Anthony Gerard Percy was born in Sydney in 1963, before his family moved to Cooma, NSW, in 1966. His parents Joan and John – God rest their souls – were given the gift of seven children, six of whom survived – four girls, two boys.
Bishop Tony was educated at St. Patrick’s Primary School and Monaro High School, Cooma, and finished his secondary education at St. Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill.
He completed an honours degree in Finance at the University of New South Wales, before entering St. Patrick’s College, Manly, to study for the priesthood.
He was ordained by Archbishop Francis Carroll in 1990 for the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. He wears tonight the cassock worn by the Archbishop Carroll, who accepted him as a seminarian and as a candidate for the priesthood, ordained him as Deacon and then as Priest.
His first priestly appointment was St. Mary’s Parish, Young, followed by the parishes of Queanbeyan, Ardlethan, Barellan and Ariah Park.
In 1999, he began studies in Washington, D.C., completing a doctorate in sacred theology in 2003, specialising in the social teaching of the Church, focusing on the importance of private property and private initiative for the maintenance and promotion of the common good.
He returned to Australia to be Parish Priest of Australia’s first inland city – Goulburn, NSW. He contributed significantly towards the restoration of the world’s only greenstone (a green diorite porphyrite) Cathedral – Sts. Peter & Paul’s Old Cathedral. The stone for this historic building was hewn just outside the city and is 440 million years old.
In 2008, George Cardinal Pell asked Bishop Tony to be rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Homebush, NSW. He completed this important ministry in 2014.
He returned to the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn as Vicar General in 2015, completing this appointment in 2022.
Since 2015, he has served at St. Christopher’s Cathedral, Canberra, as Parish Priest of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Wanniassa, ACT, and finally, from 2023 until 2025, as Parish Priest of St. Gregory’s Parish, Queanbeyan, NSW, a mission first established in 1839 by the first Archbishop of Sydney, Archbishop John Bede Polding.
On 11 February 2025, he was named auxiliary bishop of Sydney and titular bishop of Appiaria and consecrated as a bishop at St Mary’s Cathedral on 2 May 2025.
