Former Cairns Bishop and Brisbane Archbishop Emeritus John Bathersby remembered as visionary leader

Former Cairns Bishop and Brisbane Archbishop Emeritus John Bathersby is being remembered as a caring and happy man with a love of the great outdoors and a great sense of humour.

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FORMER Cairns Bishop and Brisbane Archbishop Emeritus John Bathersby is being remembered as a caring and happy man with a love of the great outdoors and a great sense of humour.

Archbishop Bathersby died peacefully yesterday morning following a long struggle with dementia.

He was 83 years old.

Archbishop John Bathersby during his last service at St Stephens. Picture: Peter Wallis

Cairns Bishop James Foley, filling the role vacated by Archbishop Bathersby in 1992, said his predecessor was a well-liked man who made friends easily.

“John in his own quiet way was a visionary. But (he) was a man who had his feet firmly on the ground and an endearing humanity and great sense of humour,” he said.

“But his last couple of years was very sad … he really did go into serious decline into dementia and it was really quite sad, (because) he was always very astute and spiritually gifted, and it just left us all wondering ‘what does happen to somebody, where is the soul in that period of time?’”

The Brisbane Archbishop of 20 years was born in Stanthorpe in 1936 to John Thomas, a shopkeeper and publican at the Country Club Hotel, and Grace Maud Bathersby.

Bishop Foley said it was always Archbishop Bathersby’s wish to be buried back on the home soil of the Granite Belt.

“But he is not going to get much say in that because there is a crypt where archbishops are buried in Brisbane. Poor old John is not going to get his final wish,” he said.

A funeral service will be held next Monday at the Cathedral of St Stephen in Brisbane. There will be a vigil at 5.30pm on Sunday ahead of the funeral and it’s expected his life will be celebrated locally at mass on Sunday in Cairns.

Originally published as Former Cairns Bishop and Brisbane Archbishop Emeritus John Bathersby remembered as visionary leader