Pope approves Australia's first saint

Pope Benedict XVI approved sainthood for Mother Mary MacKillop on Friday, making the woman known for her work among the needy Australia’s first saint.
The pope made the announcement during a ceremony at the Vatican
and set the formal canonization for Oct. 17 in Rome. Five others —
from Italy, Spain, Poland and Canada — will be canonized at the
same time.
MacKillop founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph,
an order that built dozens of schools for impoverished children
across the Australian Outback in the 1800s, as well as orphanages
and clinics for the needy.
With vows of abstinence from owning personal belongings and
dedication to helping the poor, MacKillop is credited with
spreading Roman Catholicism in Australia and New Zealand.
But she was a strong-willed advocate who sometimes got into
trouble for challenging orthodox thinking within the male-dominated
church. In 1869 she was excommunicated for inciting her followers
to disobedience, though the bishop who punished her recanted three years later and she was exonerated by a church commission.
“This is a great, great tribute to the Catholic church and a
great, great tribute to her hard work in education,” Australia’s
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday. “This is a great honor for
Australia. I offer a heartfelt expression of appreciation to the
wider Catholic community.”
MacKillop died in 1909 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in
1995.
Sainthood was also approved for Stanislaw Soltys, a 15th-century
Polish priest; Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Varano;
Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola and a
Canadian brother, Andre Bessette.
Bessette, who died in 1937, was a highly popular figure among
French Canadians and was known for miraculous cures.
Australians have been awaiting Friday’s announcement since
Benedict in December cleared the way by declaring MacKillop was
responsible for the required second miracle, one of the final steps
in the complex process before sainthood can be bestowed.
“It’s more than just Catholics, the whole country has a new
hero — someone that will give them hope for the future,” said
Garry McLean, CEO of the Mary MacKillop Heritage Center in
Melbourne.
“Today it has been recognized that a woman can become a saint
in the Australian environment with all its complexities and
challenges,” Postulator for the Cause of Mary MacKillop, Sister
Maria Casey, said in a statement. “Mary MacKillop is to be listed
among the saints of the Catholic Church. I look forward to the
celebration of her goodness when many pilgrims from all over the
world come to Rome for the ceremony.”