

In May 2002 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Other appointments include: member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, chairman of the Roman Missal Editorial Committee of the International Commission for English in the Liturgy; chairman of the International Commission for the Preparation of an English-language Lectionary; chairman of the Australian Bishops' Commission for Liturgy; and most recently Member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.