Archbishop Francis Carroll

Archbishop Francis Carroll died Thursday, 14th March 2024 in Calvary Hospital Wagga Wagga. Archbishop Carroll, fondly known to many as Fr Francis, was born in 1930, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wagga Wagga in 1954 at St Brendan’s Catholic Church in his hometown of Ganmain.
Fr Francis served in the parishes of Griffith and Albury as Assistant Priest. He was studying in Rome during Vatican II and the Council had a great impact on him, and the pastoral letters he wrote while in Wagga and in Canberra still sound fresh today.
Fr Carroll returned to the Cathedral Parish in 1965 as Assistant Priest and began the role of Bishop Henschke’s Private Secretary and Chancellor of the Wagga Wagga Diocese. During this time, Fr Carroll was also appointed as the first Director of Catholic Education. Ordained coadjutor bishop for Bishop Henschke at the extraordinarily young age of 37, he took the motto Nova et Vetera or Treasures New and Old. Just six months later, he became bishop of Wagga Wagga when Bishop Henschke died.
As bishop, he led the Diocese as societal change started to sweep through. Long before Pope St John Paul II coined the phrase ‘The New Evangelisation’, Bishop Frank was looking for new ways of being missionary without losing anything essential of what has been handed down. As the world moved from one era to the next, he was looking for valid pastoral responses. 1n 1983, he was translated to Canberra and Goulburn Diocese and returned to Wagga upon his retirement in 2006.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.