Michael Dooley: Dunedin Bishop on the death of Pope Francis

Tributes are flooding in after the death of Pope Francis.

The Pope passed overnight at the age of 88, following a stroke, coma and subsequent heart failure - after a battle with double pneumonia.

A period of mourning is now underway before his funeral and burial.

Dunedin Bishop Michael Dooley joined the Afternoons team to discuss his meeting with the deceased Catholic Church head.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
Now we have the Catholic Bishop of Duneda and Michael
Dooley with us, and great pleasure to have you on
the program. Bishop Michael Dooley, you actually met Pope Francis.
What was that like?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, that was back in twenty nineteen. There were five
of us New Zealand Catholic bishops visiting Rome doing a
report and we had an air and twenty minutes with
Pope Francis. So it was definitely the highlight of their
our ten days in Rome to actually meet him face
to face and take part in the conversation. So it's

(00:51):
a very warm, very warm personality and made us feel
very welcome. So it was a great experience.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Can you take us back to that time? So it's
an hour twenty what's happening in the build up to
meeting the Pope? You know, what are you doing? And
then what is it actually like when you're there?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, it's we met in the Apostolic Palace, which has
a whole lot of waiting rooms, but it's like an
old European Palace. So we went from waiting room to
waiting room, and the tension was building up. So by
the time we all got to actually meet the pope here,

(01:30):
we were quite tense. I think we're all a little
bit awestruck. But we sat down and he said, look,
he said, ask anything you want, and we're just all
here as sort of brothers, he said, So he put
us at our ease at the right at the start.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Did you know what you wanted to ask him? Had
you planned anything in advance?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
I think not really. No, each of us had sort
of different things we'd say about New Zealand, but he
really just started it off by it. And his first
sort of question was about the church in New Zealand,
and especially about welcoming and being hospitable of people. So
that was what he started off with, which sort of

(02:11):
set the tone.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Was there something that he did as pope in particular
that you think is this is the question I'm asking
for people listening right now, and I'll ask it of
you that has resonated with you or will be a
particularly strong part of his legacy.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Well, there are many things, but just recently with the
Easter liturgies and on Thursday, we have the washing of feet,
and I think it was a massive change in protocol
in practice when for his first Holy Thursday liturgy he

(02:51):
went to a prison and washed three feet the feet
of prisoners and not all like there were Muslim prisoners
and women prisoners. And I think that act, you know, really, yeah,
it was quite amazing. And he visited prison a few
days ago, I think, coming to do that. Yeah, yeah, So,

(03:13):
and you know that I can't imagine the effort that
he would have had to do with him being feeling
so well that he was determined to keep on doing things.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
How much do you think he changed the Catholic Church
while he was the leader.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Look, I think he will leave a legacy. And I
think one of the main things that he wanted us
to do and that he sort of set a process
in place, what he called citidelity is about having being
a listening church. So rather than as he said, speaking
all the time and sort of telling people what to do,

(03:51):
that was to actually listen, to stop and listen. And
so he put into place, you know, a program really
for us to follow with that. So I think think
you'll that that change will continue on as.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Far as the next pope is concerned that do you
think I think that it is more likely it will
be someone who who shares those same values of humility
or is it a little bit like in politics that
you seem to swing from you know, someone like Obama
to someone like Trump, that is there the chance that

(04:27):
will swing in a more conservative direction. As far as
who the next pope is.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Look, I have no idea at all who the next
pope will be but the cardinals who gather about one
hundred and twenty, but they will be gathering very prayerfully,
and like there's always politics that go on. But I
would I'd really hope, you know, and I've got confidence
that they will elect someone who, you know, who will

(04:53):
continue on that legacy. So yeah, I would hope that
that would happen.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
All right, Well, thank you so much for your time
this afternoon. That is Leadorship Michael Dooley of DNEED and
we appreciate you being on the program.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Thank you very much, Jim.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
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