Speculation has begun on the likely person to replace Mark Coleridge as Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn. Archbishop Coleridge will be installed as Archbishop of Brisbane on May 11. Within eight days of his installation, the College of Consultors, made up of the Auxiliary Bishop, Pat Power, Vicar General John Woods, and the deans will choose an administrator who will serve in that position until Archbishop Coleridge's replacement is appointed by the Pope.
Church sources believe that will take months, not weeks.
First, the Apostolic Nuncio to Australia, Giuseppe Lazzarotto, makes inquiries of certain clergy and lay people, (who they are is not known) before making a recommendation to the Congregation for Bishops in Rome which in turn will make a recommendation to the Pope.
In a sense, Canberra and Goulburn is competing with Hobart and Toowoomba for a new leader.
The archbishop of the former has retired and the bishop of the latter, Bill Morris, was required by the Pope to resign.
In March, Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Leslie Tomlinson was installed as Bishop of the Victorian Diocese of Sandhurst (Bendigo).
Even more recently, Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Costelloe was appointed to Perth.
Further complicating the matter is that bishops of about six, possibly more, other Australian dioceses are likely to retire within the next 12 to 18 months.
This lends weight to the possibility that Monsignor Woods will be considered as the replacement of Archbishop Coleridge.
Also possible are the Vicar General of Adelaide, David Cappo, and even the Archbishop of Adelaide and chair of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Philip Wilson.
Secretary of the conference, Brian Lucas, who lives in Canberra, is also a possibility for Canberra and Goulburn or Hobart.
Meanwhile, Bishop Power, who announced last year his intention to retire in the middle of this year, said yesterday that remained his intention.
Of Archbishop Coleridge, Bishop Power said: ''He is a good man with a good heart and a good mind. I wish him well in Brisbane.''