The president of Catholic Religious in Australia Sister Clare Condon SGS has commented Blessed Mary MacKillop moving a step closer to become Australia’s first saint.

“Mary MacKillop stands as an heroic model for Religious life in this country and beyond,” Sr Clare said in a statement on the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the second miracle.

Australian Sister Mary MacKillop, a nun died 100 years ago, moved towards completion of her canonization with Pope recognizing a miracle in which she apparently cured a woman of cancer, officials said Dec. 20.

MacKillop passed the first stage to sainthood when she was beatified by the previous Pope John Paul II in 1995 after having another miracle, in which a woman was said to have been cured of terminal leukaemia, attributed to her.

Melbourne-born MacKillop, who established her first school in a disused stable and founded her order of nuns at the age of 24, is already known as “the Australian people’s saint,” said Archbishop Philip Wilson.

Sister Condon said Blessed Mary, “soon to be St Mary, represents all the good work that Religious sisters, brothers and priests have done for the Catholic Church and for Australian society over the past century and a half.”

“Mary MacKillop was a woman of outstanding faith who sought to respond to the critical needs of society in her time, whatever the personal difficulty and challenges she faced.

“In her pioneering work for education and social welfare, she initiated a gospel response that has seen thousands of young Australians educated and cared for with understanding and compassion. And her legacy continues strongly today.

“In our challenging times, the Religious can follow her example and put their trust unfailingly in God.”

MacKillop, along with popes John Paul II and Pius XII, will be canonized in 2010.

Source:  Australian Religious laud nation’s first saint

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