Malcolm Patrick McMahon, OP, KC*HS (born 14 June 1949) is an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2014, he has been the ninth

Archbishop of Liverpool The Archbishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. The archdiocese covers an area of of the west of the C ...

. Previously, he was Bishop of Nottingham from 2000 to 2014.

Early life and ministry

Malcolm McMahon was born in London, the second of three brothers and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology before working for London Transport. In 1976, he decided upon an ecclesiastical career and joined the Dominican Order. Making his religious profession in December 1977, McMahon studied philosophy at Blackfriars, Oxford and theology at Heythrop College. He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Basil Hume on 26 June 1982. He served as chaplain of

Leicester Polytechnic De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was ta ...

for the 1986/7 academic year, whence he served in a London parish. McMahon later became Parish Priest of St Dominic's in Newcastle upon Tyne (1989), and of St Dominic's in

Haverstock Hill Haverstock is an area of the London Borough of Camden: specifically the east of Belsize Park, north of Chalk Farm and west of Kentish Town. It is centred on Queens Crescent and Malden Road. Gospel Oak is to the north, Camden Town to the so ...

(1990). He was elected

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

of the Dominicans' English Province in both 1992 and 1996. In 2000, he was elected prior of Blackfriars, Oxford.

Episcopal career

Bishop of Nottingham

On 7 November 2000, McMahon was appointed Bishop of Nottingham by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 8 December from Bishop James Joseph McGuinness, with Bishops

Victor Guazzelli Victor Guazzelli (19 March 1920 – 1 June 2004) was a Roman Catholic bishop. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster (1970–1996) and held the titular see of Lindisfarne (1970–2004). He was known a ...

and Patrick O'Donoghue serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

, in the Cathedral Church of St. Barnabas. McMahon's name had been mentioned as a possible successor to Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as

Archbishop of Westminster The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the metropolitan of the Province of Westminster, chief metropolitan of England and Wales and, as a matter of custom, is elected presid ...

and to Kevin McDonald as

Archbishop of Southwark The Archbishop of Southwark (''Br'' �sʌðɨk is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark in England. As such he is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Southwark. The archdiocese has ...

. He serves as Chair of the Department of Education and Formation of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Chair of the Catholic Education Service, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Trust of England & Wales, Ecclesiastical Advisor to the Knights of Saint Columba, and President of the British Section of Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement.

Archbishop of Liverpool

On 21 March 2014 Pope Francis appointed Bishop McMahon as the ninth Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Liverpool. Archbishop McMahon was enthroned at

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, officially known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King and locally nicknamed "Paddy's Wigwam", is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Li ...

on 1 May 2014, the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, before a congregation of three thousand. During his tenure in Liverpool, in 2017 and 2018, Archbishop McMahon ordained priests for the

Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter ( la, Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri; FSSP) is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians which is in communion with the Holy See. The society was founded in 19 ...

St Mary's Church, Warrington St Mary's Church, or St Mary's Priory, is in the town centre of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, and is an active Catholic church. The parish ...

, utilising the pre-1970 rite of ordination.

Views

Archbishop McMahon has said that there is no doctrinal reason preventing priests from having wives: He considers clerical celibacy as a "spiritual necessity". In a pastoral letter read in the Diocese of Nottingham on Sunday 25 October 2009, then Bishop McMahon said: He also supports the role of women in Catholic Church, but is against the ordination of women as priests: In the same pastoral letter, Bishop McMahon said: In April 2010, Bishop McMahon appeared on the BBC's ''Hard Talk'' to discuss the Church's response to the sexual abuse of children. He defended the work of the Holy See and the Church in England and Wales on this and expressed the hope that the Vatican would become more open and transparent in its treatment of victims and perpetrators.

Personal info

In his free time, the Archbishop enjoys playing golf and listening to live music and opera but also admits to being a fan of Norah Jones.

Portrait

On 21 March 2017, Hardman Portrait published a portrait of Archbishop McMahon to be displayed to the public in the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Crypt. Archbishop McMahon is depicted in choir dress, mirroring the black and white portrait of his predecessor Archbishop Richard Downey. The portrait is one of a series of works depicting current members of Liverpool society alongside their predecessors.

References

External links

*
Archdiocese of LiverpoolDiocese of Nottingham
--> {{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, Malcolm Patrick 1949 births Living people Alumni of Blackfriars, Oxford Alumni of Heythrop College Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology Roman Catholic archbishops of Liverpool Dominican bishops Roman Catholic clergy from London English Dominicans English mechanical engineers Roman Catholic bishops of Nottingham People associated with De Montfort University 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United Kingdom British Roman Catholic archbishops English Roman Catholic archbishops