POPE Benedict’s announcement that Blessed Mary MacKillop is to be canonised in Rome later this year has led to special jubilation amongst Queensland’s Josephite community.
State provincial Sr Moya Campbell said this was because of “Mary’s visits to Queensland in the early days of establishing the congregation” and of the fact that “Queensland was the first place outside South Australia where the Josephites established places of ministry”.
“Mary and five other Sisters of St Joseph sisters arrived in Queensland in 1869,” Sr Campbell said.
“Other than the years when Mary chose to take the sisters from Queensland, we have been around the state in various ministries of education, pastoral care, parish work, community service of all kinds.”
Sr Campbell said the sisters had gone in “twos and threes to rural communities and worked in parish schools”.
By mid-January 1870 the Josephites were teaching at St Mary’s School, South Brisbane, and by July they had opened three more schools, two in Brisbane and the other in Maryborough.
During the next 10 years, the sisters established 15 schools and an orphanage and were teaching about half the total number of children attending Catholic schools in the diocese.
Sr Campbell said the Queensland province’s first planned event to celebrate the occasion would be the launch on March 19 of Josephite Sister Margaret MacKenna’s book With Grateful Hearts: Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph in Queensland 1870-1970.
Pope Benedict announced on February 19 that Blessed Mary MacKillop would be canonised in Rome on October 17.
Congregational leader Sr Anne Derwin said the sisters were overjoyed.
“We rejoice with the Australian Church and people on this news,” Sr Derwin said.
“We give thanks that God did bless our country with such a model of goodness.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Holy See ambassador Tim Fischer were among others to welcome the announcement.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said MacKillop’s sainthood would be “deeply significant” not just for the country’s five million Catholics, but for all Australians.
Mr Fischer, who conveyed the news from Rome to the Prime Minister, said there was a great deal of affection and respect for Blessed Mary MacKillop who was a strong leader, compassionate worker for the poor and pioneer in education.
Mary MacKillop College, Nundah, deputy principal and director of mission Mary Hilton, said the Pope’s announcement was confirmation of what she and others had always known.
“As a friend of the Josephite order, I always knew Mary was a saint,” she said.
“She is an inspiration to those of us continuing her legacy as we try to bring her charism to life in the young women entrusted to us. The Pope’s announcement is also a wonderful acknowledgement of what one woman can do and what women can continue to do.”
