Feast of Australia's first official saint - The real Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Thursday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time08 August 2013
 In Australia: solemnity of St Mary of the Cross Mackillop, Virgin - Proper readings
St. Dominic, Priest (1170-1221), 

Commentary of the day

On October 17th 2010, eight thousand Australian Catholics were amongst the hundreds of thousands crowded into St. Peter’s Square in Rome in collective euphoria as they awaited Pope Benedict XVI’s canonisation of our first national saint. Most lay people in the Church were unaware that this day might never have happened. If the upper echelon had their way, Mary MacKillop’s name would have remained suppressed along with her Order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

A few days earlier the ABC's Compass program revealed that in 1871, at the time of her leadership in the Order of Mary MacKillop's Josephites (as they were known colloquially), Sisters attracted the ire of the hierarchy by revealing that Father Keating of Kapunda, South Australia was molesting children at the local church school. The Sisters reported the abuse to the Vicar-General and disciplinary action was taken against Father Keating, humiliating him and angering his friend Father Charles Horan, who was close to the then boss of Adelaide Catholic Diocese, Bishop Laurence Shiel.

Father Horan is believed to have harboured a grudge against Sister Mary MacKillop and the other whistle-blowers in her order, and used his influence over Bishop Shiel to manipulate him into throwing the nun out of the church in 1871. Bishop Shiel’s conscience must have plagued him, because he reversed her excommunication on his deathbed.

If Father Horan had had his way, Sister Mary MacKillop would still be silenced by excommunication. What was her sin? Wishing to uncover and prevent the continuation of the crimes of a paedophile priest. Mary MacKillop had become aware of the awful activities of a man who had been entrusted with the spiritual lives of the young and vulnerable and had tried to prevent him. Sadly many others, including myself, have experienced the same opposition and excommunication when they attempt to expose the dark secrets of priests.

Paedophilia continues unabated amongst the clergy in the Catholic Church, largely fuelled by the secrecy that surrounds the personal lives and activities of priests. Saint Mary MacKillop would be oscillating in her North Sydney grave if she knew, as I am sure she does, that the very Church that canonised her is continuing to endorse the proliferation of these heinous crimes against children, and doing very little to discourage future abuses. 

Read more of this story in my book, Unholy Silence - Covering Up the Sins of the Fathers, available from unholysilence.com

As you get further into this book you will hear of terrible examples of the Catholic Church’s systematic process of concealing abuses, a process which is evident to everyone else but themselves.

Numb. 20:1-13.

The whole congregation of the children of Israel arrived in the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people settled at Kadesh. It was here that Miriam died, and here that she was buried.
As the community had no water, they held a council against Moses and Aaron.
The people contended with Moses, exclaiming, "Would that we too had perished with our kinsmen in the LORD'S presence!
Why have you brought the LORD'S community into this desert where we and our livestock are dying?
Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place which has neither grain nor figs nor vines nor pomegranates? Here there is not even water to drink!"
But Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the meeting tent, where they fell prostrate. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them,
and the LORD said to Moses,
"Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron, and in their presence order the rock to yield its waters. From the rock you shall bring forth water for the community and their livestock to drink."
So Moses took the staff from its place before the LORD, as he was ordered.
He and Aaron assembled the community in front of the rock, where he said to them, "Listen to me, you rebels! Are we to bring water for you out of this rock?"
Then, raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water gushed out in abundance for the community and their livestock to drink.
But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you were not faithful to me in showing forth my sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I will give them."
These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites contended against the LORD, and where he revealed his sanctity among them.

Ps 95(94):1-2.6-7.8-9.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
Let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
Let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
Let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.” 


Mt 16:13-23.

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

  Commentary of the day :

Pope Francis
Homily of 07/04/2013, Mass for the possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome (trans. © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

"Jesus began to show his disciples that he must... suffer greatly... and be killed and on the third day be raised"

God’s patience has to call forth in us the courage to return to him, however many mistakes and sins there may be in our life. Jesus tells Thomas to put his hand in the wounds of his hands and his feet, and in his side. We too can enter into the wounds of Jesus, we can actually touch him. This happens every time that we receive the sacraments with faith. Saint Bernard, in a fine homily, says: "Through the wounds of Jesus I can suck honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock , I can taste and see the goodness of the Lord" (cf. Dt 32:13; Ps 34[33],9). It is there, in the wounds of Jesus, that we are truly secure; there we encounter the boundless love of his heart. Thomas understood this. Saint Bernard goes on to ask: “But what can I count on? My own merits?” No, "My merit is God’s mercy. I am by no means lacking merits as long as he is rich in mercy... This is important: the courage to trust in Jesus’ mercy, to trust in his patience, to seek refuge always in the wounds of his love... Maybe someone among us here is thinking: my sin is so great, I am as far from God as the younger son in the parable, my unbelief is like that of Thomas; I don’t have the courage to go back, to believe that God can welcome me and that he is waiting for me, of all people... For God, we are not numbers, we are important, indeed we are the most important thing to him; even if we are sinners, we are what is closest to his heart.