William Wright

WILLIAM WRIGHT

Born : October 26, 1952
Deceased :

Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, 2011-present

Origin/meaning

The right half of the shield is continued form the arms of his predecessor Michael John Malone, see there.

The personal side of the shield carries two images. The Sun device, emblem of the Society of Jesus, acknowledges the importance of the Jesuits in Bishop Wright's early life and education. The sun, an allusion to an early mystical experience of the Trinity that St Ignatius described as like gazing into the sun, surrounds the IHS Christogram, the first letters of 'Jesus' in Greek, and the cross and nails of Christ's passion.

The open book, could be taken as a reference to the scriptures, but is in fact intended to represent the study of history that has played a large part in the bishop's life. The patron saint of church historians is Saint Bede the Venerable, whose emblem, in common with other scholar/writer saints, is the open book.

The motto In Principio Verbum is taken from the first words of John's Gospel, In the beginning [was] the Word. In its shortened form, the motto is also intended to signify the importance of the Bible: that we do not make up the Christian faith according to our own lights, but are to be challenged to respond to all that God has given to us in scripture and tradition.

Finally, the motto is intended to remind the bishop that his first duty is to preach the Good News, as the Latin will also happily bear the translation, ‘In the first place, the Word’.

---

This page is part of the

Ecclesiastical heraldry portal

Catholic heraldry Roman Catholic Arms of Popes Cardinals (2,112) Archdioceses (645) Archbishops (3,391) Dioceses (2,488) Bishops (10,168) and more Armenian Catholic Chaldean Catholic Coptic Catholic Ethiopian Catholic Hungarian Catholic Greek Catholic Maronite Catholic Ruthenian Catholic Syriac Catholic Syro-Malabar Catholic Syro-Malankara Catholic Liberal Catholic Old Catholic Free Catholic

Other Christian churches Anglican Churches Lutheran Churches Orthodox Churches Reformed Churches Unitarianism

Other Ecclesiastical heraldry per country Judaism Total pages in this section : 18,897 Total images in this section : 17,873

Literature : Image and information from https://www.mn.catholic.org.au