A former Canberra Archbishop Francis Patrick Carroll has died aged 93 after nearly 70 years of service in the Catholic Church.
The progressive church leader was ordained a Bishop in 1968 in Wagga Wagga, becoming one of the youngest bishops in the world at age 36.
He went on to become the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn from 1983 until his retirement in 2006.
Archbishop Carroll was born on September 9, 1930 in the town of Ganmain in the NSW Riverina region. He was the second of seven children of Patrick and Rose Carroll.
He started his schooling in Ganmain and transferred to Sydney for secondary schooling at De La Salle Brothers in Marrickville.
He studied at the St Columba's Seminary, Springwood, and St Patrick's Seminary, Manly.
He was ordained a priest in July 1954 at Ganmain by Bishop Francis Augustine Henschke, the Bishop of Wagga Wagga.
Known as Father Frank to his friends, he brought the humble nature of his country upbringing into his working life.
Former Auxiliary Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn Patrick Power worked closely with the "unpretentious" Archbishop Carroll.
"He was so much a man of the people. He was a country boy at heart, and really never lost sight of that," Bishop Power said.
"The fact that he became a Bishop and an Archbishop, he was still very close to the ordinary people. Many of them just refer to him as Father Francis, rather than any lofty titles."
Archbishop Carroll was ordained after the Catholic Church went through significant reforms through the Second Vatican Council in 1962 to 1965.
He got behind the spirit of modernisation that this council inspired.
"I often quote the opening words of the Second Vatican Council: he joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, these too are the joys in the hopes of all the people of God. And certainly he live that out himself," Bishop Power said.
At a time when the Catholic Church was still isolationist in outlook, Archbishop Carroll worked with the Anglican Bishop George Browning to bring together members of different Christian churches in Canberra.
Archbishop Carroll was the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference from 2000 to 2006.
Bishop Power said he was respected by the other bishops and they knew they would be more successful in getting an item through a meeting if he was on-side.
"He worked collaboratively with people of all different persuasions and in a way that he was an equal. He saw himself, as we all should, as a child of God and a brother of Jesus. And that's how he related to all of his brothers and sisters in faith."
Archbishop Carroll suffered from ill health in recent years and was living at Loreto Home of Compassion in Wagga Wagga. He died on March 14, 2024.
Funeral liturgies will be held at three locations:
- St Brendan's Church, Ganmain, 7pm, March 19, 2024
- St Michael's Cathedral, Wagga Wagga, Mass 11am, March 20, 2024
- St Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra, vigil 7.30pm, March 20, 2024
Funeral Mass will be celebrated at St Christopher's Cathedral in Canberra at 11 am on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Internment in the crypt of St Christopher's Cathedral will occur at the conclusion of Mass.
