Michael Kennedy (bishop)

Kennedy was a staunch defender of Cardinal George Pell despite the cardinal's conviction for child sexual abuse crimes. Those convictions were later unanimously quashed by the High Court of Australia in 2020.

Kennedy has been a strong advocate for standing with and providing redress for victims of clerical abuse, particularly in the Diocese of Armidale. In a piece in The Catholic Weekly, written in 2016, he praised the courage and integrity of victims coming forwards, adding it was "crucial that the Church truly hear their cry". In the same piece, he slammed the Catholic Church's response to responding to clerical abuse, saying it was "completely inept".

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI announced he had appointed Kennedy as the 10th Bishop of Armidale, following the retirement of Bishop Luc Julian Matthys. He was ordained as a bishop and installed on 9 February 2012, in a two hour long ceremony at Saints Mary and Joseph Catholic Cathedral in Armidale. His ordination was consecrated by Bishop Matthys and co-consecrated by Archbishop of Sydney George Cardinal Pell and Bishop of Wagga Wagga Gerard Hanna. The ceremony was attended by 1000 people, including 90 priests, 29 bishops and two cardinals.

In December 2012, Kennedy was appointed the Apostolic Administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes, becoming the third person to take over the role following the resignation of Bishop Christopher Henry Toohey in 2009. He remained in this role until July 2014 when Columba Macbeth-Green was ordained and installed as the new bishop of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes.

Kennedy was into the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga on 14 August 1999. He was appointed assistant parish priest in Griffith for the first two years of his ministry. In 2001, he becaem the rector of St Francis’ Residential College at Charles Sturt University. In 2004, he was appointed assistant priest in Albury and in 2007, became the parish priest of Leeton, where he served until he was appointed Bishop of Armidale in 2011.

After completing high school, he obtained a Diploma in Education and taught at Xavier High School in Albury for three years. He entered Vianney College, the seminary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga in 1992. He would continue his studies in Rome, obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide and a Diploma of Mariology from the Marianum.

Michael Robert Kennedy (born 13 May 1968) is the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Armidale. At the time of his ordination, he was the youngest bishop to ever be in charge of the Diocese.

Kennedy was born in Wagga Wagga in 1968 and was the youngest of the nine children of John Kennedy and his wife Fidelma (nee Madden). He received his primary education in a small, two-class country school at San Isidore, a small rural suburb outside of Wagga Wagga. He later attended the Wagga Christian Brothers High School.