Bishop Michael Morrissey is the ninth Bishop of Geraldton in Western Australia and is the first Bishop of Geraldton who was born, raised, ordained and ministered in the Diocese.
Born in St John of God Hospital, Geraldton, on 9 September 1952, Bishop Morrissey grew up on a remote station in Yalgoo. He received his primary school education, with his three other siblings, via Correspondence and School of the Air Lessons supervised by his mother, Mrs Margaret Morrissey.
He received his secondary education at Aquinas College in Perth, while enrolled as a boarder.
On his graduation, he continued his studies at St Charles Seminary in Perth, as well as at St Francis Xavier Seminary, Adelaide, South Australia.
On the 31st of January 1981 he was then Ordained a Priest by Bishop Barry James Hickey, the 7th Bishop of Geraldton, in St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Geraldton.
From 1981 - 1984 he worked as Assistant Priest in the Parishes of Bluff Point and Port Hedland. In 1985 his first appointment as a Parish Priest was in Karratha, in the Pilbara Region of the Diocese of Geraldton, where he remained until 1992.
With a new appointment he relocated to Geraldton to be Cathedral Administrator of St Francis Xavier Cathedral and remained so until 2007.
In 2007 Bishop Bianchini appointed him as Parish Priest of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Mullewa, to which he was grateful to be returning to the serenity of the bush. Mullewa was a little like the territory of his childhood home, which lay only 126kms east of Mullewa and part of his new parish.
Seven years later, in 2014 he returned again to Geraldton as Administrator to the Cathedral, continuing in this role until his appointment as Bishop of Geraldton.
From 1983 until 2016 Bishop Morrissey also served as an Army Chaplain, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
His Episcopal Ordination was celebrated on the eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Wednesday 28 June, at the Nagle Catholic College Gymnasium, in Geraldton due to St Francis Xavier Cathedral being closed for interior renovations. Bishop Morrissey adopted as his motto "Trust in the Lord" from Proverbs 3:5.