Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about a great woman and a tireless battler who courageously fought for the rights of the less fortunate and gave the gift of education to many poor young Australians. I refer, of course, to Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop, now known throughout Australia and the world as St Mary of the Cross.

Mary MacKillop’s recent canonisation in Rome created a surge of great interest and, for many, pride throughout the nation not just among Catholics but among all Australians who acknowledge her dedication to the underprivileged. It is fitting and a mark of respect that the Gillard government will provide special protection to control the use of names associated with Mary MacKillop. The Prime Minister has stated that this measure will provide the highest level of protection for any individual Australian’s name. To date, Sir Donald Bradman is the only other Australian to receive such protection.

Mary MacKillop is indeed a legend and her determination to bring education to the poor as well as her courage and endurance despite terrible times is inspirational to us all. Even temporary excommunication from her beloved church failed to dim Mary’s commitment and strength in battling the church hierarchy to maintain the independence of her religious order and to stand up for what is right.

In front of a large and enthusiastic Australian contingent in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, 17 October—the day of her canonisation as Australia’s first saint—Pope Benedict praised Mary MacKillop for her:

… courageous and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer … She dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of that country.

Many thousands of kilometres away from the pomp and ceremony of Rome, a no less enthusiastic crowd was gathering in the small South Australian country town of Penola—and a beautiful town it is too. They were there to witness the canonisation of ‘local girl’ Mary MacKillop live on a big screen television in a windswept paddock in Penola where Mary’s road to sainthood began. In the week of her canonisation I had the opportunity to visit the Mary MacKillop centre at Penola and to speak with some of the sisters and the volunteers there, and I would like to thank them for all of the work that they have done over the years so that Mary’s story could be told.

Mary MacKillop was not about recognition, accolades or power; her philosophy was to ‘never see a need without doing something about it’. As a governess in Penola, Mary had realised that rich squatters could educate their families but that the poorer classes could not find teachers for their children. Mary MacKillop and parish priest Father Julian Tenison Woods established Australia’s first free Catholic school in Penola in 1866. Its beginnings were humble; the school was in a stable but later moved to a more substantial stone building. From this small beginning sprang an educational movement which offered thousands of children an escape from poverty. Schools became the hallmark of her religious order and revolutionised a colonial Australian system of education so that it compared more favourably with education practices in Europe and Great Britain.

In 1867, Mary MacKillop and Father Woods formed the Sisters of St Joseph, a new religious order of nuns devoted to teaching the poor. By December 1869, 82 Sisters of St Joseph were running 23 schools and four charitable institutions in Australia. At the time of her death in 1909, Mary’s legacy included 750 sisters and117 schools catering for 12,409 pupils. Today, there are 850 Sisters of St Joseph in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Peru, East Timor, Scotland and Brazil working in ministries and in schools.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson said in a special message recently that Mary MacKillop endured every human suffering, from mistrust, anger and bitterness on the part of others to betrayal and disappointment. Mary cared for and accepted all people regardless of race, religion or cultural differences. Her religious order went out into the streets and helped the poor and visited inmates in the Adelaide Gaol.

The Josephites order was autonomous, unlike religious orders back in Ireland, where the priests were in charge—an aspect of religious life which would cause great angst and eventually contribute to her excommunication. Mary MacKillop’s core strength in taking on the church hierarchy way back in the late 1800s is phenomenal. It is truly remarkable to think that a woman of that generation had the strength of character and fortitude to take on the church hierarchy. It was recently revealed that Mary was excommunicated in 1871 as a result of a series of events, including that members of her religious order reported a priest for sexually abusing children. The local bishop, advised by a priest who was implicated in the matter, decided to bring the overly independent Josephites into line. Mary MacKillop failed to comply and was excommunicated for insubordination. Mary and her Josephite sisters were put out into the street and a Jewish businessman in Adelaide took them in. After five months, when the bishop realised his mistake and revoked the excommunication, the Josephites were reinstated in their habits during a ceremony at St Ignatius Church at Norwood in Adelaide.

In a lovely piece in the Age, journalist Martin Flanagan wrote that he was ‘barracking’ for Mary MacKillop, not because he was endorsing the papacy, miracles or the Catholic Church but because she had a rare and noble vision and pursued it regardless of the immense troubles that came her way. Flanagan went on to say:

I see MacKillop as one of those larger-than-life entities—the diggers at Gallipoli, Ned Kelly, Burke and Wills, Bradman etc—popularly recognised as Australian legends. They are, to state the obvious, all male. Now a female figure has emerged who has the power to outstrip them …

Today I would like to pay tribute to all of the Australians who worked tirelessly to bring the good work of Mary MacKillop to the stage of beatification and, finally, canonisation. The journey of this remarkable woman to her current status as St Mary of the Cross has been 85 years in the making, but finally Australia has its first saint.

Australians have always bees inspired by tales of courage and battle within and again institutional hierarchies. We can learn so much from people like Mary MacKillop, who have achieved so much against the odds.