Australia’s Star

ON OCTOBER 17 Australia will have its first saint – a woman described as feisty and stubborn, yet her life remains a model of forgiveness and humility for today’s busy and complex world.



Mary MacKillop, also known as Mother Mary of the Cross by her contemporary confrere, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in South Australia in 1866 with Father Julian Tenison Woods, who had visited the Sisters of St Joseph in Le Puy, France. While the two religious Orders share a common language and vision, the Australian congregation does not derive from the French one.





Controversial religious





Aged just 24, Mother MacKillop responded to the needs of the time – a motto the ‘Josephites’, as they are known, still live by today – by first opening a school to educate poor children in outback settlements. She went on to establish orphanages, providences to care for the homeless and destitute, both young and old, and refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life.



Their style of religious life suited the emerging Australian colonies as the Sisters were sent out in twos and threes. But their public begging in the streets to support themselves created angst in the community, as did Fr Woods’ guidance of the Sisters, especially among the diocesan priests.



By April 1871 Queensland Bishop James Quinn, who had requested Mary to establish communities in his state the previous year, ordered a commission to examine the life of the Sisters. The commission recommended making some lay Sisters within the group and placing each convent under the authority of the local priest.



Mary opposed this measure, preferring the Order to be self-governing, and in an act of courage wrote to Adelaide Bishop Lawrence Shiel about her concerns. She also told him she would look for another place where she could follow God’s call after clergy persuaded him to send Fr Woods to New South Wales.



This made Bishop Shiel angry at her “seeming imprudence”, and on September 22, 1871, he excommunicated her. She was 29 at the time.





The excommunicated one





Mary’s writings detailing this spiritually and emotionally gruelling experience reveal much of her humility and trust in God.



“When I was ordered to kneel before the bishop, I felt lonely and bewildered. It was an intense relief when the Bishop ordered me to kneel down. I do not know how long I knelt there facing the bishop and four priests with all my Sisters standing around. I know they were there, but saw no one and I think I was trying to pray… I shall never forget the sensation of the calm, beautiful presence of God,” she wrote of the ordeal.



Current Josephite historian Sr Maria Foale, RSJ, revealed that by excommunicating Mary, Bishop Shiel had set in motion a process for closing down at least two thirds of the 60-plus Catholic schools in the colony.



“He also saw how strongly the people supported her, even to the point of speaking out publicly in her favour and vilifying him in the local papers. For her part, Mary still respected him and was very upset over what was being written in the papers,” Sr Foale said.



“In fact, throughout this sad time she behaved in an exemplary manner and would not allow anyone to speak against the Bishop while in her presence.”



Realising he had been badly advised by his priests, the bishop lifted the excommunication five months later, a week before his death. Though she continued her work, opposition continued from local bishops who wanted to establish her Congregation as a diocesan one while she was in Rome gathering support. During her visit she met Pope Pius IX, who referred to her as “the excommunicated one”.





Innocent on all charges





Sister Anne Derwin, RSJ, the Congregation’s current leader, said local priests questioned the way Mary governed the Order, made allegations of not paying debts and accused her of being a drunkard. She was cleared of all charges during her lifetime.



“The clergy tried to say she was a drunkard, but after interviewing her fellow Sisters they found that she only took brandy for medicinal reasons for ‘women’s troubles’ – period pain,” Sr Anne said.



“Brandy was all women had and Mary suffered bad period pain – really bad. She wrote late in life that she was glad that her ‘friends’ had left her – that’s what she called her period – when she’d reached menopause. She’d often write ‘I cant get up today because of this’”.



The inquiry interviewed the Sisters back then, who said it was totally unfair to accuse her of that – accusations made by men who didn’t have to go through that.”



Her canonisation process, which started in 1926, 17 years after her death in Sydney on 8 August 1909, was also later halted when these accusations were again investigated; and again she was found innocent on all charges,” Sr Anne concluded.



Sr Anne said that the canonization of their foundress would give the Order “a great sense of renewal and revival, to keep focused on the way she was with the poor, and a great sense of joy that what she started and what we followed has been worthwhile”.



“That makes us lift our mark a bit,” she said, adding that Mary would be a role model to many Australians who would empathize with her ability to make such a difference to people’s lives despite her suffering.





Religious upbringing





Born of Scottish parents in Fitzroy, Victoria, on 15 January 1842, Mary MacKillop, the eldest of eight children, was well educated by her father Alexander, who had studied for the priesthood in Rome, but returned to Scotland due to ill health before migrating to Australia in 1835 with his parents.



Her brother, Fr Donald MacKillop, SJ, was one of 19 Jesuit priests and brothers who arrived in Australia’s Northern Territory in 1882 to engage in missionary work for 17 years, working with Aboriginal people to preserve the local tribes and their languages. Before introducing Christianity into their lives, he also concentrated on the development of indigenous society through agriculture, education of children and medical care.



Today, Mary’s congregation has Sisters in Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Brazil, Ireland and Scotland.





Two miracles





After a December 19, 2009, meeting with the Congregation for Saints, Pope Benedict XVI announced the approval of the second miracle required for her canonization – the 1995 cure of a woman suffering from an invasive and inoperable cancer. The first miracle that led to her beatification by Pope John Paul II in 1995 was the 1961 cure of a woman from leukaemia.



The women cured in the second miracle – Kathleen Evans, 66, revealed herself on January 11 this year at the Josephites’ North Sydney headquarters, saying at a press conference, “I do believe in miracles.”



At World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Pope Benedict said, while visiting Mary’s shrine in North Sydney, that her “perseverance in the face of adversity, her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated and her practical example of holiness have become a source of inspiration for all Australians”.



Adelaide Bishop Philip Wilson, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said Mary “could be quite feisty and stubborn”, especially in the face of excommunication. Though plagued by ill-health for much of her life, she was still able to found a Religious institute aimed at serving the poor, particularly in the field of education, which remains a vibrant and active presence in the fabric of Australian life today.



“Her heroism is all the more firm because it is built not on celebrity or sporting skill, but on her love for Jesus Christ and a life of dedication to God and her fellow human beings,” Bishop Wilson said.



“She is our star, but she is our star by the quality of her ability to love, her ability to forgive and to trust God and move ahead,” Bishop Wilson concluded.





Enthusiasm Down Under





There has been a flurry of activity this year in Australia in anticipation of Mary’s canonization.



A nation-wide search for 60-80 actors to perform in the new Australian musical MacKillop has been launched for performances in Sydney and Melbourne in October to mark Mary’s canonization.



The Sisters have launched a website (www.marymackillop.org.au) which contains unpublished photos and details of her life. They also launched a book of her last letters revealing the homesickness, illness and even arguments experienced by her Sisters when establishing the congregation in New Zealand.



Australia Post has issued a commemorative prepaid envelope in recognition of the canonization, while Australia’s bishops have established a working group to coordinate a number of nation-wide and localised initiatives to ensure the event is a ‘time of grace’ for the whole country.