Pope Leo’s Kyabram connection

“We were very excited when we saw … very proud,” Mrs Zobec said.

Until January 2006, St Augustine’s Parish was managed by the Augustinian Order.

Fr Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was then the Prior General of the Order and was touring Victorian parishes as part of his leadership role.

Fr Dave Austin, having consulted his 2005 diary, provided a detailed account of Fr Prevost’s visit.

The future Pope landed at Tullamarine airport at 2.55pm on Qantas flight 617 on Saturday, December 10.

Fr Austin then drove him to Bendigo Cathedral, followed by a stop in Rochester to admire the stained-glass windows of Augustinian saints, before finally reaching Kyabram.

He enjoyed mass at Kyabram’s St Augustine’s Parish where he was photographed during the proceedings, before Fr Austin drove him to Echuca to see the church and the priory.

Pictured in one of the photographs with Pope Leo XIV was Annette Ryan, who still volunteers with the parish and was surprised to learn she had been photographed with a future Pope.

“I hadn’t even remembered at first when they told me,” she said.

“But a photo doesn’t lie.”

Vicki Arnel, who volunteers at St Augustine’s Church, said she realised later that the Pope would have stayed in the guest house next door.

“We had this moment where we were like, he would have eaten here — so which seat did he sit at?” she said.

“Or there’s a bedroom in there and there are two beds — I wonder what bed he slept in?

“It was one of those moments you go — woah.”