Bishop Mark Freeman
Bishop Mark Freeman – Ninth Bishop of Ballarat
Bishop Mark Freeman was born in Launceston Tasmania in 1959. He grew up as the third of six children (3 girls, 3 boys) of Mary & George Freeman. Bishop Mark was educated by the Presentation Sisters at St Finn Barr’s School, Invermay, and by the Christian Brothers at St Patrick’s College, Launceston.
Seminary studies were undertaken at Corpus Christi College, Clayton, Victoria. While in the Seminary, Bishop Mark completed a Bachelor of Theology degree at the Melbourne College of Divinity and a Bachelor of Arts degree at Monash University. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Hobart by Archbishop Guilford Young at St Finn Barr’s Church, Invermay on August 24, 1984.
He has spent most of his life as a priest working in parishes throughout Tasmania, including 11 years on the Northwest Coast as the Moderator of the new Mersey Leven Parish. Between 2010-2022, he was the Parish Priest of Launceston in Northern Tasmania before being appointed in 2022 as Parish Priest of Bellerive-Lindisfarne on Hobart’s Eastern Shore, his last parish in Tasmania. Here, Bishop Mark has worked closely with the staff and students of the three Catholic Primary Schools and also MacKillop Catholic
College, Mornington. From 2005–2017, Bishop Mark served as Vicar General for both Archbishop Adrian Doyle and his successor Archbishop Julian Porteous. In 2023, he was appointed as Chancellor of the Archdiocese. In December 2025, Archbishop Anthony Ireland appointed Bishop Mark as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia. Between 1993 and 1996, Bishop Mark spent time in Rome studying Patristics at the Augustinianum, an incorporated institute of the Pontifical Lateran University. On his return to Australia, he was elected by the priests of the Archdiocese to be the Director of Clergy Life and Ministry. He was a member of the National Commission for Clergy Life and Ministry from 2000–2006. For most of that time Mark was the Commission’s Chair. In 2007 he was appointed to the Council for Australian Catholic Women. In 2013 he was appointed to the Council for Lay Pastoral Ministry. Since 2012, Bishop Mark presented some 23 Retreats for groups of Clergy around Australia.
On January 7, 2026, Pope Leo XIV appointed Fr Mark William Freeman as the ninth Bishop of Ballarat, succeeding Most Rev Paul Bird CSsR who has been the diocesan bishop since 2012.
Bishop Mark was ordained and installed as Bishop of Ballarat on March 19, 2026.
MOTTO and COAT OF ARMS
The Bishop has taken the motto “In Faith and Hope and Love” 1 Corinthians 13:13
 | The Bishop’s Coat of Arms as Bishop of Ballarat is of his personal Coat of Arms combined with the Coat of Arms of the diocese. |
 | The Bishop’s personal Coat of Arms show a blue field and a gold cross with crossbars at all four ends intersecting a silver eight-pointed star (from the arms of Mackillop Catholic College, Mornington, Tasmania) and on a gold chief a red lion statant (referencing both St Mark and Tasmania) holding under its front right paw a green roundel containing three flames (from the logo of St Patrick’s College, Launceston, Tasmania). The bishop’s arms are ensigned with the green galero (Roman hat) with six green fiocci (tassles) on each side.. |
 | The Diocesan Coat of Arms may be described as a blue Latin cross standing on a grassy mound with a gold nugget at its foot. |
The Bishop’s personal arms were designed by Fr. Guy Selvester and Richard d’Apice AM KCSG, President of The Australian Heraldry Society. The Diocesan arms were designed by the late A. Ian Ferrier FBA. The arms have been illustrated by Sandy Turnbull also of the Australian Heraldry Society.