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They just don’t hand out Sainthoods like they used to
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Aussie battler Mary Mackillop has been rejected for sainthood by his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, suggesting the miracle of Sophie Delezio just wasn’t enough for the German pontiff. It had been anticipated that with the second miracle of Sophie Delezio surviving two horrendous car accidents against medical odds, after a lady with Leukaemia was miraculously cured, Mackillop would be canonized as part of the World Youth Day celebrations. But when Benedict hit up the Mary Mackillop chapel in North Sydney yesterday he praised her as an ‘outstanding figure’ in Australian history instead, no doubt disappointing the bevy of nuns on his trail. Becoming a saint is no easy feat, one must either die as a martyr or perform two miracles. And being a martyr isn’t much fun, just ask French Saint Jean-Gabriel Perboyre, who was strangled to death on a cross at Ou-Tchang-Fou, China. Since the mid 1900s a crew of five Italian doctors check out the validity of your miracle and at least three of the five must agree that ‘the hand of God has prevailed where science faltered’. The modern age of medicine makes it a bit harder to claim medical miracles, apparently surgery is how Delezio survived, her mother’s prayers to Mackillop notwithstanding. Most of the saints canonized by Pope John Paul II lived in medieval times so their miracles were impossible to disprove. Former priest Paul Collins said on the ABC’s Lateline that the late Pope John Paul II was a bit saint happy, canonizing catholics left right and centre. In the time JP was Pope he created 480 saints, more than had been canonized in the 500 years before he was annointed. Prerequisites for sainthood usually involve miraculous healing of a person but can include stigmata, levitation, incorruptible corpses, and visions. St. Gianna is a patron saint for mothers, physicians, and fetuses, canonized in 2004. Gianna martyred herself, choosing to give birth and die rather than have an abortion like her doctors told her. Elizabeth Comparini prayed to Gianna when she had pregnancy complications, the baby’s survival was said to be a miracle. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina is most famous for his stigmata, but the miracle that got him canonized in 2002 was ‘miraculous healing’ after prayer. Lacking a miracle performance in her lifetime and with the added bonus of modern scientific skepticism and a much less saint enthused Pope on the job, Mary Mackillop might not be up for another hundred years or so. But best of luck to the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in their quest to put an Aussie in the Vatican hall of fame. |
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7 Comments
Does anyone care?
Perhaps the Vatican might have been more impressed if the Blessed Mary had intervened to ensure the friggin’ car didn’t hit the poor girl in the first place. Or at the very least that it missed her the second time around.
I wondered how entering it would be to prove the first miracle false and hence derail the whole process. No miracle; no saint.
Surprisingly my local Catholic Church (apparently closed for business because they’re all attending WYD) was not too pleased with the idea. I asked where to find the documentation on her first miracle, but the delusionists were beside themselves. Perhaps there was an alternate explanation?
new zealand will probably get a saint before australia so we can just claim theirs.
The fast tracking of saints by John Paul II probably had a lot to do with the various supporters allegedly contributing substantial sums of money to the Vatican coffers.
Until Mary McKillop supporters do the same the good sister will continually be pushed to the back of the canonization queue.
The Catholic Church does not live on bread alone!
Peace be with you all
Vncent Mahon
Venise obviously you care or your pinnie wouldn’t be twisting.
Connor the priest at your local must have very broad shoulders or maybe they are used to you.
Miracles I dunno…..
I thought this was some dastardly joke conjured up by a pixie in a woodpile. Does the author solemnly believe all this amazing twaddle? Let me see…Five medicos are paid to stare at a hazy problem and decide if the hand of God was there or not. Might they have been better employed attending to the latest traffic accident victims? ASnd that your saint whosiewhatis Gianna got a gong for refusing an abortion? Along with about 500 million other women on the planet who were either too stupid, or too poor to get an abortion. Why don’t they get knighted? Or whatever it is they do. The piece of bland porridge called Mary McKillop wouldn’t have rated a mention if her name had been Gertrude Finkelstein or Fatima Mahmoud. Why doesn’t the Catholic Church perform a real miracle by endorsing birth control? Too difficult?