CAIRNS diocese welcomed their eighth Bishop Joseph Caddy at an episcopal ordination at St Monica’s War Memorial Cathedral last night.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge ordained Bishop Caddy surrounded by clergy from across Australia, members of the diocese and friends and family of Bishop Caddy, who all packed into St Monica’s, with thousands more watching along online.
“I feel very honoured and quite excited to be taking on this new ministry as Bishop of Cairns in Far North Queensland, which includes some of the most beautiful and vulnerable land and seas in the world,” Bishop Caddy said in a thanksgiving address to the diocese.
Bishop Caddy took his episcopate motto, “He fills the hungry with good things”, which had been a theme of his ministry in Melbourne as a priest and his hopes for the future.
“His mercy is from age to age, that the lowly will be raised, the hungry will be filled with good things,” he said.
“God will never fail us.
“And that is good news”.
Bishop Caddy, 64, has spent most of his life and ministry in Melbourne.
Sale Bishop Gregory Bennet served alongside Bishop Caddy in Melbourne and spoke of this new journey God had given him.
“We were all delighted to hear of Fr Joe’s appointment to the diocese of Cairns,” Bishop Bennet said.
“And we Victorians were particularly pleased as it meant we escaped our winter – wonderful timing Pope Francis, thank you.
“Fr Joe is of the vintage when the famous hymn… the Galilee song was sung.
“It’s a familiar refrain – so I leave my boats behind, leave them on familiar shoes, set my heart upon the deep, and follow you again my Lord.
“It speaks into our Christian lives, evoking in us a similar desire to follow, to abandon, to drop everything in response to the one who has captured our hearts.
“You have left behind your boat and now you set sail on a new venture, with God and His people
“The same God who chose Mary and commissioned her to be the Mother of His Son, now choses you Joe, and commissions you to be a shepherd to the people of Cairns.”
Bishop Caddy thanked everyone involved in the ceremony, especially his parents, siblings and all those who made journeys across the country to be there.
Bishop Caddy also thanked Fr Kerry Crowley, who has administered the diocese for the past two years.
Bishop Caddy succeeds Bishop James Foley, who led the diocese for over 30 years.
