Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In his address from the balcony, Pope Francis asked the people of the world to pray for him, and the Bishop of Wagga Wagga, Gerard Hanna, agreed that it was very important to do this. He said: 'We need to pray for the Pope and for the church. This is a critical time in his life and that of the church.' Bishop Hanna said the election brings with it a 'fresh vision' to the position and to the faith globally and noted:

He is obviously someone, from what I've read and seen, who can relate to people and nations. He is notable in his own city for the humble way he conducts himself and reaches out to all, the everyday, ordinary person and especially to the poor. He is well suited to the role. He has a strong social conscience.

The Riverina has a significant Catholic presence. In the 2011 census the Wagga Wagga Catholic diocese, which covers 62,160 square kilometres—incorporating much of the Riverina electorate—had 63,367 Catholics of the 196,055 total population in that area. The diocese includes 27 primary schools and five high schools. The bishop has a lot of territory to cover and a large flock to tend. It is a microcosm of sorts of the church as a whole, with Pope Francis, the Lord's Shepherd, looking after 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. From what we have seen and heard, the new Pope will reach out to many more people besides, given his commitment to the poor and the down-trodden.

The name he selected for his papacy is popular amongst many Catholics in the Wagga Wagga diocese. I attended the St Patrick's Catholic debutante ball at Ganmain on Friday night, where the Pope's election was the subject of considerable discussion. All agreed the name 'Francis' was a good choice. That is understandable in the Riverina and especially at Ganmain, given that one of the town's most famous sons is the Most Reverend Francis Carroll, a now retired Australian metropolitan archbishop, who was the fifth Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn, serving between 1983 until his retirement in 2006. He was ordained a priest in Saint Brendan's Catholic Church, Ganmain, in 1954 and became a bishop at the age of just 37, serving the Wagga Wagga diocese from 1968 to 1983. He was and still is greatly loved and respected across the Riverina, and many Riverina baby boys of the era when he was the local priest and bishop, me included, were given Francis as a first or second Christian name in honour of Father Frank, as many still affectionately refer to him in Ganmain and district. Perhaps the same naming trend will be done on a much wider scale now that the Argentinian Jesuit cardinal priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been installed as the 266th pope, head of the church, and sovereign of the Vatican city state, and taken the name Francis. In doing so the new pope took the name of the Middle Ages saint, Saint Francis of Assisi, because he was especially concerned with the wellbeing of the poor, and that is to be commended. We all wish the new pope all the very best. May God bless him in his work, not just amongst the Catholics of the world but indeed in his global mission throughout his entire papacy.

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