BLESSED Mary MacKillop’s intercession has been enlisted in the fight to save convicted drug trafficker Scott Rush who is facing the death penalty in a Bali jail.
Scott’s father Lee, said he and wife Christine, of Brisbane, were heartened by the news that the Josephite community at Sydney’s Mary MacKillop Place were now praying for a miracle for their son.
The Rushes received the news in a letter which awaited them in Australia on their recent return from visiting their son who faces a death sentence in Kerobokan Prison’s “Death Row Tower”.
The letter, from a member of the Josephite’s congregational leadership team in Sydney Sr Annette Arnold, said she and the rest of the community were seeking Mary MacKillop’s intercession for Scott “and praying for a miracle that he will be released”.
Mr and Mrs Rush also received a pair of rosary beads from Sr Arnold that Pope Benedict had blessed when he visited the tomb of the Josephites’ foundress during his visit to Australia for World Youth Day last month.
Sr Arnold told The Catholic Leader that Scott’s name is in a book of petitions to Mary MacKillop that is placed on the altar of the congregation’s chapel every day.
She said she was confident Mary MacKillop would intercede for the Rush family.
“She came from a very difficult family life, so I know she really has a soft spot for families under stress … but she needs to hurry up!”
Mr Rush said nothing had got any easier since Scott’s arrest with eight other Australians in Denpasar, Bali, while trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia on April 17, 2005.
He said the fight for Scott’s life was still in its most critical phase.
Earlier this year, the death sentences of three of those arrested in Bali were lifted after a decision by Indonesia’s Supreme Court.
Scott’s lawyers had then to decide whether to appeal in an attempt to capitalise on this decision or to wait until “things settled down”.
Complicating matters was the fact that such an appeal would be Scott’s last chance.
If this failed, the only option would be for Australia’s Prime Minister to appeal for clemency.
This situation remains unchanged.
Mr Rush said that when he and Mrs Rush visited Scott over a period of weeks from July 3, their son had generally been in good spirits, his “faith was strong” and generally he was “in better spirits than we had seen for at least the past 13 months”.
Meanwhile, Queensland Senator Claire Moore is due to present a petition calling for Australia to support the abolition of the death penalty to the Senate on September 2.
The petition was organised by Brisbane archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commision.
A prayer vigil for Scott Rush and for the success of the petition will be held at Christ the King Church, Graceville, on September 2 at 7.30pm.
