Mary MacKillop – Inspiration for every Australian

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NEXT Sunday the Pope will declare an Aussie girl a saint – our first. Mary Helen MacKillop means a lot to me. My first teacher, Sister Paul Michael, was a Josephite sister at St Therese Lakemba.

I have long loved MacKillop’s story and often pray at her shrine in North Sydney. I was privileged to accompany Pope Benedict to her tomb during World Youth Day, where he said he was “deeply moved”.

He was not the first pope to meet her. Paul VI and John Paul II had also been to her grave and Pope Pius IX met her in life in 1873 in Rome

To be recognised as a saint you have to be more than popular. The church has to be persuaded that you are now with God and that God wants others to befriend you, to seek your help and to imitate you.Contemporary Australia still needs its heroes. Mary MacKillop is a hero. Her passion for education, for the future of young people, for justice for Aboriginal Australians and the poor, is something we all can celebrate.

I write this on my way to Rome. As a young bishop it will be my first canonisation. It’s expected that 8000 or more Australians will be there and the rest of the country will be looking on through the media.

The excitement is already palpable amongst the Josephite sisters, in parishes and schools.

Her canonisation with five others in Rome highlights that Mary is not our property anymore. She has a bigger stage. Saints are for all humanity, of this world and the next.

But we are justly proud she was one of us. During a magnificent Mass her portrait will be unveiled on the facade of St Peter’s.

In his homily the Holy Father may speak, as he has before, of MacKillop’s humility and tenacity, her practical example of holiness and her commitment to the religious life, which we hope many young Australians will follow.

sThen he will decree that her name be added to the canon of saints. At that point there will, I expect, be a great cheer in Australia, loud enough to be heard even in Rome!

**Bishop Anthony is a Dominican friar and ethicist. He was Coordinator of World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney and at 49 he is the youngest Catholic bishop in Australia and will be witness to the canonisation in Rome.