A Saint for "Down Under"

 
I had just read of Australia’s further propagation of abortion, including late term abortion, through a special funded program for mothers of still born babies.  In other words, such women could enrich themselves while also ending their pregnancies under the banner of a “still born death.”  Almost immediately afterwards was the story of a Christian doctor,  Jeremy Kok, who had his license suspended and lost his career for social media posts that criticized abortion and certain matters related to the LGBT ideology.  

 
These two back-to-back Aussie tales further clouds a country (and continent) with predominant roots from (Catholic) Irish convicts and immigrants in the late 1700s.  Today, though twenty percent Catholic, it is estimated that only eight percent attend Mass regularly.  Moreover, like elsewhere. Australian modernists have increasingly assailed the orthodoxy, insisting on more expansive roles for women, tolerance for birth control (and even abortion), and bent the definition of male and female.  During the 2020 COVID epidemic—panic—increasingly marginalized faithful Catholics, especially those who decried church closing and repelled mandatory injections. 

 
I experienced sorrow and a tinge of being overwhelmed by the persistent and widespread decline in Faith.  (My personal family genealogy shows at least one Catholic Irish ancestor who was criminalized and deported to Australia in the 1800s.  One would think that Australia would cherish Catholic truth.)

 
Then on the coattails of those two news stories came a breathe of the Holy Spirit.  There is no coincidences with God, and so when my sister Mary Sobel-Ott, co author of Speaking One’s Soul:  Magnifying God’s Word in a Madly Godless World, shared her discovery of Saint Mary MacKillop while recently journeying to Australia.  I searched this “first” in sainthood from that region, and my soul was immediately unburdened by the poor state of the Church from that region.  

 
How refreshing that Australia not only boasts a wonderful saint for their challenging times, but that Our Lord knew another Mary would bring that tidbit to the United States.  Hope reigns and no doubt St. Mary MacKillop is calling on us all to pray to her and Heaven for conversion at this critical juncture. 

 
St. Mary MacKillop, also known as St. Mary of the Cross,  was more than a religious figure though that alone is most sufficient.  She was an educator and social reformer yet true to Catholic Catechesis who embraced St. Joseph as a perfect model for her order.   One key bio fact is that St. Mary refused government funding for her endeavors at a time that the Catholic Church commingled such monies and thereby was entrapped by government restrictions and directives.  

 
Born in 1842 in Melbourne,  Victoria, St. Mary was also ahead of her time when she advocated for sexual abuse victims, exposing a pedophile priest.  Like today, her disclosure was met by displeasure even within the Church.  However, this homeschooled daughter of poor Scottish immigrants would face further discrimination as she, at first, became the main support of her parents and seven siblings, but then expanded her efforts to help poor children everywhere.    He tenure as governess at her aunt and uncle’s estate helped prepare her for later missionary work.

 
Encouraged by her spiritual director Father Julian Dennison Woods, in 1866, as the United States was emerging from its brutal Civil War, Saint Mary founded Australia’s first order of nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, along with a free school, St. Joseph’s School.  Soon other schools were opened, along with an orphanage and a refuge for women released from prison.

 
Sister Mary advocated a strict life of total poverty for herself and sisters, but that would be later opposed.  Moreover, her schools provided secular as well as religious education from operating only on what tuition parents could afford.  This rankled some Australian priests and bishops and some were openly hostile to these schools running in such an autonomous fashion.  This is not unlike the resentment of current Catholic clergy in many quarters (and in this country) who actually boast of cooperating with (anti Christian) government in such areas as immigration.  St. Mary had the keen insight and foresight to understand just how such co mingling of efforts might lead to the ruination of sound catechetical teaching and souls.   

 
At one point, some succeeded convincing a Bishop (Laurence Sheil) to excommunicate St. Mary, but he later reinstated her after learning that he had been misled.  Still, the opposition continued.  Fortunately, Pope Pius IX approved the Josephine rule with some relaxed degree of poverty requirements.    In 1875 she was appointed superior general but then still being combatted she was removed.  Later, St. Mary would be reinstated in 1899 and remained the head of the order until her death in 1909.

 
Pope St. John Paul II, always prophetic in his papacy beatified having accepted testimony from a woman who claimed her terminal cancer had disappeared after she called upon St. MacKillop, Pope Benedict XVI canonized her in 2010, mere years away from the COVID 19 epidemic and the continuing collapse of faith in Australia.   

 
It does not require spiritual genius to acknowledge that Australia’s first Saint, a woman, was predestined to be a model for not just Australia but all of us worldwide.  St. Mary lived for God alone to serve the neediest.  Today, the Sisters of Saint Joseph continue in that earliest mission.  However, one caveat.  All must remain focused on its founderess and her determination to forgo the world, individually serve the poorest persons, and lift them to the Lord.  She obviously cared little for the opinion of the elite, project planners, or partnerships with the secular powers.

 
Today, even her legacy could be diluted, as the spirit of the world has a tendency to inject contemporary interpretations and global objectives.  Such may have been the message of St. Pope John Paul II who beatified her when he noted:  “Dear friends:  Mary MacKillop cannot be understood without reference to her religious vocation.” After, he remarked, “Mother Mary of the Cross did not just free people from ignorance though schooling or alleviate their suffering through compassionate care.  She worked to satisfy their deeper, though sometimes unconscious longing for the inscrutable riches of Christ.” (Eph 3:8).  He noted the world’s need  for the distinctive and visible witness of holiness and moral integrity provided by religious consecration.”  And, “they (world) need to see in you lives the fidelity to the church’s sacramental and liturgical life, personal prayer centered on Christ and the Trinitarian life of God…”

 
Pope John nPaul II made explicit reference, too the fact that St. Jospeh has always been the special model of holiness, one who “committed his whole being and life to God’s loving Providence.”

 
Pointedly, he emphasized that “in Mother MacKillop’s time, so too today,  the Church is faced with many modern ‘deserts’:  the wasteland of indifference and intolerance, the desolation of racism and contempt for other human beings, the barrenness of selfishness and faithlessness sin in all its forms and expressions, and the scandal of sin magnified by the means of social communication.  Hie specifically cited the evil of abortion and euthanasia and encouraged strong family life in the “face of old and new threats to its stability.”  

 
Pope St, John Paul II extolled Mother Mary MacKillop as an outstanding model of a woman who embraced the cross.  (Readers are encouraged to read the entire text  catholicculture.org “On the Beatification of Mother Mary Helen Mackillop” and the Homily of The Holy Father, John Paul II “Apostolic Journey to the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Sri Lanka”. Eucharistic Concelebration for the Beatification of Mother Mary MacKillop January 19, 1995, (vatican.va)

 
 Of many prayers, inspired by St. Mary Helen MacKillop one powerful one stood out:

 
O Father, we humbly seek strength through the inspiring teachings of St. Mary MacKillop

May her unwavering faith and dedication guide us in our trials.

Grant us the courage to serve others selflessly and to embrace our challenges with grace

Help us to embody her spirit of compassion and resilience, as we strive to live out our purpose in your love.

Amen

 
Finally as we move towards the end of the Jubilee Year of Hope, let us always understand:  Our Lord always holds the “ace” card and with our confidence and perseverance, Down Under could well go on the Up and Up.