NSW Senator Deborah O’Neill has honoured the late Pope Francis in her first speech in parliament after the 3 May federal election.
O’Neill paid tribute to the late Holy Father, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who died on Easter Monday 21 April this year, saying his background and heritage served as the foundations for him to work hard and live a good life.
“From working as a bouncer and a janitor to serving in hospitality, Jorge’s early experiences grounded him in the very dignity of labour,” she said.
“At the age of 21, while seriously ill, he discerned a vocation that would shape history, entering the Jesuit order and being ordained a priest in 1969, a journey into Catholicism that culminated in his ordination as the pope.”
O’Neill, who is a Catholic, said she mourned the pope when she learned of his passing and had he was a “trailblazer” as he is the first Jesuit as well as Latin American pope, and he rejected the “extravagances of office” which came with the title.
“His very name, chosen in honour of St Francis of Assisi, foreshadowed a papacy centred on humility, compassion and service for the poor,” she said.
She said the pope’s papacy, marked by “radical empathy” was evident right from the beginning as he refocused the church on the virtue of mercy.
“He taught that sin and culpability are not the same and that God’s grace finds us in our frailty, not in our perfection,” she said.
“By every one of us seeking to practice forgiveness, we are extending God’s love.”
O’Neill said Pope Francis touched the hearts of all, even those who were not Catholic, as she recounted a constituent sharing her grief at the loss of the Holy Father, who the woman referred to as “the pope of the world.”
“Pope Francis was in every sense a true man of God—a reformer, a shepherd, a servant of the poor and a voice for the voiceless,” she said.
“May Pope Francis rest in peace and may his legacy of mercy and justice endure and flourish in the life of the church and in the hearts of all people of goodwill.”
O’Neill was also one of 11 senators who signed a motion to wish Pope Leo XIV well on his papacy, also introduced on the senators’ return to parliament.
Queensland Senator Matt Canavan spearheaded the bill, posting on social media the motion would make it known the senate congratulates the new pope, acknowledges he is the first Augustinian to hold the position, and “extends its prayers to His Holiness.”
Canavan also paid his respects to the late Pope Francis and said the in-between period between popes, which held the world’s attention, was “instructive” to him.
“The world’s eyes were on Rome and on the goings-on in the Vatican at the time,” he said.
“To me, that shows the importance of defending the faith, defending what people do think is the right faith, despite the criticism.”