He still keeps in touch with a woman who came to him 40 years of so ago to seek help for sexual abuse she had suffered 17 years earlier.

"A lass came to see me to talk about the priest she had been abused by," Bishop Power says in his house in Campbell. "He was one of the most respected priests in the diocese."

"I was only talking to her for ten minutes and I believed her."

"I suggested to her that she get some professional help. 'I'm getting help talking to you', she said. But I said, 'yes, but you need professional help'."

His kindness to her continues to this day.

Pat Power at 82 is now well retired from his formal roles in the Archdiocese of Goulburn and Canberra. He lives in a humble house in Campbell, sharing his morning and evening walks with Clara ,his Portuguese podengo hound. This Easter, he confines himself to the pews during mass.

His reflections on the past are astute.

"We've been through some shitty times in the life of the Church. There are still people who are hurting, both those who were abused but also those who felt that their own faith had been damaged."

He believes that the Church has since put in safeguards. It instituted a set of rules and ways of behaving designed to protect children and to instill good behaviour in the minds and actions of priests.

When he talks to people who've been hurt (either by being abused themselves or by being disillusioned with the Church), he says he tries to be a "listening ear".

"But also I gently tell them what's been done to try to see that what they suffered won't continue".

The priest was born in Queanbeyan on February 11, 1942. He went to St Christopher's School in Manuka and then St Edmund's School in Canberra. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1965.

He did a doctorate in church law in Rome and then returned to Canberra. In 1986, he was made a bishop (a title which he is still entitled to use in retirement).

Queanbeyan made him what he is - a compassionate, generous Catholic who moves easily with people of all classes.

"I describe myself as a Queanbeyan boy. People talked about Queanbeyan as being 'struggle town'. I never minded that because I felt it was just a sign of being one of the battlers."

His father worked in the shops in Manuka and was a Justice of the Peace.

But his mother was the one he talks most warmly about. She taught him about "unconditional love" - a love which is not conditional on what you do.

"If I'd made a mess of my life, I know that her love would be even greater because she would know that that's what I needed."

And that "unconditional love" he translated into the way God loves humanity. "Unconditional love is the love of people as they are and not because of what they have achieved."

Queanbeyan in the 50s and 60s was the destination of migrants from Italy. His father treated them well, and from that he learnt to value justice and fairness.

He would now be thought of as on the liberal wing of the church. He has a lot of time for the current Pope but not so much for the hard-liner, Pope John-Paul II (whom he admires for his role in the downfall of communism in his native Poland).

But not for his theology. "I was never his greatest fan," Bishop Power says.

In contrast, he exudes enthusiasm for Pope Francis: "In his audiences, he singles out disabled people, struggling people and makes them feel special."

in the grandeur of the cathedral, Bishop Power retained a similar feeling for those on the outside of the group. He would make a point of conducting masses on the edges of the archdiocese, in small country churches in Lake Cargelligo, Ungarie or West Wyalong.

"When I was a bishop, I was conscious of these people. I felt they were a long way from the centre here in Canberra."

In his ninth decade, two phrases come from his lips frequently: "unconditional love' but also: "hope".