Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to speak on this statement about the recent canonisation of Mary MacKillop. In rising I acknowledge the celebrations that were held throughout Australia over the weekend, including those in Melbourne organised by the archdiocese and the Sisters of St Joseph that I attended, along with many thousands of other people. At the outset I also acknowledge the bipartisan approach to this and the fact that both the government and the coalition promised in the context of the election campaign to provide funding towards those celebrations and related events. Members of both sides of parliament attended the events in Rome over the weekend.

The canonisation on Sunday of Mary MacKillop was an event that all Australians can celebrate, not just Catholics. Men and women of every faith, and none, can rejoice in the life of this extraordinary Australian. A canonisation is not the religious equivalent of winning an individual Olympic gold medal, although many, including some Catholics, speak of it as if it were. In an age of individualism, it is perhaps difficult to understand that Mary was motivated by a profound commitment to community and the common good. Over the past few weeks, many claims have been made of Mary: she was a feminist before her time; she was a rebel against a clerical church; she was a pioneering social worker; and it has even been claimed that she was a model for the Independents in the federal parliament!

Mary MacKillop was a gifted woman; a strong-willed and determined leader; a builder of schools, homes for the poor and congregations. But she was more than all those characterisations. Her long-running disputes with various bishops have been well rehearsed in recent weeks. It was real and painful for her, but she was no rebel. She always accepted the authority of the church hierarchy, praying constantly that the work of her sisters would be able to prosper. Her prayerful perseverance was rewarded, as previous decisions were reversed, including her excommunication. At her passing, Archbishop Moran observed:

Today I believe I have assisted at the death bed of a Saint.

Mary was an immensely practical woman. Her sisters, young women in their late teens and twenties, left the cities for the hardship of small towns and rural communities in the century before last. Preparing them for the task was uppermost in Mary’s mind. They, she said, ‘must be trained spiritually and in the worldly knowledge necessary to enable them to take the stand the church in Australia requires of them.’ The work not only included teaching in the schools she founded and caring for the poor and homeless but begging when necessary for the funds to live on. Her practical Christianity attracted support from Catholics and non-Catholics alike. While motivated by faith, she was also a woman of the world. When women gained the right to vote and to be elected to parliament she encouraged her congregation to participate. She wrote to her sisters in 1903:

It is the duty of all of us to vote. Find out who are the members proposed for election and vote for those who are considered most friendly to the church and to religion. Every so called Catholic is not the best man.

We can learn from Mary MacKillop that clear vision, perseverance and determination will overcome obstacles, but most of all we can learn that faith is not a relic. To claim Mary for some current political cause is to miss the essential meaning of her life. She was motivated through her love of Christ to bring about a better future for hundreds of thousands of Australians. In an era that often seems besotted by vice, she reminds us that hope and courage are enduring virtues. In 50 years, the small school she founded in 1866 at Penola with Father Julian Woods had grown to 106 houses, 12 institutions sheltering more than 1,000 people at a time, and 117 schools with more than 12,000 pupils. Her life was an exemplar of the call to ‘love one another as I have loved you’.

A few weeks before her death in 1909, having previously suffered a stroke, Mary wrote:

Whatever troubles may be before you, accept them cheerfully, remembering whom you are trying to follow. Do not be afraid. Love one another, bear with one another, and let charity guide you in all your life.

It is a fitting epitaph and a worthy commendation for us all.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on indulgence to speak from this side of the chamber in support of the remarks of the Prime Minister regarding the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. It is certainly humbling for a simple bloke to follow in the trailblazing wake of a wonderful, inspirational woman. I started in grade 1 in 1971 and went through to 1977 at a Josephite school, and I think that every day we would have said a prayer for the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. St Mary of the Cross is a true Australian hero for people who attended Josephite schools, for Catholics and, it seems—from the celebrations on the weekend—for all Australians, even the atheists. She is a hero not just for people of Catholic faith or even the broader Christian community but for every Australian.

St Mary’s story captures something at the core of the Australian spirit particularly because she had a heart for the bush, which is such an important part of the Australian identity, because she hated poverty and inequality, and perhaps also—with all respect to you, Mr Deputy Speaker—because she had a healthy disrespect for authority. That is an Australian trait that is usually an endearing trait. I think that even the Pope was tolerant of Australians not necessarily respecting all of the rules put down by the Vatican when it came to announcing the canonisation.

St Mary of the Cross chose to live a life of poverty in order to bring hope and opportunity to thousands of Australians, and her legacy continues to do so today. St Mary founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, an order dedicated to educating the poor, particularly in the bush, where I am from. Because of that commitment to the bush, she had a particular influence on many Indigenous Australians. The Sisters of St Joseph was the first religious order to be founded by an Australian, and they committed themselves to poverty, to divine provision, to no ownership of personal belongings, and to go wherever they were needed. And let us look at some of the places where they were needed. I will speak particularly about Queensland, although I know there are other states that have their claim. I speak about places like Allora, Clermont, Mackay and Pittsworth, and the school I attended, St Patrick’s in St George.

Today we live in an age when so much of life is about looking out for No. 1; but St Mary MacKillop was different. Her life was about putting others first. She put aside the usual prejudices and became poor to serve the poor—a truly great commitment. In doing so, she gave hope to the forgotten peoples of her generation and she continues to inspire and guide a new generation today. Mary MacKillop opened the first Josephite school in South Australia in 1867, and by 1871 there were 130 sisters serving in more than 40 schools and welfare centres in South Australia and Queensland. As a kid growing up in St George in rural Queensland, I attended St Patrick’s Convent, a school founded by the Josephites. As I mentioned, every day we prayed to Mary MacKillop. St Patrick’s Convent was established after her death, but her legacy was strong then and continues in St Patrick’s to this day.

Mary MacKillop gave country kids like me a chance at education. Just a few years ago I attended the 75th reunion of St Patrick’s—I was the MC, with Sister Mary—and the school community is still going strong. Not only did Mary MacKillop understand the value in educating the poor; the Josephites also ran an orphanage, they rescued neglected children and girls at risk, and they cared for the aged, the poor and the terminally ill.

St Mary was a true pioneer for social justice and welfare in Australia. I lightly touch on the fact that some of these things are Labor values in terms of valuing education, valuing social justice. The Australian political system has a healthy separation of church and state, but that does not mean that the church does not have a vital role to play. Obviously we do not want a ballot box sitting in the shadow of a pulpit; nevertheless, it is the church’s role to stand in the margins and advocate on behalf of the voiceless and the oppressed, to stand up for those who cannot stand on their own. That is what a good church does.

I know that there are some who flinch when the church enters the political debate. Whilst people of faith should be guided by their religion rather than controlled by their religion—that is certainly my position—I do recognise that we need the church to continue to shine a light on injustice and inequity in our society and around the world: like the plight of refugees, like advancing the Millennium Development Goals, like child safety, like recognising the poor treatment of our own Indigenous people. This is the role of a strong church, just as St Mary of the Cross shone a light on poverty, education and care for the sick nearly 150 years ago. When people talk about our Judeo-Christian heritage, this is what they mean.

St Mary MacKillop understood what it is to loose the chains of injustice and set the oppressed free. She pioneered social justice and she did so with no motive other than compassion. When she came up against the male church hierarchy, she stood her ground at a time when that was not often done, and she did so on behalf of those she served: the poor, the people in the bush and the Indigenous. When called on to compromise the values of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, as she was expected to, like a good nun, she refused and she was excommunicated for her trouble. It was not long, though, before she was welcomed back to the fold and continued her good work. Travelling to Rome, she received Papal approval for the Sisters of St Joseph and travelled throughout Europe, where she studied educational methods, collected resources and recruited nuns and priests.

The Josephites continued to thrive, opening more schools in South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand. All the while Mary MacKillop faced opposition from priests and bishops, and poor health of her own, but nothing would stop her good work. Today her faith in good works has stood the test of time. The Sisters of Saint Joseph continue their work and bring hope to many in Australia, New Zealand, East Timor, Ireland, Peru and Brazil. And they bring hope to many schools in my electorate of Moreton: St Brendan’s at Moorooka, with principal Stephen Johnson; Our Lady of Fatima at Acacia Ridge, with principal Martyn Savage; St Pius X at Salisbury, with principal Allison Malouf; Our Lady’s College at Annerley, with principal Claire McLaren; St Sebastian’s at Yeronga, with principal Kerry Weber; our Lady of Lourdes at Sunnybank, with principal Gerry de Ruyter; and Clairvaux MacKillop College, which was formerly MacKillop College for girls, at Upper Mount Gravatt, with principal Laura Keating.

As Mary MacKillop’s extraordinary life and legacy are recognised through her canonisation, we are all challenged to reflect on how we respond to the needs of those around us. As Mary MacKillop used to say, ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: it is with very great pleasure that I speak today on the canonisation of sister Mary MacKillop. Some hundreds of pilgrims in Brisbane gathered at St Stephen’s Cathedral on Sunday, where Mary MacKillop practised her religion more than 140 years ago. She is indeed a remarkable woman, and many of the speakers before me have mentioned her dedication to the poor, those who suffered and those in rural communities. She was born in Fitzroy, Victoria, in 1842 and was educated at a private school in Fitzroy and by her father. She received her first Holy Communion in 1850 at the age of eight.

She started work at a very young age as a clerk in Melbourne and later became a teacher in Portland. Because her family were of very poor circumstances, she took a job as a governess in 1860 at her aunt and uncle’s farm at Penola in South Australia, where she looked after and taught their children. As if that were not enough, she taught the other farm children on the Cameron estate as well. During this time, her work brought her in contact with Father Woods, who had been the parish priest in the south-east since his ordination in 1857. MacKillop stayed for two years with the Camerons of Penola before she accepted a teaching job. She taught in Portland in Victoria in 1862. Father Woods was very concerned about the lack of education in South Australia, particularly the lack of good Catholic education, so in 1866 he invited MacKillop and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola to open up a Catholic school. They started from very humble beginnings and opened up in a stable. After a bit of renovation by their brother, the MacKillops started teaching more than 50 children. At this time Mary made a declaration of her dedication to God, and she began by wearing black.

In 1867 MacKillop was the first sister and mother superior of the newly formed Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and she moved to a new convent in Adelaide. The same year, at the age of 25, she adopted the religious name of Sister Mary of the Cross. Many people have spoken about the history of Mary MacKillop and the sisters and their endeavours, particularly about the fact that there was no ownership of personal belongings, their faith that God would provide for them and their emphasis on poverty and helping others.

Everyone in Australia at the moment has a link to Mary MacKillop. It is befitting that I mention the Queensland link, because she did serve for a time in Queensland. She arrived in Queensland on 31 December 1869 after an invitation from Brisbane’s first Catholic Bishop, James Quinn. She was one of five sisters of St Joseph who rented a house in South Brisbane. They rented a house in Tribune Street, but the house was so very small that they then moved to a hotel in Montague Street, South Brisbane. In 1870 they opened up three schools in Brisbane for poor children and another school in Maryborough. During her time in Brisbane, MacKillop was the head teacher at St Mary’s School in South Brisbane, before she returned to Adelaide in April 1871. It is befitting to mention her legacy in Queensland, and the previous speaker, the member for Moreton, spoke about the number of schools that were set up, including the one that I just mentioned in South Brisbane. There were a number of schools throughout Brisbane and in country areas like Claremont, Rockhampton, Ipswich, Mackay, Allora and Pittsworth.

Mary MacKillop made a number of trips to Brisbane and Queensland in her life, establishing schools, convents and orphanages. She was a strong-willed woman, and there is no doubt that she had altercations with the church. That caused her to be asked to leave Brisbane by the mid-1800s by Bishop James Quinn. But the sisters did eventually return and they set up more schools.

I would like to place on record some insights from some of the pilgrims who gathered at St Stephens. There were many pilgrims who came to celebrate this very special day. They include a teacher, Karen Mulcahy, who, with her parents, Del and Ben Mulcahy, travelled from Lismore to participate at the celebrations at St Stephens. Ms Mulcahy said, ‘There is still a strong connection’—with Mary MacKillop—‘in the education system.’ She said, ‘The “down-to-earth” connection with teachers in the catholic education section is Sister Mary MacKillop’s legacy to modern Australia.’ She said that, working as a teacher, she had the privilege of having her first posting with the Josephite sisters. ‘I just loved working with them,’ she said. ‘I loved their down-to-earth hospitality. Their genuine sense of real integrity. Putting money where their mouth is.’ Miss Mulcahy believes that this is Mary MacKillop’s gift to Australia. Ms Mulcahy said:

For modern Australia it is great because she stood up for what she believed in, she didn’t just go along because that was the right thing to do.

She actually challenged what was going on around her and I think that sense of spirit is something that we can associate with whether we are religious or not.

It is a great privilege to have Mary MacKillop canonised, and I want to end with the words of Father Ken Howell of St Stephens Cathedral, who said:

It’s a first for Australia and it’s a significant moment in the history of our country because now canonised saints are from here, one of our own.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: this is a really unusual subject for me to speak on since I am not a Catholic or even a very religious person, but I would like to acknowledge a fine woman who made an enormous contribution not only to Australia and the Catholic Church but also to how a person should live their life. Mary MacKillop was an exceptional woman who achieved so much at a time when women found it very difficult to achieve things on the scale that she did. She was principled, and she was highly committed to her community and to the most disadvantaged people in the community. She was a pioneer in social justice. She was compassionate, she was caring, she was an activist and she recognised how important education was for all people. She challenged ideas and the traditional approach to handling issues in the community.

The simple fact that she was so committed to those people really disadvantaged in the community makes it even more special for me that Kathleen Evans—the grandmother whose cure from inoperable brain and lung cancer was the miracle which was performed—came from Windale within the electorate of Shortland. It is a very disadvantaged area and I think it really goes together with the type of person Mary MacKillop was. Kathleen Evans is somebody from a disadvantaged community who prayed while holding a piece of cloth from Mary MacKillop’s nightie and she was able to recover from those incurable cancers. If my reading of Mary MacKillop is correct, I think that would be very special for her.

I also want to mention the Josephite order. I have some exposure to the Josephite order because my daughter-in-law has three aunties who are all Josephite nuns. They are women who are committed to education and who take their vow of poverty very seriously. They have done the most incredible things in their lives, such as teaching very disadvantaged people in China when it was not the country it is today and when the doors to China were closed. These women were able to make their commitments to their various communities because of the Josephite order. It is an order that was founded by Mary and which stands for the values that everyone in this parliament would be committed to.

I feel quite humble in speaking on this subject. I am particularly humble as I am not a person of this particular faith, but I do recognise this exceptional woman who gave so much not only to Australia but to the world. I think it is a very proud day for Australia, particularly for all those of the Catholic faith.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: Patrick O’Sullivan, the head of the Jesuits for Australasia and whose father, Sir Neil O’Sullivan, was the leader of the Senate, addressed a large conference in Brisbane and said that Mount Carmel school was successfully getting the Christian message and achieving what we want to achieve in Catholic education in Australia. In discussing this recently with Tony Chappell, a long-serving Christian brother, I said that St Vincent de Paul at the University of Queensland was run by a Mount Carmel boy, the YCW was run by a Mount Carmel boy and the Newman Society was run by a Mount Carmel boy and his girlfriend, who later became his wife. I said that all of the organisations at this huge university were run by people from that small Mount Carmel school. Tony Chappell said, ‘They were not from Mount Carmel; they were from Cloncurry, and it was Sister Thomas.’ I thought about it afterwards and he was right. I have diligently watched the television coverage of Mary MacKillop’s canonisation and all I found out was that she had a lot of fights with bishops. I was deeply disappointed because I did not think it got any sort of message across at all. I watched three separate programs I was that interested in finding out about her.

I have never had any doubt in my mind since I first heard of Mary MacKillop 40 or 50 years ago that Sister Thomas was Mother Mary MacKillop revisited, and she is the lady I am talking about here. I tried to put my finger on her characteristics. I tried to remember what I could of Sister Thomas. I can remember my mother saying: ‘Oh, isn’t it wonderful that Sister Thomas is coming to Cloncurry. She’s a very famous lady. She’s a very famous educator.’ One of the things I remember is that if you went to mass every morning during Lent you got a holy card with lace edged on it, and I can tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that some of the roughest kids got that holy card because she had inculcated in them this great Christian faith, this great belief. She also told us that, if we were not able to get up early in the morning because it was too cold, we were sooks and that we should be wrapped in cotton wool. Cloncurry boys do not like to be told that they are sooks, which also helped us to get out of bed to go to mass during Lent.

She told us in very great detail about the miracles of many of the saints. She told us in such a way that you would never doubt for one moment that those miracles had taken place. She told us that God could do anything, that you could pray and God could do anything. She was a good example of God doing anything. She was the hand of God, looking back on it. Bobby Glass, who was just below me at the Cloncurry Convent School, topped the state in the scholarship exam, which was in the eighth grade. In those days in Queensland you had to pass the scholarship exam or you were not allowed to go on to secondary school. If you got a good pass you got a government scholarship which helped you to go away to boarding school, because we did not have any local high school in Cloncurry.

In all her years of teaching this remarkable lady had never had a single student fail scholarship. The failure rates were about 30 or 40 per cent, and we were kids from very rough backgrounds in Cloncurry. I think it was there that I learned to fight very young because I was the only kid sent to school wearing shoes. It was a fast way to learn how to fight. As to her characteristics, yes, she was very liberal with the cane, and I was most certainly on the receiving end of it on many occasions.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I was waiting for you to say that it did not work. She forced all of us in the eighth grade to stay back studying until five o’clock in the afternoon. She stayed there with us, supervising. She had thousands of cards and she had very elementary ways of teaching mathematics. Even the greatest numbskull could understand mathematics with the little cards that she had been handing out for, I suppose, 15 or 20 years. During the athletics and football carnivals in which we played the state school, which was four times our size and which we would regularly beat, she would be in the sisters’ car with her rosary beads, praying throughout the football matches and athletics carnivals.

I think the thing I probably most remember was that she said in every religious speech she ever gave: ‘Now, Children, remember that he who laughs last laughs best. We’re all going to die and those that have gone to church and done the right thing in life will go to heaven.’ She also told us, which was rare in those days, ‘There are evil people in this world.’ She said: ‘There was a boy at my school in Winton and he skited after he left school that, within three years of leaving school, he had 15 notches on his gun.’ He had shot 15 Aboriginal people. She told us that there were evil people in the world.

I think this is where the Australian bit came in. I do not know of any other schools that did this. We sang God save the Queen, but she is an English person and I do not think that was very Australian, but with the St Joseph’s nuns we stood under the flag every morning of our school lives and we sang:

God bless our lovely morning land. God keep her with his enfolding hand, Australia. Whilst distant booms the battle’s roar from out some rude, barbaric shore, on earth there is no other land like our own shining southern land, our own dear home, our motherland, Australia.

Every single kid who went through a St Joseph’s school was imbued with a deep love not of England but of Australia. We were brought up to be patriotic Australians.

My father said on many occasions, ‘Who are the happiest people that we know?’ We lived in Cloncurry and did not go much outside Cloncurry. I knew he was referring to the nuns, and the St Joseph’s nuns in Cloncurry were the happiest people that I knew of by a long way. Whatever they had, it made them very happy. At church on Sunday, Father Alan Sheldrick, a man very gifted with a deep Christian faith and Christian commitment—and I use the word ‘Christian’ rather than ‘Catholic’ not to denigrate in any way but to delineate to you the man he is—said: ‘After the war I used to have to go on my bike on Sunday. We had two meals that we prepared—one for our own family and one for the nuns.’ He said, ‘I used to peddle on my bike and take the meal down to the nuns on Sunday.’ He told us, ‘Many years later when I became a Catholic priest, one of the nuns told me that one week when they had received that meal it was the only hot meal and meal containing meat that they were able to purchase that week.’ They had virtually no food and they were very hungry, and she remembered how deeply she had appreciated Alan Sheldrick carrying that food to them. So these are people who actually went hungry to deliver us an education that ensured that every single one of us passed our scholarship exam and that every single one of us performed, if we had the abilities, to a point where we would all get Commonwealth scholarships and be able to go on to secondary school. Finally, I have written only a couple of poems in my life. I am not very good at writing poems but I wrote this little one, which is really about my own upbringing in Cloncurry:

Bury me please beside Uncle Bert

back in the ‘Curry

the place that I love

I will not be far from an old dusty grandstand

that I once made ring with the shouts for the Tigers with my mates and my team

though I remember the dust and flies

most of all I remember a kid who was bullied by boys who were shoeless and tough

and of the mates who stuck by him till he was as tough as the rest

the tough little kid of the west

most of all I remember the little white nuns—

and they have changed their habit from white, in those days, to brown—

who gave me my god.

That is my final tribute to the people who educated me.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: for those of us who follow the Catholic faith, I must say I am proud and awed by the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint. Over the past few weeks, like others, I have read a lot about Mary MacKillop and her commitment to education, particularly of the poor. I have read about the two miracles she performed, curing two grandmothers—Kathleen Evans and Veronica Hopson—of their terminal cancer. I have read about the long campaign to have Mary MacKillop declared a saint and watched the celebrations in the Vatican on Sunday when Mary MacKillop was canonised as St Mary of the Cross. What people may not have read about however are the individual stories of the communities right across Australia that have been impacted by this event. Their faith and their sense of Christian identity have been impacted.

On Sunday, I had the privilege of attending the inaugural blessing of the stations of the cross at the Marian pilgrimage centre in Bringelly. More than 6,000 people gathered together for the unveiling of 14 exquisite life-size sculptures of the stations of the cross. These sculptures were beautifully created by the sculptor, Phan Chi Lang. They will be a location for pilgrimage for many Christians not only in Western Sydney but also within our greater community. The followers who gathered there on Sunday celebrated mass with Bishop Julian Porteous in honour of Mary MacKillop and her impending canonisation. There was a sense of excitement about Australia’s first saint. However what stood out for me at the time was the sense of pride in the congregation. This was an opportunity for followers of the Catholic faith in Australia to stand proud as one of their own joined the prestigious ranks of the holy group and was entered in the Book of Saints.

It was also time for reflection on what Mary MacKillop stood for and why she should be revered as an example of not only Catholic life but also Australian life. At her core, Mary MacKillop was a generous and compassionate woman. She showed absolute dedication to her beliefs as well as assisting those less fortunate in the community. Mary MacKillop had an extraordinary capacity to forgive. I doubt whether she would have survived in this place. I am not sure whether we have the capacity she showed. During her life she was accused of many things from fraudulent dealings to drunkenness, things that ordinarily in a modern society people might go rushing off to a solicitor in the hope of bringing defamation proceedings. But this woman copped that sort of treatment over 130 years ago. In fact, the Bishop of Adelaide moved for her excommunication from the Catholic Church. For a Catholic that would have to be the most grievous punishment that could be inflicted. Not only did she cop it; she fought it and she won. She stood up for what she believed in regardless of who was telling her what she should believe and how she should act. She forgave those people, including the bishop, as I understand it, and she encouraged others to forgive as well. In 1909, shortly before her death, Mary MacKillop wrote:

Whenever troubles may be before you, accept them cheerfully, remembering whom you are trying to follow.

I cannot think of a better role model. I would be seen to be lacking that kind of spirit. She was able to bear a large amount of suffering and humiliation, and press on with what she set out to do which was to educate the young and the underprivileged. I think it is marvellous that this young woman did that at that time. Of course, Mary MacKillop’s most well-known achievement was the establishment of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart and the schools that her order started. Also what is less well known is what she did with respect to disadvantaged people in the community. She started the school at Penola in South Australia.

The Josephites offered crucial education to those who would otherwise not have had a chance to attend school. I did not have to read much about that because Bernadette’s Aunty Gladys—some knew her as Sister Paul-Maria—was a Josephite. I have learnt from my in-laws about the practice of the Josephites and that Mary MacKillop is still very much revered by the sisters today. I learnt that this young woman, at the age of 25, started this order. I would not even hazard a guess as to the number of schools that they started—I am sure someone will put that number on the record when talking about Mary MacKillop. It is almost miraculous in itself that a young person of 25 who was in poor health and did not have the support of the local clergy went ahead and made such a successful contribution to Catholic education in this country. Through her insistence, they tutored pupils not only in the Catholic faith but also in life skills, literacy and adding up—like the adding up of grocery bills. The sisters hoped these skills would help students in all stations of their lives. This is a fitting philosophy that should always be remembered when it comes to the education of our youth.

During the celebrations at the Marian pilgrimage centre, which I mentioned earlier, tribute was also paid to another Mary: Our Lady of La Vang. Most people throughout the world, whether or not they are Christians, would know that Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ. But to the Vietnamese community in the south-west of Sydney, and probably throughout the world, Mary holds a very special significance. They refer to her as Our Lady of La Vang. Following the fall of Saigon, 35 years ago, a wave of refugees fled their homeland in Vietnam. Many of them escaped by boat. We now refer to them as our first boat people. They prayed to Our Lady of La Vang as they fled on boats. They asked her to keep them safe during their perilous journey. Thankfully, many of the refugees who fled to Australia were kept safe and are now flourishing in their new home where, I must say, they are making a remarkable contribution. The Vietnamese community revere Mary as the patron saint of refugees escaping by sea, so she could probably be regarded the patron saint of boat people.

It was an honour to pay tribute to our Lady of La Vang on Sunday with members of the local Vietnamese Catholic community. It was very fitting that we celebrated their St Mary on the day that Mary MacKillop was canonised. I take this opportunity to thank the Australian-Vietnamese Catholic community and their chair, Mr Hoan Van Giang, for their kind invitation to celebrate with them on Sunday. It was certainly an honour to be part of such a reverent commemoration. It certainly lays a foundation not only for the Catholic community of Western Sydney but for the broader community that, when we look to people to set the yardstick for behaviour, we now have one of our own, our first saint, Mary MacKillop.

John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, Madam Deputy Speaker, I join my colleagues tonight to speak on our first saint in Australia, St Mary of the Cross. Last Friday I had the great privilege of attending the 125th anniversary of St Joachim’s Primary School at Lidcombe, a St Joseph’s school that was established 125 years ago by Mary MacKillop. The motto of the school is ‘Honour, Virtue, Courage, Effort’, and in the spirit of Mary MacKillop St Joachim’s Primary School at Lidcombe is committed to ‘creating an environment in which every person is encouraged to fulfil their potential’, ‘being a supportive, true and living Catholic community that witnesses the values of the gospel’ and ‘being a multicultural community of families which nurtures, accepts and supports each of its individual members’. I am sure Mary MacKillop would have been very proud of the Principal, Ms Pam Dickens, and the local parish priest, Father David Vaughan, for his celebration of the Eucharist and his engagement with the young Australians who have the benefit of a great Catholic education that had its origins 125 years ago.

Mary MacKillop, as we all know, was an extraordinary woman. Today we would probably say she is a great Australian. Born in Melbourne in 1842, Mary MacKillop went out to work at the age of 16 to support her young brothers and sisters in the local town of Penola, where she met Father Julian Woods. He was the local parish priest and had a great influence on her in promoting her mission for education, and I am personally very grateful for that mission. Although Mary is best remembered for her work in establishing many schools, she also established hospitals, orphanages and shelters for the homeless and for unmarried mothers. Clearly she worked for those who were the most disadvantaged members of our community. I had my primary school education at the hands of the St Joseph’s nuns and I am grateful for that education. I well remember Sister Augustine and I well remember her sizzling cane. I well remember Sister Dominic and Sister Angela and I have particularly fond memories of Sister Christina, who was my music teacher and had a great influence on my early love and development of music. She taught me how to play the Blue Danube and I will be forever grateful for that.

I am also grateful that my best friend, Tom Travers, who worked for my father in the local law practice in Dunedoo, also had a sister he dearly loved, Sister Fidelma, who was also a St Joseph’s nun. She was quite a character. She was a great musician, a tremendous pianist, and she too had a great influence on my life. Clearly, the life of Mary MacKillop was monumentally virtuous and monumentally heroic. The member for Shortland in her contribution almost apologised that she was not a Catholic. All of us know that that does not matter because Mary MacKillop was a person for all Australians. If anyone ever set an example of doing something to help the most disadvantaged people in Australia, surely it was St Mary of the Cross.

So, like all of us here tonight, we were very proud last Sunday to see her acknowledged with the ultimate accolade of being pronounced Australia’s first saint, and justifiably so. That was a great occasion and let us hope for all Australians, whether they are devout Catholics or whether they have absolutely no faith at all, that the heroic life that St Mary MacKillop led inspires them to fulfil their hopes, dreams and aspirations in life and that she is forever a source of love and encouragement for us all. God bless Mary MacKillop.

Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I too am feeling quite blessed to be here tonight to speak on the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. As a teacher of proud Catholic roots, to be able to join with other members of the House in marking the birth and recognition of our first Australian saint is a great honour. This is a great time for Australian Catholics and I have been humbled by the well wishes of people from other faiths and indeed from people without a faith who simply have wished us Catholics well in our celebrations.

There is so much that is universal and admirable in the life St Mary of the Cross. Her inspirational life has been well documented over recent days, as it has in this chamber and in the House in recent days as well. She was a woman of incredible faith and a woman of great courage. She was a great teacher and a great leader with a burning passion for social justice. She stood up to bullying authority. It is becoming apparent that she knew how to lobby as well and to persevere. St Mary’s work touched many people in her lifetime and beyond. In fact, many of the Josephite girls that I have known who live on the Central Coast have said to me that one thing they recall from their years of study at St Joseph’s at East Gosford is the statement from Mary that you should never see a need without doing something about it.

I turn in my remarks now to a reflection on Mary’s influence in the seat of Robertson. Mary MacKillop actually arrived in the seat of Robertson in 1887 at a beautiful place not very far from where we live in Bensville. She and several other sisters arrived by ferry at Kincumber with 22 homeless boys in March of that year. It is said that the community was established fairly quickly and they certainly were very industrious. One of the most longstanding stories concerns a boy named Philip O’Brien, who was extremely ill at age 15. He had such affection for Mary MacKillop that he asked for her as he was dying at Kincumber. I am sure that Mary was very caught up in many other works but she travelled from Sydney—which was no small journey in those days, the last part of which was by ferry to the orphanage at Kincumber—to be at Philip’s side to comfort him in his final hours.

One of the things I have spoken about in this House is the beauty of the area in which we live. I can actually see the orphanage at Kincumber from our home at Bensville. Each day when we get up and look over the mangroves to Brisbane Water, not far off to the right over the oyster leases that sit in Cockle Bay we see a Celtic cross on the Holy Cross Church and we also see the orphanage, which now operates as a Josephite spirituality centre. There are a number of really important old buildings on the site and if any of the members here or people from other areas of Australia come to visit Robertson they will be able to take a tour and see the first brick building that was erected there in 1900 and formed the schoolrooms for the children to learn in. Very interestingly, there is a swimming pool there and a water tank. This was built to make sure that the whole place was completely self-sustaining. So she was not only a woman of vision in terms of education, she also had a sustainability angle, which was very sensible. The sewerage and septic systems were installed along with electric light, as Mary MacKillop and the people who followed her made sure that the care of the young men who ended up in that orphanage was taken on very well.

One of the great joys of living in Kincumber has been the picnics we have had with our parish on the grounds of the orphanage. John Smith is a gentleman who came into our lives and is a deacon in our parish. You may have seen a story in the weekend’s edition of the Sun Herald in which he shared his story of being an orphan. John Smith is actually the deacon who attended each of our children’s baptisms and he is a regular parishioner at Holy Cross Church where we attend. Mr Smith had this to say:

The nuns were my parents. I never saw my mother in my life. I’ve never even seen a picture of her and I don’t know where my dad is. The sisters are the only mother I ever knew.

I have brothers and sisters who live up here but I haven’t seen them. I might be a twin.

…            …            …

It was tops growing up here … A lot of old boys have come back over the years.’

Mr Smith said that he ‘felt good’ about the canonisation, as many of us do, and declared that:

[Mary] deserves it, there’s no doubt about that. What she’s done for Australia is unbelievable.

Apart from the orphanage that we see at Kincumber, there is a local school that the Josephites have established. It provides great Catholic education for girls on the Central Coast. It is diocesan school and it serves all of the communities from the parishes of East Gosford, Mangrove Mountain, Kincumber, North Gosford, Wyoming, Terrigal, Erina, Woy Woy and Umina. For those of us who know where the Donnison Street entrance to the Union Hotel is—it is a car park these days—apparently that was the site on which the school was established. It then moved to East Gosford, not far from the current site of the secondary school that continues to offer this profound education in which young women are taught to follow the college motto, which was established from a reading of Micah: to act justly, to love tenderly and walk humbly with your God. Certainly those qualities of just action, tender loving and humility are things we have heard about Mary MacKillop in the last few weeks.

The current principal is Stephen Walsh. I had the pleasure of going to the school during the most recent campaign with Simon Crean to have a look at the developments that are underway there. I think Mary was a visionary for the future and at that school there is still a sense of really making sure that there are the very best opportunities for young people to be educated in things that they are passionate about. We have heard the member for Kennedy speaking about the influence of a Josephite education in enabling him as to his life—and, yes, we did hear about the cane but I cannot tell you that that has been the experience that I have heard about to do with the Josephite sisters. These are the words that the college articulate as to what they are trying to do at St Joseph’s and I think they epitomise what Mary MacKillop and her story tell us as Australians:

Much of what we are trying to do at St. Joseph’s is related to the development in our community of the spirit of Mary MacKillop.

Hers was a uniquely Australian spirituality of a lay woman whose tremendous faith gave her a clear vision of how to minister to the needs of Australians in those difficult days of settlement.

Her single-mindedness in making education available for poor children, rather than the relatively better off town and country children, brought her, at times, into conflict with the institutional Church. She wanted to see her sisters ‘up country’ in twos and threes serving small communities and living in solidarity with them. In this sense, the Josephites took the Church to where the people were.

There is a real pride developing amongst the girls at St. Joseph’s belonging to a Josephite school where the name and works of Mary MacKillop—

now St Mary of the Cross—

are honoured. In our curriculum and in our awareness of the needs of the community in which we live, we try to carry on in the spirit of Mary MacKillop. Many girls—

at St Joseph’s—

work ... in school service in ways as diverse as counting the newsletters and covering books—

and serving the local community. Also:

Our students and their families generously support a number of charitable appeals throughout the year. Many of the students commit themselves to service to the local, national and global communities through a variety of social justice initiatives.

One of the important things that the canonisation of St Mary of the Cross, our Mary MacKillop, has liberated in the public space is a recognition of the place of faith and spirituality in the current lives of ordinary Australians. It also reminds us of the place of faith in the Catholic Australian tradition that was instrumental in providing education to many Australians who were likely to miss out on receiving it. The schools today of Mary MacKillop, St Mary of the Cross, carry on her founding mission: to relieve suffering and to bring hope in today’s world. These are such Australian aspirations. In the mission of St Joseph’s College we see Mary’s inspiration. Today, in my seat of Robertson, men and women are working together to help form young women who will act justly, giving them a Catholic view of the world, enabling them to learn the highest standards achievable within a nurturing community, creating authentic relationships based on Gospel values, empowering them to make a difference in the world in the spirit of Mary MacKillop. The values they articulate are friendship, truth, respect, forgiveness, justice, love, compassion and hope. They are ones that the Josephite community are sharing with all Australians at this time.

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this place to reflect for a moment upon the extraordinary contribution made to this nation by an extraordinary Australian woman, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Mary sought to serve and the last thing she would have ever imagined and probably the last thing she would have ever wanted is to be declared a saint. But, a saint she is. Mary is a saint, formally and theologically, in the Catholic Church. She was and is a secular ‘saint’ for the many thousands of people touched by her work and presence in days gone by and those many people inspired by her life and works today—and one of those is me as I got to know this tremendous woman’s story, which is truly inspirational. To paraphrase the philosopher and non-believer, Hannah Arendt, perhaps the true greatness of Mary MacKillop for us is and will be that we sense behind her marvellous work someone who remains greater and more mysterious, because her works point to a person whose essence can neither be exhausted nor fully revealed by what it is that she has done.

‘Heroic’, ‘holy’ and ‘infused with moral courage’ are descriptors which in part reveal facets of Mary MacKillop but fail to provide a satisfactory explanation of who Mary was. The events of Mary’s life are indeed extraordinary. Born on 15 January 1842 in Fitzroy in Melbourne, a city then less than eight years old, Mary was the eldest of eight children of Scottish immigrants, Alexander and Flora MacKillop. Alexander was an intelligent man but not a good provider and Mary’s family, we understand, struggled, with relatives often providing shelter and a home and other much-needed resources. Consequently, Mary commenced working at an early age, first in a stationery store, then as a teacher and later as a governess to cousins in the south-east of South Australia.

Apparently she was a fine horsewoman, loved nature and had a great affection for her family. In all this, Mary dreamed of becoming a nun but put her dream aside to help support her family. As a governess, Mary observed that there was little or no education for rural children and especially for Catholic children. In a watershed relationship, Mary met the parish priest, Father Julian Tenison Woods, who shared her dream to educate the poor, and when she was 24 years old she believed that she was free at last to follow that dream. Mary was well known for her maxim: ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’ In 1866, Mary and her sister opened a school in a disused stable in Penola, thereby establishing the congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph. Mary was advised to move to Adelaide, where the new congregation expanded and soon spread to other colonies and to New Zealand.

In what was and probably still is a radical and unfashionable mission, the sisters begged for their support—much in the way of Buddhist monks—and only sought what parents of children could afford. Many could not pay anything. Later, and again in a mission against the norm, Mary established homes for unmarried pregnant girls, for women coming out of jail and for destitute elderly.

We should reflect and do well to remember that Mary’s and her order’s initial achievements were accomplished at a time when transport was mainly horse powered and funding was principally from donations. Mary inherited from her mother a strong belief in the providence of God. Her faith, hope and charity sustained her daily life. From all reports, Mary’s courage, gentleness and compassion enabled her to support isolated rural battlers, urban slum-dwellers and the ordinary working class people and it was with these that she lived and worked.

Mary was loyal to her church, cared for priests and would never allow a sister to say a word against a priest or bishop. Unfortunately and almost fatally for the future of the order, it was a value that was not reciprocated by some priests and bishops. Much has been made of her invalid excommunication by the ailing Bishop Shiel of Adelaide. However and fortunately, the Jesuits maintained their support for Mary and quietly continued to give her Holy Communion at the Norwood Church.

Mary remained loyal to her church but steadfast in remaining true to her understanding of God’s will. Thankfully, Bishop Shiel, five months after her excommunication, realised his error and, from his deathbed, revoked the excommunication. Mary struggled on to achieve her vision of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart serving those in need regardless of state or diocesan borders. Inevitably, Mary encountered powerful authorities intent upon exercising complete control of activities within their jurisdictions.

Mary wanted sisters to be governed by a sister superior-general, free to send them wherever there was a need. Usually, religious orders were subject to the authority of the local bishop. Furthermore, Mary wanted her sisters to live as the poor did in small communities of two or three sisters and in houses that were poor, like those of the people. At that time, religious people usually lived in congregational communities, not among the people.

Mary’s vision and mission was for and of the whole of Australia at a time when it was a collection of colonies. Mary treated the first peoples of the land, the Aborigines, with respect and as a governess extended her friendship to the local Aboriginal children and taught some to read and write. Mary is remembered for her work and for her person. The late Pope John Paul II said in Sydney at the time of her beatification in 1995:

Because the love of God inflamed her heart, she tenaciously defended the weak, the poor, the suffering and all those on the margins of society. She worked to assist women and families in distress and to eradicate ignorance among the young. ... In her, the unwanted, the unloved and those alienated from society found comfort and strength.

Mary’s life was stamped by the gospel injunction to love one’s neighbour as oneself. She sought dignity for the poor and especially women in harsh and remote places. Of the impact of her work and person upon Australia and Australians, Paul Keating, then Prime Minister of Australia, addressing parliament on 30 January 1995 said:

The qualities she embodied—openness and tolerance, courage, persistence, faith and care for others—are qualities for individuals, communities and nations to live by.

And in 2008, during his visit to Sydney for World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI, in speaking of Mary MacKillop, said:

I know 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.

Clearly and importantly, St Mary of the Cross was inspired and sustained by her understanding of God’s will and the part she had to play in his plan. It was the essence of her work and person and the source of her moral courage. Those who joined her shared her vision and the source of her inspiration and courage and achieved great things in a very short period of time in an environment that was very challenging and, at times, openly hostile.

Nevertheless, I have only sketched the outline of how the mind and heart of Mary MacKillop may have ticked and can but wonder at what she was able to achieve and more especially admire how her relationship with her God energised her. Catholics throughout the land, none more so than those in my local community—particularly Kim and Sue Chen—have every reason to celebrate the formal declaration of the sainthood of Mary MacKillop. Every Australian who admires the selfless actions of one of their own need go no further for inspiration than this extraordinary Australian woman.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: to all of my colleagues in this place, I would say that many of them claim to have in their electorates a close association with St Mary of the Cross. That is because Mary belongs to no single part of Australia but to all Australians. As my friend and colleague the member for Reid has just pointed out, Mary’s earthly remains are in the heart of my electorate of North Sydney. In fact back in 1909 Mary was buried at Gore Hill cemetery. Even in those days, only just after her death, she was so venerated by so many Australians that people were taking soil from the site of her burial and quite appropriately the Josephites found a permanent resting place for Mary in the heart of the CBD of North Sydney.

The canonisation of Mary MacKillop was watched by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Australians. Apart from the 10,000 proud and happily boisterous Australians in St Peter’s Square as part of a crowd of 50,000, there were Australians all over the nation visiting places and happily celebrating the canonisation of Mary, our first saint. I think the Pope’s smile, which emerged during the canonisation in reaction to the boisterous support of the Australian people in the crowd, would have brought a smile to the face of Mary herself. We are immensely proud to have our first home-grown saint.

So many of my colleagues have outlined the history of Mary, who was born in Melbourne in 1842 and in 1866 opened the first St Joseph’s School in Penola in South Australia. In 1867 she took her vows to become Sister Mary of the Cross. Within just three years Mary had established 21 schools with 72 sisters. She established refuges for women coming out of prison. She established support facilities for the aged and orphans. She was the first Australian to establish an order and the first nun to leave the cities to educate and minister to the rural poor and the working class.

So much has been written about her excommunication back in 1871, which was of course a terrible aberration. The headquarters of the Josephite nuns were transferred to Sydney in 1833. In 1909, when Mary died, there were 750 sisters, there were institutes and houses sheltering over 1,000 people who were poor or in need and there were 117 schools attended by over 12,000 pupils.

Mary’s motto was ‘Never see a need without doing something about it’. I was very honoured to be invited to speak at a dinner at Sydney Town Hall with the Prime Minister during the election campaign to raise funds to support Josephite nuns travelling to Rome for the canonisation. It was on that day that I reflected on my own engagement with the Josephite nuns. Written in Latin above one of the doors of St Paul’s Cathedral is: ‘If you are looking for a monument, look around you.’ The great monument of Mary is the contribution of the Josephites over all that time since she founded the order back, effectively, in 1866 when she opened St Joseph’s School in Penola.

I was one of the many people educated by the Josephites. I attended what was St Kieran’s parish school in Northbridge; it is now St Philip Neri, named after the parish itself. There was a nun there—and I am sure she would not mind—who, all those years ago, I thought was probably 100 years of age but is still alive today. It was only a couple of years ago that I received a phone call from Sister Vincent. The phone call came through and my staff said, ‘A Sister Vincent on the phone.’ The only Sister Vincent I knew was the principal of that school and she had looked on me rather harshly during those years, usually with a weapon of mass destruction in her hand. She took to heart the motto ‘Never see a need without doing something about it’ and she had thought I needed excessive discipline from time to time, which was—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do not encourage her; she is still alive. Anyway, I had been sitting in parliament and had gone back to my office when I got the message that Sister Vincent was on the phone. I nearly fell off my chair. In fact, I stood up to take the call and I said, ‘Hello, Sister Vincent.’ She said: ‘Mr Hockey, whenever you sit in that chamber, please do not slouch in the chair; sit up straight.’ I said, ‘Yes, Sister Vincent.’ Nothing had changed and this wonderful Irish nun, who had dedicated her entire life to the Josephites, was still there for me.

During the election I went and visited her at the Josephite nursing home in Hunters Hill in my electorate and I met so many other magnificent women who had dedicated their lives to making a contribution to God and, most significantly, a contribution to the Josephites. It is fantastic. Those who give often receive and, of all the nuns in that Josephite nursing home, five were more than 100 years of age, which is a pretty good batting average. But they were still as sharp as their Irish heritage would allow them to be.

Throughout their lives the Josephites have been givers. What has most impressed me is that not only have the Josephite nuns educated tens of thousands of people, and not only have they influenced the lives of so many families through that education process, but the Josephite nuns have set up refuges for women who have been the victims of domestic violence, women with nowhere to go with their children in the darkest conceivable moment in a human being’s life—when a man in the house is wreaking physical havoc upon a woman. And the Josephites were there. Not only have they provided that service in Australia but they have provided, and they continue to provide, essential services to help families and young children in New Zealand, East Timor, Ireland, Peru and Brazil. In the past they have worked in countries like Papua-New Guinea, Uganda, Cambodia, Thailand, Tanzania and China. In fact, my own sister, who lived in Senegal in West Africa for some period of time, also has an engagement with the Josephites.

Today the work continues in a whole range of programs like the no-interest loan scheme, drug and alcohol programs, cancer support and family services. I will give just three examples of the work of the Josephites. St Anthony’s Family Care in Croydon, which I think might be in the electorate of the member for Reid, provides services to families of Sudanese refugees—respite care and support for families with disabled children and a childcare centre. When I was the minister in charge of Centrelink the Sudanese refugee issue was one that I was acutely aware of, given the horrendous experience of the child dying in a home of African refugees because they did not know how to use the phone to call an ambulance. It is for reasons like this that you need this sort of NGO care—care which no government organisation can ever be a substitute for.

In New Zealand the sisters run the Beautiful Daughters program to help assist young women who are homeless or living in poverty—again, they are focusing on those most in need. In Australia the sisters run the Josephite Counter-Trafficking Project, which primarily assists Asian women who have been trafficked as sex slaves or as working slaves to Australia.

Even though he is a very good friend of mine, Peter FitzSimons, in his columns of recent times, has been writing that to believe in God is absurd and that he is a creation of the mind. I would say to my mate Fitzy and to all those who are atheists: do not be threatened by people who have faith. I gave a speech along these lines, not long ago, in defence of God and I stand by everything I said. The Josephites encapsulate what it means to be compassionate. Whether it is a Catholic god, a Muslim god or a Jewish god, our God is compassionate and preaches compassion.

Therefore, I would say that the embodiment of the Josephites and the legacy of Mary are the fact that compassion exists on a daily basis, particularly for those most vulnerable. That is Mary’s great legacy; that is the great contribution of Mary of the Cross. Her canonisation is merely a step along the path. Her great legacy will be the ongoing contribution of the Josephites in Australia and other parts of the world. The recognition of Mary by this parliament, by the Pope, by the Church of Rome and by people around the world is really recognition of the contribution of those who have followed her, as much as it is recognition of her own life, and a thankyou to all of them for what they have done and particularly what they are going to do for the poorest people and the most vulnerable people for many years into the future.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak in respect of the canonisation of the Blessed Mary MacKillop, who on Sunday, 17 October—an occasion that should be a source of celebration, inspiration and national pride for Australians, regardless of their religious belief—was made a saint. The Blessed Mary MacKillop was born in Fitzroy in Melbourne in 1842. She was the eldest of six children, born to Scottish immigrants, Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. In 1861 she moved to Penola in South Australia to work as a governess for her uncle. There she met Father Julian Tenison Woods. In 1866 she returned to Penola and, with Father Woods, established Australia’s first free Catholic school. The same year she adopted the religious name Sister Mary of the Cross and co-founded the religious order of the Sisters of St Joseph and took a vow of poverty.

In 1871, after disagreements with Bishop Sheil, she was excommunicated from the church, only to be accepted back some five months later. When she died in 1909 there were 117 schools around Australia—with 12,409 pupils—founded by the Sisters of St Joseph. It is an extraordinary legacy to her work that many of those schools are still open today.

In 1925 the Sisters of St Joseph began the process to have Sister Mary declared a saint. Forty-eight years later, in 1973, the initial investigations into her sainthood closed. Following other pronouncements and further investigations, Sister Mary was beatified by Pope John Paul II. In 2009 the Vatican approved the second miracle, paving the way for her sainthood. On 17 October, after an 85-year process, sainthood was finally bestowed on the Blessed Mary MacKillop and five others by Pope Benedict XVI. She became Australia’s first ever saint. I note that she was the first Australian saint and that our first saint was a woman. Of the six people who were made saints on 17 October, two of them were males, but Australia’s first saint was a woman. Recognition in the form of sainthood is of significance to Christians and especially so to Catholics. I spoke briefly to Adelaide’s Archbishop, Philip Wilson, the day before he left for the Vatican. I know that the occasion was to be a highlight in his own life and he was looking very much forward to it.

Around Australia special masses and celebrations have been held by the Catholic community in the lead-up to the canonisation and were held also on the day. The story of the life of the Blessed Mary MacKillop should be an inspiration to all Australians. Through her courage, tenacity and determination, and driven by her compassion and sense of justice, she touched the lives of so many people and gave hope to the poor and the desperate. In her 67 years, the Blessed Mary MacKillop travelled to many parts of Australia and lived in many towns. Not surprisingly, many Australian communities today feel a special connection with her and with her legacy—none more so than the community of Penola, where her work began.

Her legacy, however, extends beyond Australia. The work of the Sisters of St Joseph stretches across the globe. Today there are about 860 sisters of St Joseph working in many roles and many places around the world. They are all doing social work and helping people in need in poor countries, in aged-care centres, in detention centres, in Indigenous communities and wherever there is need. I recall, not so long ago, I was approached by some sisters of St Joseph, who had been working and are still working among Indigenous communities in Australia, to discuss the plight of the communities that they were working with.

It is indeed an incredible legacy—a legacy that will continue to grow through the ongoing work of the Sisters of St Joseph in schools here as well as in their work around the world. It is a legacy that is made even more extraordinary because, for much of her adult life, the health of the blessed Mary MacKillop was not good. She in fact travelled frequently to New Zealand to take hot baths to seek some relief from what was thought to be a form of arthritis. Yet she persisted and persevered with her work throughout her whole life. In South Australia, the late Adelaide columnist, Max Harris, became a champion for the cause of her being made saint. He coined the phrase ‘A saint for all Australians’. The blessed Mary MacKillop is indeed a saint for all Australians. I conclude with this quote from her:

Now more than ever we should be humble, patient, charitable and forgiving. If we cannot excuse everything we can at least excuse the intention.

I believe that that quote says much about the character of the blessed Mary MacKillop, who is today a saint.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank honourable members for their contributions on the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. St Mary of the Cross is, I think, the correct way of referring to her following her canonisation.