HIS role was ordained from above but the announcement of Canberra/Goulburn’s seventh Catholic archbishop on Thursday left many scratching their heads.
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“I know nothing about him,” Mary Queen of apostles parish priest Fr Dermid McDermott told the Post on Friday.
“It’s a mystery.”
“Him” is the serving Bishop of Sale, Christopher Prowse announced by Pope Francis as the archdiocese’s next archbishop on Thursday evening.
The almost 60-year-old will be installed to the role at a ceremony at St Christopher’s Cathedral on November 19.
Fr McDermott has welcomed the appointment, saying it would end an “18-month holding pattern” since Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s departure for Brisbane in May, 2012. Since that time, Monsignor John Woods has been administrator of the archdiocese.
“There are matters only an archbishop can decide; there are limits to the authority of an administrator but he has been able to make some decisions,” Fr McDermott said.
“We have been in a holding pattern for 18 months and the consultors are working on a list of priorities to give to the new archbishop.”
These will include Catholic education and its relationship to the parishes and how the church provides priests into the future.
The latter could include a review of the way parishes operate.
The Goulburn Mission currently covers a large area, including Goulburn district villages and stretching out to Braidwood with two permanent priests, and part time assistants retired priest Fr Laurie Bent and The Reverend Joe Blackwell.
Fr McDermott said Msgr John Woods had done an “excellent” job in the interim.
Bishop Prowse comes into new territory, especially in sporting terms.
His father, Frank played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League and he remains an avowed Hawks supporter.
But his credentials should hold him in good stead. Born in East Melbourne in 1953, the third of six children, he was educated at Catholic schools, served as an altar boy and enjoyed drama and public speaking.
He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Werribee and Clayton for seven years until 1980 when he was ordained at St Patrick’s College, Melbourne.
He served in several parishes around Melbourne before being ordained Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in May, 2003.
Here he stayed until 2009 when he was appointed Bishop of Sale.
Bishop Prowse has taken a strong interest in interfaith and indigenous issues through his various roles. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him a member of the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue. He has also been the Episcopal Vicar for Justice and Social Services and for Health.
The Archbishop-elect visited the Archdiocese on Friday for a media conference in Canberra and for a “show and tell,” as one commentator described.
Msgr John Woods was unavailable for comment on Friday. But in a statement issued on Thursday he welcomed Bishop Prowse’s appointment with “joy and gratitude to God”.
“We pray for Archbishop-Elect Christopher Prowse as we look forward to his installation,” he said.
“May his pastoral ministry in Christ’s name engage all the faithful of the Archdiocese, other Christians, adherents to other religions and all people of good will.”
Fr McDermott could not say when the new leader would be officially welcomed to Goulburn. All going well, Archbishop Prowse could be blessing Sts Peter and Paul’s Old Cathedral crowning glory – its spire - when it’s mounted later this year.
