General News
24 April, 2025
Pope inspired Bishop
CAIRNS Bishop Joe Caddy has paid tribute to Pope Francis calling him a transformative leader and personal inspiration following news of the pontiff’s death last Monday.
Cited as one of his greatest inspirations, Bishop Caddy said he was saddened by the news of Pope Francis’ death but also convinced that he had left an indelible legacy of compassion and listening within the Catholic church.
“I was saddened by the news, it’s not surprising when an 88-year-old person with chronic illnesses dies but it’s sad because he’s been such an influential person in the world and certainly inspiring for me personally,” Father Caddy said.
“I had a couple of meetings with Pope Francis over the last 12 months since I was appointed the Bishop of Cairns.
“I met him in Port Moresby and in Rome, and one of the things that you could really see in him was that he had this amazing sense of humour, you could see his eyes glistening and he was just so quick with a joke or wordplay.
“He was just a delightful, humble, lovely man.”
Bishop Caddy said Pope Francis had inspired his ideas for what he wanted to apply in the Diocese of Cairns and had changed the way the church reached out to its community.
“A great legacy of Pope Francis will definitely be this whole notion of working as a church in a synod or in a way of mutual listening and it’s not always been the way the church has operated. It’s often been very authoritarian and ‘talk down’.
“This way of working doesn’t take anyone’s authority away, instead it allows bishops to make decisions in very consultative ways and after having really listened to people.
“I think that’s his great legacy, he has given us a new way of doing business.
“To me he was inspirational. When he was first made Pope, I was a prison chaplain at the time and I remember going into the prison and how moved many of the inmates were that the Pope had actually gone and washed the feet of people in prison as part of the Holy Thursday service. Often times prisoners are on the edge and forgotten people and he brought them right into the centre so from the earliest of times and as prison minister I was very inspired by him.”
The Bishop encouraged people in the community to keep praying for the repose of Pope Francis and to keep the cardinals involved in the Pope election process in their prayers as well to continue Pope Francis’ legacy.
