Australia rejoices: St
Mary of the Cross
"The will of God is to me a very dear book and I never tire of reading
it".
St Peter's Square: 17 October 2010 -- Australia now has
every right to rejoice with the Universal Church as it welcomes the new
name inscribed in the list of Saints, Mary of the Cross
MacKillop. That took place after 10 am on Sunday morning 17 October in
St Peter's Square in sunshine, no real rain threatening. Nothing was
going to rain on her parade - not for her, not for the other five
Saints proclaimed, hailing from Canada, Spain, Poland, Italy as well as
Australia. At somewhere around 11.30 am Archbishop Amato sdb signaled
the close to the canonisation part of the rite, requesting the Holy
Father to issue the Apostolic Decree noting the completed rite of
canonisation, to which Pope Benedict responded with a single word:
'Decernimus'. 'We so order it to be done'!
Mary was born in inner Melbourne, at Fitzroy, of
Scottish born parents. In fact, there is a Scottish Salesian, Bro
Donald McDonald (as there is also an Australian Salesian, Fr Alan
McDonald) who dropped a line just yesterday to suggest that kilts might
be all the go in St Peter's Square this weekend. Mary's grandparents
were of the MacKillop and McDonald clans. Donald wasn't wrong; there
was one kilted member of the family (not sure which clan though - too
far away to catch the tartan signature) who accompanied Mary's relics
to the altar. He managed to bring the one light moment to the entire
ceremony with his ceremonial mace (the rest of us would call it a
walking stick) when he decided one of the flower pots placed at the
base of the stand was ill-arranged, so he used his stick to move them
around!
No doubt the Holy Father had been previously
well-advised not to even think of holding the canonisation towards the
end of September, when Mary's home town Melbourne, but everywhere else
she worked as well, would be focused on another stadium with similar
capacity to St Peter's Square: the Australian Football League Grand
Final! Collingwood and canonisation might not mix! Besides, the Holy
Father was occupied elsewhere at that point. So October 17 was chosen
and enabled an estimated 8,000 or more Australians to be present. But
her feast day will be celebrated as has already been established since
her Beatification, on 8 August each year.
For those who know little of this woman who has
caught the imagination of Australians, believing or otherwise,
Mary was born January 15 1842. They were tough times, and Mary had to
find employment at an arly age to help the family and her seven
siblings. She became a governess and teacher, moving to a small town in
South Australia called Penola. It was a time when social services were
non-existent, and the rural population severely disadvantaged,
especially in terms of education and more so Catholic education, for
children. Mary set about remedying that with the help of an insightful
parish priest. Together they planned a Congregation of sisters who
would work wherever there was a need but especially in rural areas.
These Sisters are The Josephites, or more fully the Sisters of St
Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
The story is too long to tell it all here. There
were very dark moments. The Bishop of Adelaide at one point
excommunicated her! But she found great support, as did Don Bosco, from
Pope Pius IX who set in motion the recognition that would eventually
come for her Institute, in 1888. More trials - at one point she was
deposed as Mother General, and fell out of favour with the very priest
who had helped her found the Institute, but she accepted everything as
God's will. "The will of God is to me a very dear book and I never tire
of reading it". _________________ AustraLasia is an
email
service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
agency for ANS based in
Rome.
For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com
.
Use Bosconet-wiki
to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on
austraLasia
2010 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser
address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail
yourself of the Salesian
Digital
Library
at http://sdl.sdb.org
