MARY MACKILLOP (PREVIOUSLY EXCOMMUNICATED) NOW CANONISED: But what future is there for her Order of Josephite Sisters?
About 140 Josephite sisters travelled to Rome for the canonisation a couple of weeks ago.
The ages of those travelling sisters ranged from 26 to 86.
There are now about 970 Josephite Order nuns worldwide – only half as many as there were 40 years ago.
Their average age now is about 70.
So the sisters are hoping the publicity about the canonisation will bring in lots of new young recruits.
Time will tell.
* * *
The travelling sisters each took a teal scarf to wear — specially made for the event.
They seem not to have a regular habit or uniform these days.
That’s odd, considering how vital Mary MacKillop thought it was to have one.
When Bishop Sheil excommunicated her, one of the worst aspects, she said, was having to return to wearing ordinary clothes instead of their habit.
She wrote to Father Woods, “It was hard, very hard to put on secular dress.”
Yet today’s Josephites wear secular dress by choice.
It’s a funny world.
* * *
Another funny thing is the modern Josephites’ willingness to defy the Pope.
In May 1994, Pope John Paul II issued a statement (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) saying that there are never going to be women priests — and that he didn’t want the matter discussed.
The heads of a few orders of nuns signed a public document criticising the Pope’s ruling.
One who signed was Sister Mary Cresp, then Congregational Leader of the Josephites.
* * *
Everybody knows that Mary MacKillop was once — briefly and for invalid reasons — excommunicated from the Church.
If Sister Cresp had been excommunicated for defying Pope JPII, she’d have had no valid cause to complain.
She was just lucky.
* * *
So will Mary MacKillop’s canonisation attract new Josephite recruits?
Who knows?
Anyway, would the Josephites be a good order to join?
Do the Josephites still feel free to make feminist noises and contradict Church teaching?
Serious questions.
What the world needs is not more rebellious, self-assertive, people – but more SAINTS.
Let’s pray that, by God’s grace, new saints will turn up in big numbers.
