Canonisation for Mary MacKillop underway

The canonisation ceremony to recognise Mary MacKillop as Australia's first saint is
underway in Rome.
Up to 8000 Australians, wearing yellow or teal coloured scarves, are watching in the
square of St Peter's, the centre of Roman Catholicism.
In Australia, 2000 people have gathered inside Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney
where her remains are interred in the chapel built in 1913 in her memory.
The centre on Sunday received 15,000 visitors, including federal Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and NSW Governor Marie Bashir.
The ceremony is being broadcast live on television and the internet and at various
sites around the country where thousands of people have gathered, including her
birthplace of Melbourne and the rural town of Penola in South Australia where her
religious journey began.
Blessed Mother Mary, a founder of the order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the
Sacred Heart who died in 1909, is due to be canonised along with five others
blesseds from Spain, Poland, Canada and Italy.
About 50,000 people have gathered in the square, where Pope Benedict XVI will
oversee the canonisation in a two hour mass.
A procession of a clergy representing the six blesseds, preceded the Pope to the
main altar outside the main doors of St Peter's.
For Mother Mary is Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell, Adelaide Archbishop
Philip Wilson, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby,
and Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey.
Also in the group is Bishop Joseph Toal of Scotland, Bishop Denis Browne of New
Zealand and Mother Mary's former postulator, Father Paul Gardiner.
The Pope began with a formal greeting to the church universal before calling on the
congregation to reflect on their lives.
The crowd was silent as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
Archbishop Angelo Amato made his way toward to Pope.
The archbishop, accompanied by the postulators for the six blesseds, including Sr
Maria Casey for Mother Mary, formally asked the Pope to proceed with the
canonisations.
Mother Mary is fourth on the list.
Archbishop Amaoto goes on to read a biography of each.
Mother Mary was born in Melbourne on January 15, 1842, the first child of Scottish
immigrants Flora and Alexander.
Baptised Maria Ellen MacKillop, her second name is a form of Helen, the name of the
saint credited by the early church with finding the cross of Jesus.
Her childhood was humble and she grew up knowing what it was like to be poor.
She went on to found the order of Sisters of St Joseph, with Father Julian Woods, to
help educate and care for poor children in rural areas.
However, her journey was not easy.
She was accused of alcoholism and in 1871 she was excommunicated - for five months -
from the church by her Archbishop.
Later in life she suffered from ill health and was confined to a wheelchair.
The Pope proclaimed the official words of canonisation, accompanied by the
con-celebrants of each blessed.
He named each candidate in turn, ending with the declaration that their names be
inscribed "in the canon (list) of the saints and establish that throughout the
church they be honoured devoutly among all the saints."
Mother Mary is now Saint Mother Mary of the Cross.
Saint Mary's path to sainthood has taken 85 years, the church recognition of two
healing miracles, the personal attentions of Popes, years of research, countless
prayers and patience.
The title means she will be recognised around the world as a person close to God.
The relics of the new saints were then taken to the altar.
Carrying the reliquary of St Mary of the Cross was `second miracle' Kathleen Evans,
the mother of five from NSW whom the church recognises as being cured of lung and
brain cancer in 1993 through the intercession of the saint.
The reliquary, shaped like a cross and carved from a red gum fence post from Penola,
contains strands of Saint Mary's hair.
Also believed present at the ceremony is Veronica Hopson, the woman recognised as
the `first miracle' and who's identity has only very recently been made public.
Ms Hopson, now 72, was cured of leukaemia in 1961.
The Pope was asked to authorise an "Apostolic letter" - an official church document
- recognising her canonisation, and the canonisations of the others.
"May this be so," the Pope said.
The process was mirrored for the other new saints.
The usual form of the mass continued.