Q Are You? Find out more about Geraldton’s Catholic Bishop Michael Morrissey

Geraldton’s Catholic Bishop Michael Morrissey has been a familiar and trusted face in this city for decades. But how much do you actually know about him? How did you come to live in your hometown and how long have you called it home? I grew up in the community of Yalgoo on the family sheep station, Noongall, with my parents, brother and three sisters, which was 30km north of Yalgoo. My upbringing on the sheep station shaped and moulded me for the first 20 years of my life, despite going to boarding school at Aquinas College in Perth for five years. I first lived in Geraldton in 1981 for two years when I was ordained a priest. I returned to Geraldton in 1992, still as a priest working in the St Francis Xavier Cathedral parish and finally now as the bishop of the place. What’s the best thing about your job? I have a rather unique day job to say the least. It is not only my day job but often my night job too. Especially when visiting the communities in my diocese of 1,318,310sqkm, consisting of communities between Port Hedland in the north to Leeman in the south and then out to Leonora in the east. I not only conduct celebrations, but support the priests, schools, and their local communities. What do you do for fun? I do like walking in the bush more than anything else. Having grown up in Yalgoo on a sheep station with hundreds of thousands of acres of bush, I just simply enjoy going bush and just listening to nature itself. What’s a habit you would most like to break and one you would most like to start? One word I used to use in my talks all the time was the word ‘perhaps’. I think I was trying not to upset people, so I would always say ‘perhaps’ so that if it applied to you, it was OK. I remember some people saying to me, “Oh you say perhaps all the time”, so I try and remember to avoid that word! The other habit I would like to break is some West Australians put the word “but” at the end of a sentence. For example, I would say “I’m going to town, but”, and those who weren’t West Australian would try and figure out ‘Why did you say but?” If you weren’t in Geraldton, where would you be? I am locked into the position of being the Bishop of Geraldton, but if I did have another life, in some ways I have this romantic notion that I would be living on a sheep station with lots of sheep, open spaces, and just enjoying being in the rural countryside. I know that is a fantasy as it will never be a reality. Who inspires you the most? My mother, Margaret. She has been through a lot of obstacles in her life, especially with the early death of her husband, my dad, when she was only 43 years old on the station. She then had continue working the station to support her five children, especially the two youngest who were still at school. She is the one person I can trust implicitly with anything I might think or say. If money was no object, what would you do? I would build a place in Geraldton where people who were on the peripheries of our society could come, whilst maintaining their dignity as a human being, be able to have a good chat about how things are going in life, where they could have a meal, feel secure, and get some non-judgmental guidance to find a new direction in their lives. Included in that would be those coming out of Greenough Prison, so they can be supported as they take a new direction in their life. What’s something that never goes out of style and something that should never be in style in the first place? Short hair has always been in style. Mainly because I have no, or very little, hair on my head so short hairstyles suit me fine. Only problem is having no protection from the sun. Something that should never have been in style in the first place is flares on trousers. I did have a pair once in my life, but I vowed and declared that I would never wear them again. It is not a good look when you get older in age! What song sums up your life right now? John Williamson’s Gallery of Pink Galahs. This helps me understand what it means to be an Australian, how we are meant to live our lives, simply and within our means, to appreciate and always be present to every circumstance and situation.