Bishop Michael Putney of the Queensland Diocese of Townsville, who
had been regarded as a leading candidate to be Archbishop of Brisbane
before Dr Mark Coleridge's transfer from Canberra and Goulburn last
year, has inoperable cancer.
Townsville's acting Vicar-General, Fr Michael Taylor, said on 9
January: "It is with sadness that I inform the Townsville community the
biopsy results have shown that Bishop Michael's stomach cancer has now
spread to his liver," adding that the illness was "untreatable and
incurable".
Fr Taylor said Bishop Putney, 66, had said he was completely at peace
and left his future entirely in the hands of God.
The bishop was due to
return to Townsville this week.