Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was deeply honoured, as a Catholic, as a parliamentarian, as an Australian, to be asked to represent the nation and its people at Pope Francis's funeral on Saturday 26 April. I want to thank, from the outset, the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See. He was the Ambassador to the Vatican Designate at the time, as he hadn't presented his credentials because, sadly, the Pope had passed away, but he has since done that with the new Pope, Pope Leo—Keith Pitt, the former member for Hinkler. And I want to also thank the head of mission, the Ambassador of Australia to Italy, Julianne Cowley, for the arrangements they both put in place for the Australian delegation. The delegation comprised the Governor-General, Her ExcellencySam Mostyn, AO; her husband, Simeon Beckett; senior government minister the Hon. Don Farrell; his wife, Nimfa; and myself.

In a break from what often happens with papal burials, Pope Francis asked to be buried in a simple wooden casket, something Pope John Paul II also insisted on before he passed away in 2005, when he was 84, after a 26-year papacy, the third longest in history. Pope Francis's casket said much about how he lived his life, and it was a powerful symbolic choice reflecting the very essence of his papacy. The late pope explicitly requested a single zinc-lined wooden coffin, breaking away from the usual opulence of traditional papal burials. Unlike the triple layered coffins often is used in many previous papal funerals—cypress wood sealed in lead and then enclosed in oak—Pope Francis's casket consisted of just one layer of plain, untreated wood, lined with zinc for preservation. Not only was this a departure from ritual but a deliberate spiritual statement: humility in death as in life. The wood bore no gold trim, no ornate embellishments, just a simple cross below which there was Pope Francis's official coat of arms, deeply linked to the Society of Jesus, the religious order to which he belonged. In the centre, the Christogram HIS, the first three letters of Jesus's name in Greek, was visible. This was accompanied by a cross over the central letter and three nails below, all surrounded by a sun. The symbol is the Jesuits traditional emblem, evoking the centrality of Christ and the evangelising mission, and Pope Francis did live his mission. Beneath the Christogram, the coat of arms included an eight-pointed star, representing the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, and a spikenard flower, alluding to Saint Joseph. Both were key figures in Pope Francis's spirituality. Below the coat of arms, the ribbon with the motto 'Miserando atque eligendo'—'He looked at him with mercy and chose him'—no doubt summaries Pope Francis's vocation marked by service to the world's most humble.

The casket design honoured Francis's lifelong rejection of luxury, echoing his decision to reside in a modest guesthouse rather than the lavish Apostolic Palace during his pontificate. Both in meaning and material, the casket embodied Pope Francis's teachings—people over protocol, service over status. This was Pope Francis. It was not just a vessel but a message to the world that even the most prominent religious figure on Earth bowed to simplicity, reminding everyone spiritual wealth far outweighs worldly possessions.

Pope Francis was ordained a priest on 13 December 1969. He was consecrated as a bishop on 27 June 1992. He was created a cardinal by John Paul II on 21 February 2001. He was the 266th pope. He passed away on Easter Monday, 21 April, at 7.35 in the morning in Vatican City. He was aged 88; he was the third oldest pope in history.

There are some interesting aspects about his papacy, about his life and about who he was. He served as the visible head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013 after Benedict XVI announced his resignation. Benedict cited a length of strength of mind and body due to his advanced age. He was the first pope to stand aside since Gregory XII in 1415 and the first without what was termed 'external pressure' since Celestine V in 1294. So Francis came into the role in interesting circumstances. The call to his papacy was made, and he stepped up. And, as we've heard, he did so much good for so many people, but he was the first pope raised outside of Europe since the eighth-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

A lot of people have asked me, since my return, what it was like being at the Pope's funeral. It began at 10am. The cardinal who said the mass was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91 years young. He's the Dean of the College of Cardinals. He officiated, and it was a memorable service—14 white-gloved members of the pontifical household, who support ceremonial activities of the Vatican, carried Pope Francis's casket, leading a procession of priests, bishops and red-robed cardinals. It was an unforgettable sight. There in St Peter's Square, a quarter of a million mourners waited in total silence as their cherished former pope arrived for his final mass. You can just imagine a quarter of a million people in the one large place and nothing, just pure, peaceful silence. It was quite amazing.

Security was intense, given there were 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending. There was a no-fly zone that had been established over Rome. There were a lot of snipers on the roofs and a lot of people with long-lens cameras too. There were 4,000 officers on the ground, counter unmanned aircraft system teams and an air defence guided-missile destroyer off the coast. That said, there was a buzz of official drone cameras over St Peter's, but, at the start, there was just nothing at all.

Cardinal Re's homily began a little more than five minutes into the 1¾ hour service, and it lasted not quite 20 minutes, but I counted on at least nine separate occasions during this inspirational address a reverberation of respectful and spontaneous applause, starting at the very back of the square. It rippled its way forward like a wave, becoming louder and louder until it reached the pulpit, and I was not very far from the pulpit—about from here to the member of Hunter away, where the member Hunter sits at the dispatch place opposite. It was not very far at all. I had a third-row seat into an amazing historic event.

The first ovation came 11 minutes into the homily, when Cardinal Re spoke of the late pope's first journey to Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea, an island that symbolises the tragedy of emigration. Less than a minute later, when Cardinal Re spoke of a mass Pope Francis celebrated on the border between Mexico and the United States, the rapturous clapping resumed. The timing and intensity of that applause, given that the homily was delivered in Latin, was perhaps lost on a certain world leader in a blue suit seated in the front row amongst a sea of black and navy. You don't need to be Einstein to work out who I'm referring to. Cardinal Re said:

Faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice, imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions. War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: It is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone.

The level of influence of the Vatican, a truly global institution, demonstrates once again why Australia's embassy to the Holy See is essential. I thank Mr Pitt for making the arrangements for this visit, and I look forward to seeing his progress in that position. But this is about the pope.

Pope Francis left a lasting legacy that we all admire, we all respect and we all love. For a Catholic educated boy from the tiny Riverina village of Marrar—my mother, Eileen, was raised by the Presentation Sisters at Mount Erin, Wagga Wagga, after being orphaned at the tender age of nine, and she lived such a faith filled life, dedicated to the church and its gospel. It was a journey I dedicated to her. I also thank the local bishop at Wagga, Mark Edwards, for sending me to Rome with a lovely cross and some artefacts which I attended the funeral with and made sure I brought home. They will have a special place in either St Michael's Cathedral or the nearby McAlroy House, which is the head of the church in Wagga Wagga. Vale, Pope Francis.

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