Cardinal George Pell of Sydney is quoted in yesterday’s Herald Sun saying how Mary MacKillop’s canonisation is “important for Australian Catholics . . . also important for Australia as a nation . . . Catholics are now part of the mainstream.”

Was that a typo?

Getting one letter wrong can be serious.

Did he intend to say that “Catholics are not part of the mainstream”?

That would make more sense.

Being a Catholic is a deliberate step away from the ways of the mainstream.

There is no middle path . . . .

* * *

The Cardinal also said that, “All Australians, Christians and non-Christians, feel they are entitled to express their opinions on controversial Catholic teachings . . . we welcome this as a small price for belonging.”

Ouch!

Jesus Christ, founder of the Catholic Church, didn’t teach “belonging”.

Quite the reverse. He told his disciples they must be “in the world but not of it”.

Christianity means a conscious decision to cease belonging to this world — and to start belonging to God.

Literally.

No middle path . . . .

* * *

Three concrete examples:

(1) Mary MacKillop had a non-Catholic friend, Joanna Smith, who donated generously to the Sisters’ work.

In a letter to her mother, Mary wrote, “Both she and her husband know that my earnest desire is for her conversion . . . pray for her to return to us as a Catholic.”

No middle path . . . .

(2) The original Josephites would not accept government aid because Australia’s government wasn’t Catholic. In her 1873 Petition to the Pope, Mother Mary explained that a non-Catholic government will “always, sooner or later, interfere with the Catholic system of the schools — St Joseph’s schools are purely Catholic ones, and it is the desire of the Sisters . . . to  be entirely dependent upon St Joseph’s protection for all the aid they require to carry on . . . .”

No middle path . . . .

(3) Jesus himself, in his final words to his disciples, said:

“Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

No middle path . . . .

Today’s gospel reading in traditional Catholic churches is about forgiving and obeying:

The kingdom of heaven is like a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.

A debtor was brought who owed him a huge amount. Having no way to pay, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his family and property, in payment of the debt.

The servant fell down, pleading, “Be patient, and I will pay everything.”

Moved with compassion, the master let him go and forgave the debt.

When that servant left, he found a fellow-servant who owed him a small amount. Seizing him by the throat, he demanded, “Pay what you owe.”

The fellow-servant begged, “Be patient, and I will pay.”

But he refused, putting him instead in prison until he paid.

The other servants, seeing this, were upset, and told their master about it.

The master summoned him and said, “You wicked servant! I forgave you your debt because you asked me. Shouldn’t you have had pity on your fellow-servant, as I did on you?”

In anger, his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay the whole debt.

So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.

(words of Jesus, St Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 18)

* * *

Mother Mary MacKillop was the exact opposite to that servant.

Wronged repeatedly, she never harboured grudges.

Knowing about child-abusing priests, she didn’t turn against the Church – it made her even MORE determined to be loyal to the Church.

It wasn’t easy for her to be like that, but she knew what God wants, and she obeyed. Only by regular prayers and Mass-attendance was she able to live so well.

Obedience, prayer, the Mass . . . if an excellent person like Saint Mary MacKillop needed these in order to live well . . . .

Won’t we need them even more, B-grade material that we are?

* * *

Yes, the secret of Mother Mary’s life was OBEDIENCE — to God, to the Church and to her vows.

In a time of crisis, Mother Mary wrote to a fellow-sister, “Our work cannot last if the spirit of Obedience for Obedience’s sake is not upheld. The Congregation will crumble away, bit by bit — without the spirit of Obedience in its members.”

You, dear blog-reader — and I — should we not make a new resolution to live lives of Catholic OBEDIENCE?

Happy Canonisation-Day!!!!

The World Wildlife Fund’s 2010 “Living Planet” report lists Australia as the eighth “most unsustainable” of 152 nations surveyed.

CEO of WWF in Australia, Dermot O’Gorman, says this means that the federal government “must put a price on carbon pollution”.

Which is debatable . . . .

Australia ranks better this time than in some previous Living Planet surveys.

In 2004, Australia was fourth worst. In 2008, fifth worst.

By coming in eighth, Australia now rates better than Canada, Belgium, Qatar and Estonia — all previously ranked better than us.

Considering Australia’s climatic extremes — and the tyranny of distance making transport costs inevitably greater than other countries — we possibly deserved slight praise.

But the WWF doesn’t do praise.

* * *

What would the late Mary MacKillop make of all this?

She and Father Woods, in setting up the Josephite Order, emphasised simplicity of lifestyle.

Mother Mary wrote that, “I longed for a religious life, one in which I could serve God and his poor neglected little ones in poverty and disregard of the world . . . I looked for poverty more like unto that practised in the early religious Orders of the Church, a poverty which in its practice would make a kind of reparation to God for the little confidence now placed in his divine Providence by so many of his creatures.”

The original Rule of the Order stipulated that the Sisters’ houses must be “very poor and fitted with furniture such as poor people use. The chairs and tables to be of common wood, no carpets on the floors.”

Not much of a “carbon-footprint” there.

* * *

The Founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ himself, was recorded in the Gospel telling his disciples, “Foxes have dens and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 

Our Lord’s motives (and those of Mary MacKillop) were — unlike those of the WWF –primarily God-related, not materialistic.

Any true Catholic will live as simply as possible, so as to emulate the ways of Jesus and the saints — and to live in harmony with the beautiful natural world which Our Creator has entrusted to us.

Last Sunday, ABC-TV presented a Compass program on the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop.

Nothing bad was said about Mary MacKillop. All who spoke were respectful towards her.

We heard about her generosity, independence, strong personality, kindness, willingness to forgive, “passion” etc.

Even her “star quality” . . . .

* * *

What was not emphasised was how being a Roman Catholic was the supreme driving force in Mary MacKillop’s life.

In everything she did, her aim was to bring non-Catholics to the Catholic Faith — and lapsed Catholics back to the Sacraments.

This Compass program cheapened her when it summed up her legacy to the world by saying that, in her, “spiritual values and human values came together as one . . .”

It seems that Pope John Paul II anticipated and feared that Mary MacKillop would be used by those wanting to water down the Faith — twisting her into looking like a believer in the notion of one religion being as good as another.

At Mother Mary’s beatification in 1995, he said:

“Dear friends: Mary MacKillop cannot be understood without reference to her religious vocation.

“Mother Mary of the Cross did not just free people from ignorance through schooling, or alleviate their suffering through compassionate care. She worked to satisfy their deeper, though sometimes unconscious, longing for ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’.”

* * *

The extremes to which anti-Catholic forces will go was revealed when the program showed what purported to be a school class being taught by a young Josephite nun.

She announced today’s topic as being “Aboriginal Spirituality”. On the board behind her was written “Rainbow Serpent”.

This is more or less blasphemy — betraying what Mary MacKillop stood for.

But the head of the present-day Josephite Order told us (by telephone the other day) that the Order was happy with the Compass program’s treatment of their Foundress.

Betrayal again, right at the top.

* * *

Some GOOD NEWS.

Three months ago, my wife and I planted three Mary MacKillop roses, hoping to see some flowers by the time of Mother Mary’s canonisation.

Yesterday the first flower appeared.

It is very beautiful.

The Sisters of the Josephite Order founded by Mary MacKillop have appointed Sydney-based Harvest Pilgrimages as official tour-operator for people wanting to attend Mother Mary’s canonisation at Rome on October 17.

Philip Ryall, manager of Harvest, says he anticipates flying 7000 to 8000 Australians out – starting today.

Local organisers also expect 10,000 people at St Patrick’s Cathedral and Melbourne’s Exhibition Building on that night – with thousands more visiting Penola in South Australia, where Mother MacKillop began her work.

That all adds up to a lot of people — arguably a good thing.

But what it is all about?

* * *

What does it mean to say that Mary MacKillop – or any other historical person – is a Saint?

A Saint is somebody to whom the Church encourages us to address prayers.

Knockers may object, saying, “Why not pray direct to God?”

Come on. Isn’t praying to a recognised Saint a gift from God himself to ensure that our prayers do, in fact, reach him?

There is a human instinct to ask others to pray with us and for us about important matters — a good instinct which the Church supports.

Other critics might say, “You can’t pray to Saints because they are dead.”

That would be a silly thing to say.

The Saints in heaven are very alive – much more alive than us poor earth-bound humans are during this mere worldly existence.

* * *

The Bible describes how, in his vision of heaven, Saint John saw, “Twenty-four elders fall down before the Lamb having, every one of them, golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints . . .

“And another angel came and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar before the throne of God”  (Book of the Apocalypse, chapters 5 and 8)    

Pope Benedict XVI. He will lead the canonisation ceremony in Rome.

Two weeks ago, 750 guests gathered at a dinner in Sydney Town Hall, supposedly in honour of Mother Mary MacKillop, soon to be made Australia’s first saint.

It was a fund-raiser — plus an opportunity for Prime Minister Gillard to make a speech:

“For all Australians who share a country in which we put freedom of religion into action everyday by respecting each other’s beliefs, this is a time of celebration . . . whether you believe Mary MacKillop’s a saint, whether you believe she was a great Australian pioneer providing education to kids who needed it, whether you believe both – this is a moment to celebrate.”

Then she promised $1.5 million to assist the canonisation celebrations.

Then everybody got down to eating.

Perhaps some of the guests gave the Gillard a clap.

One thing is for sure, if Blessed Mary MacKillop had been present in visible form, she would NOT have clapped.

* * *

Even in her own lifetime, people tried to domesticate Blessed Mary and treat her as a “pioneer” or something.

Priests and others made so many demands on the Sisters that it threatened to interfere with their regular prayers. Mother Mary complained to one such: “Are we not Religious first — Teachers second?”

The original “Rule” of the Josephite Order spelt out the proper priorities of the Sisters:

“Those persons who enter religion do so first of all for the salvation of their own souls . . . the spirit of the Institute is a spirit of Poverty and Prayer.”

The same point was made by Pope John Paul II at Mother Mary’s beatification in 1995:

“Dear friends: Mary MacKillop cannot be understood without reference to her religious vocation.

“. . . Mother Mary of the Cross did not just free people from ignorance through schooling, or alleviate their suffering through compassionate care. She worked to satisfy their deeper, though sometimes unconscious, longing for ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’.”

* * *

Australians don’t need yet another “pioneer” or “celebrity” to fuss over.

They need somebody different — somebody whose mind was totally God-centred.

That’s what Blessed Mary MacKillop offers.

But will we ever hear about that from the modern-day Josephite Order?

They seem happy to trivialise her as a dinkum Aussie or some kind of glorified social worker.

.