Published: 10 February 2013
By: Selina Venier
Not "enough time" in retirement: Archbishop Emeritus John Bathersby of Brisbane, settling into the life of retirement in Stanthorpe
Photo: Selina Venier
PLEASANT surprises abounded catching up with Archbishop Emeritus John Bathersby of Brisbane.
The first real surprise came when attending a Vigil Mass at St Joseph's Church, Stanthorpe, in early January.
The familiar tone and face had our pew members smiling.
My smile didn't recede especially hearing the word "marvellous" often in his homily - a trademark.
During the recessional the Archbishop, living in retirement in the Granite Belt town in southern Queensland, said "G'day", extending his hand, and a proper catch-up soon followed.
Anticipating a conversation about his new schedule in retirement, Archbishop Bathersby was instead first keen to recap on Stanthorpe's history and his family's connections to the beloved area, when we chatted again a little while later.
"I was born John Alexius Bathersby in 1936 in Stanthorpe," he began, clearing his throat.
"My father was Jack and my mother was Grace Conquest, from Mitchell in Queensland."
The privilege of the conversation, unlike any other shared, began to hit home.
"Grace Conquest was a nurse and that's how she came here and met my father," he said.
"She came here to look after her sister (who was sick) and met him in the hospital.
"My father was taking care of an important guy in Stanthorpe who also was very sick in hospital."
It wasn't long before there was mention of childhood Bathersby shenanigans.
"I got into awful trouble with my mother as a three-year-old," Archbishop Batherby said.
"We lived right next to the railway line and one day I got right beside it and was looking up and there was the railway car.
"Of course my mother came running up with the broom and she whacked me and locked me inside."
With vivid recollection and enjoyment as he reminisced, the Archbishop soon revealed another's surprise.
"As kids we spent a lot of time swimming down near the red bridge," he said.
"I remember one of the blokes down there was sitting in the water without a costume when the nuns and the girls arrived.
"He didn't expect they would come there and had to wait for them to leave to get out."
The Archbishop also chuckled heartily at that memory and was quick to add "there was only three houses down on that creek then ... (but) today you wouldn't know it".
Also vivid in his storytelling are his paternal grandparents Alexander Bathersby - "Alec" - and Mary Clifford.
"Alec came from Tinga (New South Wales) on a horse to up here," he said.
"He was a great person ... (and) both my grandparents had a very strong sense of religion."
In Stanthorpe the esteemed Bathersbys would "walk about a mile" from their home to Mass where St Joseph's Church now stands.
They'd also "pray the Rosary around the fire", the Archbishop said, and again chuckled.
"But it was a 'Hail Mary, Holy Mary, Hail Mary, Holy Mary'," he said imitating his grandfather's gruff tone, and adding, "(And) it was over pretty quickly".
Religion "was in him", Archbishop Bathersby said, and his grandparents helped his mother and the family's four children when their father was called to serve in the Second World War.
"My mother had a very hard time with my father away," he said.
"My grandparents were always looking after us ... (and) Alec would take me everywhere - he was like a father in those years."
With his grandfather's influence, so began the Archbishop's love of mountains and mountain-climbing.
"Alec was a great walker," he said.
"He'd take me up mountains.
"I didn't know what I was doing but it sounded good.
"(And) he could do anything ... he was good with tin, killing sheep and chooks, catching fish, building small sheds, catching bees in the trees.
"That's how guys were in those days."
Alec Bathersby also "didn't swear but would often say, 'By the holy jumping hell, what's going on?'"
With that memory, the Archbishop was again animatedly reminiscent.
"My grandfather was deeply religious," he said.
"In the beginning he was an Anglican but after marriage was a Catholic.
"His wife died before him.
"I went to see him one day and he was kneeling beside the bed, praying ... that's who he was."
Thankfully the younger Bathersbys had their grandparents to support them through the difficult war years.
Archbishop Bathersby remembers it literally and figuratively "being so dark".
"You couldn't ever have an open window," he said of that time.
"They were always covered up."
Also vivid was the memory of "soldiers coming up the railway line from New South Wales to go up north".
"They were joking and laughing and throwing coins to us kids," he said.
"(But) they didn't know what lay ahead of them.
"So many lost their lives."
The memories are so vivid the Archbishop has plans "to write some history about the war and what it was like in those days".
Attending Mass offered solace.
"I loved going to Mass in Stanthorpe during the war," Archbishop Bathersby said.
"(And) at school, the Sisters of Mercy looked after us.
"I still remember the celebration in the main street of Stanthorpe when the war was finished.
"There was dancing in the street and ever so slowly the soldiers made their way back."
Jack Bathersby "came back but was very sick".
The family welcomed another child and life continued.
The Archbishop first decided to study to become a pilot.
"My father said, 'I'll give you a good trip to Brisbane and a good education but you've got to look after your Mum and I in our old age'," he recalled.
"I said, 'Yeah, that's okay, Dad'."
Instead, the seminary beckoned and Jack, a bookmaker, showed some of his father's sense of humour at that reality.
"When I said I wanted to become a priest my father said, 'I'll never get my money back on you unless you become a bishop'," Archbishop Bathersby said.
"He never saw me become a bishop."
Neither did his mother or either grandparent - something Archbishop Bathersby said "is sad".
Listing his priestly appointments and studies with more joviality and contentment, the Archbishop said his life has been filled with blessings.
"I loved being a priest, a bishop and then an archbishop and never wanted to get out of the whole thing," he said.
"Of course there have been difficulties but I've never regretted the gift of episcopacy."
With a somewhat different schedule in retirement, Archbishop Bathersby said he was "still trying to understand a little" about the will of God.
He's also spending more time climbing mountains and "reflecting on Jesus' fascination for mountains".
Stanthorpe parish and the dioceses of Brisbane and Toowoomba continue to invite him to celebrate various occasions too.
He's hoping to find time to travel back to his roots in England, Ireland and Scotland and hopefully there's also time to spend writing war history.
Archbishop Bathersby said he "just doesn't have enough time" for all the pursuits presenting themselves in retirement.
"I've never been in a situation where I have nothing to do," he said.
"I'm even an expert in garbage now.
"I've got to remember to put it out on the right day and bring it in once it's collected."
We both laughed heartily at that reality as the conversation, for now, concluded.
A favourite wall hanging, written in Latin and English, lined the corridor to the door: "Lord, teach me the shortness of life so that I may gain wisdom of heart" (Psalm 89:12).
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