54 Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst Year in Review 2024 Monsignor Francis Hickey 14 February 1927 ~ 9 May 2024 Monsignor Frank Hickey was a priest of the Diocese for 73 years and served in seven parishes: Yarrawonga, Beechworth, Myrtleford, Kerang, Wangaratta, Wodonga, South Shepparton. He was also the Episcopal Vicar for education in the early 1980s and was Dean of the North East in the late 1980s. He was a devoted priest whose beliefs were shaped by his early life and steadfast faith. Raised on a farm during the Great Depression as one of eight children, he developed the values of generosity, resilience and prayer from an early age. Despite feeling like an outsider because of his limited formal Catholic education, his experience receiving the sacraments profoundly influenced his calling to the priesthood. Overcoming doubts about his abilities, he persevered through eight years of seminary training and was ordained a priest of the Diocese in 1951. Throughout his 73 years of ministry, Monsignor Hickey emphasised the importance of communal prayer and the presence of Christ in everyday life. His guiding belief came from St Paul: “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), which he saw as the foundation of Christian life for everyone. Strongly believing that faith must be expressed in the home and community, he urged families to rekindle the tradition of praying together, often citing Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them”. For Monsignor Hickey, faith was a shared experience that, not only strengthened individual families, but also the Church as a whole. Monsignor Hickey witnessed much change during his 73 years of priesthood. He embraced the changes brought about by Vatican II, seeing them as a means to deepen real communication within the Church. He wholeheartedly supported Pope Francis’ vision of synodality, believing that Christ is everywhere and that the Church must remain open to encountering Him in new ways. He was deeply concerned about the impact of modern technology on faith communities, observing that television and the internet had diminished personal relationships and a sense of “my sister my brother’. He lamented that many young people no longer saw themselves as part of a continuous Christian tradition and urged them to embrace their heritage as children of faith. In his later years, Monsignor Hickey continued to inspire parishioners in Nagambie, where he spent 22 years in retirement. He remained a source of wisdom, humour and kindness, always giving his all to those he served. His legacy is one of unwavering faith, commitment to prayer, and a deep belief in the power of community to bring Christ into the world. In Memoriam Monsignor Frank Hickey “Our oldest priest, Monsignor Frank Hickey, died peacefully in May at the age of 97, after 73 years of faithful ministry as a priest – the longest serving priest in the history of the Diocese.” Bishop Shane Mackinlay 1951
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