CAPUCHIN Friar Joseph Oudeman was beginning to pack his bags to leave Brisbane when he received a phone call advising him that the Pope wanted to make him an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese.
The 60 year-old friar, who will become the first Dutch-born bishop in Australian Church history, said he thought he was being transferred to Sydney when the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Francesco Canalini, phoned him on November 26.
‘I got quite a shock when the nuncio rang,’ Bishop-elect Oudeman said. ‘I wasn’t even consulted.’
The official announcement of the episcopal appointment was made in Rome last weekend.
‘It is very hard to put into words,’ he said when asked for his reaction last week. ‘I accept the appointment with gratitude and trepidation and look forward to the blessings and challenge of this new ministry.’
Bishop-elect Oudeman will succeed Bishop John Gerry, 75, whose retirement has been accepted by the Pope.
He will be episcopally ordained on February 11.
