Contemplating a career in the Australian diplomatic service, he graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in French.

[2] After some time in Rome devoted to doctoral studies and another stint in Melbourne, in 1997 he was appointed to a position in the Roman Curia at the Secretariat of State, where he spent four years.

[3] On 3 May 2002, Pope John Paul II appointed Coleridge as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

[4] On 29 December 2011 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for a five-year renewable term.

[6] The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference elected Coleridge one of its two delegates to the Synod on the Family in Rome in October 2015.