Anthony Fisher

Anthony Fisher OP, DD, BA (Hons), LLB, BTheol (Hons), DPhil, is a friar of the Order of Preachers (‘Dominicans’), an Auxkiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney and Titular Bishop of Buruni. He was born in 1960 at the Mater Hospital in Crows Nest Sydney where his aunt Sr M. Carmel Fisher was a nursing sister of the Sisters of Mercy. He is the eldest of five children born to Gloria Maguregui — a Spanish Basque who migrated with her family to Australia from China and the Philippines in the 1950s — and Colin Fisher, a pharmacist from Ashfield, Sydney. He was baptised at St Therese Church, Lakemba, and attended the parish school in 1965 and 1966.

The Fisher family lived in Belmore, Canterbury and Wiley Park before moving to Longueville and Manly. Bishop Fisher attended St Michael’s Primary School Lane Cove, Holy Cross College at Ryde, and Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview where he was dux of the College in 1977. Thereafter he studied in the University of Sydney for six years, where he received an honours degree in History and a Law degree before practicing law in a city firm in Sydney. From this time he was also involved in various pro-life groups.

In 1985 he entered the Dominicans — a religious order dedicated to preaching the Catholic faith in the context of a life of study, prayer and community. He studied for the priesthood in Melbourne, receiving an honours degree in theology. He worked for a time at Uniya, a centre for social research in Kings Cross, on immigration and refugee issues, and at Holy Name Parish in Wahroonga, Sydney. He was ordained a priest in Sydney on 14 September 1991.

Thereafter Bishop Fisher undertook doctoral studies in bioethics at the University of Oxford until 1995. His D.Phil. was granted for a thesis on Justice in the Allocation of Healthcare. His academic life has included lecturing in several countries and extensively throughout Australia, and publishing many books and articles on bioethics and morality. From 1995 to 2000 he was a lecturer in the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.

From 2000 to 2003 he was the foundation director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family — a post-graduate pontifical institute with nine campuses around the world. The principal work of the Institute is in teaching and research at the cutting edge of questions concerning respect for human life and the dignity of the person, and support for marriage and family life. Bishop Fisher is still a Professor of Bioethics and Moral Theology in the Institute. He is also Deputy-Chancellor of the Catholic Institute of Sydney and Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia.

In the Dominican Order Bishop Fisher was the Master of Students (seminarians) and Socius (deputy) to the Provincial. In the Melbourne Church he was Episcopal Vicar for Healthcare, spokesman for the Church on matters of ethics, visiting lecturer in the Catholic Theological College, and secretary to the Senate of Priests.

In the Sydney Church he is now Episcopal Vicar for Life and Health. In the wider Church Bishop Fisher is a member of the Australian Bishops' Committee for Doctrine and Morals and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

His community involvements have included being Chaplain to the Parliament of Victoria, a member of the Infertility Treatment Authority of Victoria, chair or member of several hospital ethics committees, and a chaplain to various organisations such as the Order of Malta. He has also had various engagements in parish life and the pastoral care of the handicapped and the dying.

He is presently the Parish Priest of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Watson's Bay.

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