Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga

Diocese of Wagga Wagga Dioecesis Corvopolitanus
St Michael's Cathedral, Wagga Wagga; consecrated in ca. 1859
Location
Country	Australia
Territory	Riverina regions of New South Wales
Metropolitan	Archdiocese of Sydney
Coordinates	35°06′26″S 147°22′21″E / 35.10722°S 147.37250°E
Statistics
Area	62,160 km^2 (24,000 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 1999) 206,000 62,000 ( 30.1%)
Parishes	31
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Latin Rite
Established	28 July 1917
Cathedral	St Michael's, Wagga Wagga
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Christopher Prowse
Metropolitan Archbishop	Anthony Fisher OP
Emeritus Bishops	Gerard Joseph Hanna
Website
Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga is a Latin Rite suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Sydney, established in 1917, covering the Riverina region of New South Wales in Australia.

St Michael's Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Wagga Wagga. On 12 September 2016, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Gerard Hanna due to health and age concerns and appointed Christopher Prowse to be the Apostolic Administrator.

Bishops of Wagga Wagga

The following individuals have been elected as Roman Catholic Bishop of Wagga Wagga:^[1]

Order	Name	Date enthroned	Reign ended	Term of office	Reason for term end
1	Joseph Wilfrid Dwyer	14 March 1918	11 October 1939	8 years, 235 days	Died in office
2	Francis Augustin Henschke	16 November 1939	24 February 1968	28 years, 100 days	Died in office
3	Francis Patrick Carroll	24 February 1968	25 June 1983	15 years, 121 days	Elevated to Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
4	William John Brennan	16 Jan 1984	5 February 2002	18 years, 20 days	Resigned and appointed Bishop Emeritus of Wagga Wagga
5	Gerard Joseph Hanna	5 February 2002	12 September 2016	14 years, 315 days	Retired due to reaching age 75 and due to ill health and appointed Bishop Emeritus of Wagga Wagga
6	Christopher Prowse	12 September 2016	present	95 days

Cathedral

Located in Johnston Street, Wagga Wagga, St Michael's Cathedral is a large Gothic Revival styled sandstone cathedral built in two stages. The foundation stone of the first stage of the building comprising the nave and tower base, was laid on 26 April 1885. Completed between 1885 and 1887, the parish church was commissioned by Father Patrick Dunne and designed by architects Tappin, Gilbert & Dennehy, of Melbourne. The woodwork and carpentry was completed by Charles Hardy. In 1918, when the diocese was erected, St Michael’s became a cathedral.^[2]

The second stage followed, that commenced in 1922 and completed in 1925. The architect was W. J. Monks, and the overall construction cost was £34,894. The imposing building was constructed from sandstone, of cruciform plan with clerestoried nave and lofty tower placed to the left of the main façade. In addition, the building consists of side aisles, porch, chancel, sacristy, chapel, and gallery. Roof framings are exposed timber internally and sheeted with slates externally. Walls are rock faced ashlar generally with dressed window and door surrounds and mullions. Internally the altars contain some finely crafted marble pieces and large stained glass windows in groups of three, giving a soft filtered light. A feature of the cathedral is the massive tower bell weighing 17 long hundredweight (1,900 lb; 860 kg) cast in the factory of Byrnes, of Dublin. The marble high altar was brought from Carrara, Italy and has subsequently been removed.^[2]

George Fincham built a two-manual organ of 10 speaking stops for St Michael's Church in 1887. This was removed in 1892 and installed in the Chapel of St Peter at the Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne. The present organ, installed on the rear gallery in 1999 by Laurie Pipe Organs, was built by Samuel Lewis, an employee of George Fincham, who was his first apprentice as far back as 1864 and his first foreman, it is thought for the Dorcas Street Presbyterian Church in South Melbourne; it originally had two manuals and 17 speaking stops. It was installed at the Presbyterian Church, Denbigh Road, Armidale, in 1911 and in 1939 the mechanical action was converted to tubular-pneumatic by C.W. Andrewartha, who supplied a detached console. The casework with its carved transom rails, may also date from this time. The instrument was rebuilt in 1975 by Laurie Pipe Organs who converted the manual actions back to mechanical, electrified the pedal and stop actions, provided a new attached drawstop console, and supplied new Mixtures to the Great and Swell, a Trumpet 8 ft, and the pedal upperwork.^[3] In 2011 it was given a small overhaul by Darrell Pitchford. The front facade pipes were changed to silver and the stop mechanisms and pipes were cleaned and adjusted.

Parishes in the Diocese of Wagga Wagga

Albury Albury - North Albury - Lavington Albury - Thurgoona Berrigan Cathedral

Coolamon Corowa Culcairn Darlington Point-Colleambally/Jerilderie Finley Ganmain

Griffith Holbrook Howlong Jerilderie^1 Junee Khancoban

Leeton Lockhart Mulwala Narrandera Tarcutta The Rock

Tocumwal Tumbarumba Urana Wagga Wagga South Wagga Wagga West Wagga Wagga - Kooringal

^1. In 2009 Jerilderie became incorporated to the Darlington Point. Parish Administrator Rev Fr Anthony Dunne was appointed until the appointment of Rev Fr Blaise Kurek. Despite sharing a Priest, Jerildierie is listed as a separate Parish

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Australia

References

1. "Diocese of Wagga Wagga". The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church. 21 May 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
2. "Walking tour of Wagga Wagga's historic buildings". Wagga Wagga local history. 7 September 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
3. "St Michael's Catholic Cathedral, Wagga Wagga". Organ Historical Trust of Australia. 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2011.

External links

• Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga