Brian Gregory Mascord was born in Newcastle NSW on 30 January 1959—the eldest son of Ron and Margaret Mascord (nee Callinan) and older brother to John. He grew up in the parish of St Mary Immaculate Charlestown (now part of the MacKillop Parish incorporating Charlestown, Gateshead and Redhead.) Through the gift of his grandparents, Brian has a close relationship with his extended family.
“For all things give thanks.” 1 THESSALONIANS 5:18
His primary schooling was with the Sisters of St Joseph Lochinvar at St Joseph’s Catholic School Charlestown and his high schooling took place at St Pius X College Adamstown—a school that was staffed by diocesan priests of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. After completing his HSC, he achieved a Diploma of Teaching at the Catholic College of Education in Castle Hill NSW. He taught for six years in primary schools in the Diocese until he began his studies for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College in Manly (1986–1990) where he was awarded a Bachelor of Theology. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle on 31 October 1992 at Sacred Heart Church (now Cathedral) in Hamilton by Bishop Leo Clarke. From 1993 to 1996 he worked as an assistant priest and administrator at the parishes of Taree, Hamilton and Stockton. He then served as parish priest at the parishes of Cardiff (1997–2002), East Maitland and Morpeth (2002–2005), and Maitland, Lochinvar and Rutherford (2005–2007).
From 2007 to 2018 he was the vocations director for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. During this time has also served as administrator at the parishes of Nelson Bay (2008–2012), Mayfield and Mayfield West (2014–2016), and parish priest of the MacKillop Parish (2017–2018).
He was a long-standing member of the Council of Priests (2006–2018) and was a member of the diocesan Clergy Life and Ministry Team (2013–2018) and the Australian Council for Clergy Life and Ministry (2015–2017). From 2012 to 2018 he was the vicar general of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
On 30 November 2017 His Holiness Pope Francis appointed him as the fifth bishop of Wollongong. On 22 February 2018 Bishop Brian was ordained the bishop of Wollongong at the WIN Entertainment Centre in the presence of 4,500 people including 34 bishops and over 110 clergy.
APPOINTMENTS
Member of the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry (Australian Catholic Bishops Conference)
Bishops’ liaison for the Catholic Conference of Religious Educators in State Schools (NSW & ACT)
The bishop’s Coat of Arms and Motto (known as “Ecclesiastical heraldry”) refers to the use of heraldry within the Church for dioceses and clergy. Initially used to mark documents, ecclesiastical heraldry evolved as a system for identifying people and dioceses. In the Catholic Church, most bishops, including the pope, have a personal coat of arms and motto.
Ecclesiastical heraldry differs notably from other heraldry in the use of special insignia around the shield to indicate rank in the Church. The most prominent of these insignia is the low crowned, wide brimmed ecclesiastical hat, commonly the Roman galero. The colour and ornamentation of this hat indicate rank. Cardinals are famous for the “red hat”, but bishops are usually the green hat. In the Catholic Church, unless a new bishop has a family coat of arms, he typically adopts within his shield symbols that indicate his interests or past service. The display of a cross behind the shield is restricted to bishops as a mark of their dignity. A motto is a short phrase usually appearing below the shield as a statement of belief.
Pilgrim’s hat (galero) and tassles (fiocchi)
Surmounting the episcopal shield is the pilgrim’s hat—the heraldic emblem for all prelates and priests of the Latin Rite of the Church. The green colour represents the rank of bishop. For this rank and office there are six tassels suspended on either side of the hat in a pyramidal style.
Cross
The display of a cross behind the shield is restricted to bishops as a mark of their dignity. The cross of an ordinary bishop has a single horizontal bar or traverse (i.e. latin cross).
Grapes and wheat
The grapes and wheat represent the Eucharistic symbols, for we are called to be the Body of Christ in our world. They also recognise the rural nature of both the Diocese of Wollongong and Bishop Mascord’s home diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
Open Book
The open book represents the Scriptures. We hear the Word of God and take that word with us into the world. The open book also represents Bishop Mascord’s teaching background.
Jug, bowl and towel
The jug, bowl and towel are reminders that Jesus has given as an example of service and calls us to mission and service in his ways—to wash the feet of others.
Southern Cross
The Southern Cross is a reminder that, as Australians, we do all this under the Cross.
Motto
The motto is a short phrase usually appearing below the shield as a statement of belief. Bishop Mascord has taken as his motto, “For all things give thanks” (1 Thess 5:18).
Account means the account held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited.
Agreement means this Direct Debit Request Service Agreement between you and us, including the direct debit request.
Business day means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a listed public holiday.
Debit day means the day that payment is due.
Debit payment means a particular transaction where a debit is made, according to your direct debit request.
Direct debit request means the Direct Debit Request between us and you.
Us and we and our means the Catholic Development Fund.
You means the customer(s) who signed the direct debit request. Your financial institution is the financial institution where you hold the account that you have authorised us to arrange to debit.
Debiting your account
By submitting a direct debit request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account according to the agreement we have with you.
We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account:
As authorised in the direct debit request; if the debit day falls on a day that is not a business day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following or previous business day. If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, please check with your financial
Changes by you
If you wish to stop or defer a debit payment you must write to us at least 5 business days before the next debit day.
This notice should be given to us in the first instance.
Your obligations
It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made.
If there are insufficient clear funds available in your account to meet a debit payment:
you or your account may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
you or your account may be charged a fee to reimburse us for charges we have incurred for the failed transaction;
you must arrange for the payment to be made by another method
Please check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.
Dispute
If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account you should call us on (02) 4222 2444 and confirm the details in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly.
Accounts
You should check:
with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your accounts offered by financial
your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
with your financial institution before completing the direct debit request if you have any queries about how to complete the direct debit
Warning: if the account number you have quoted is incorrect, you may be charged a fee to reimburse our costs in correcting any deductions from:
an account you do not have authority to operate; or
an account you do not
Confidentiality
We will keep any information (including your account details) in your direct debit request confidential.
We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you, do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.
However, we may use your contact details to provide information about the fund. Should you wish this not to be the case, please advise the fund in writing.
Disclosure statement
The Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Wollongong (the Fund) is required by law to make the following disclosure: The Fund is not prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority nor has it been examined or approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. An investor in the Fund will not receive the benefit of the financial claims scheme or the depositor protection provisions in the Banking Act 1959 (Cth). Investments in the Fund are intended to be a means for investors to support the charitable, religious and education works of the Diocese of Wollongong and for whom the consideration of profit are not of primary relevance in the investment decision. The investments that the Fund offers are not subject to the usual protections for investors under the Corporations Act (Cth) or regulation by Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Investors may be unable to get some or all of their money back when the investor expects or at all and any investment of the Fund are not comparable to investments with banks, finance companies or fund managers. The Fund’s identification statement may be viewed at www.cdfwollongong.org.au or by contacting the Fund. The Fund does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence.
Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.
