Sainthood demeans what Mary MacKillop stood for

Australia's ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer, has lauded the canonisation of Mary MacKillop as a ''very public salute to a great Australian, as well as a matter of public diplomacy and celebration''.

Mary MacKillop was a great Australian. But Fischer was wrong on two other counts.

First, sainthood is an internally invented showpiece of the Vatican – it is not simply a matter of public diplomacy and celebration.

And second, Mary MacKillop will not become Australia's first saint but the Catholic Church's first Australian saint.

Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842 and was co-founder in 1866 of the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in the town of Penola, located within the now famous Coonawarra wine area of South Australia.

As a woman in a male-dominated institution in a male-dominated society, MacKillop accomplished much in helping establish schools and in giving generously of her time and effort for Australia's indigenous people.

These were her main achievements for her fellow humans, and she managed this despite being excommunicated and her order disbanded for a time for insubordination.

But, instead of recognising her work in a way that would widen her appeal as a humanitarian beyond the Catholic faithful, the Vatican set her on the long and convoluted path towards sainthood, for its own ends.

The Church needs its stars to prop up a declining following in many Western countries and MacKillop was on her way to saintly fame.

The work to canonise MacKillop, who died in 1909 began in earnest in 1936. That year, the order she co-founded returned to Penola, the town they had left after numerous run-ins with Catholic hierarchy.

The Church had identified a special place for her in Australian Catholic history.

Prolific saint-maker Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1995, as the first step towards saint-hood, after acceptance of her miracle cure of a woman from leukemia in 1961. The Vatican agreed in 2008 to consider the case of a second miracle that would lead to her canonisation.

The miracle adjudicated on referred to an Australian woman who claimed to have been cured from cancer through the intercession of MacKillop. Was the case for saint-hood based only on the Vatican's carefully ''documented'' evidence? Was it an accurate depiction of the facts? Was the ''cure'' a result of the placebo effect – supported by belief in and devotion to God, Jesus, Mother Mary and the Blessed Mary? Or a Catholic miracle? Or something we just don't understand — yet?

That the ill Catholic woman's cancer condition ceased and she made a recovery was a wonderful thing – whatever the reason. However, attributing the cure to a long dead Catholic nun cannot be properly proven. There is nothing definite.

An ''association'' thought to have been created by continuous praying does not prove anything – no matter what was written down.

An examination of the alleged cure by a panel of two (Vatican-appointed) doctors produced a ''positive'' result so it was sent to a group of Catholic theologians for clarification and approval.

There was no talk of the ''cure'' being scrutinised by unbiased members of the medical and scientific professions or even by impartial theologians from other religious bodies, even if they could have been found.

In marking the centenary of Mary MacKillop's death in August 2009, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said her sainthood was ''almost completely certain''. Pell went on to urge Pope Benedict to make her ''the country's first saint''. But we should have expected nothing less from Australia's head Catholic.

The Church heeded that urging and Pope Benedict announced in December 2009 at a meeting of The Congregation for the Causes of Saints (a special Vatican panel on sainthood adjudication) that a second miracle had been recognised and Mary MacKillop would be canonised on October 17 in a ceremony at the Vatican.

It had taken more than a century after her death to achieve that status so revered within the boundaries of Catholicism.

Given the natural sceptism of many Australians and a declining rate of Christian religious belief, Saint Mary is likely to receive popular religious acclaim from a minority of the population; Catholic at that.

And as the proof is only Vatican proof, it makes Mary only a Catholic saint. To call her Australia's first saint, as Tim Fischer has, is a furphy.

I dare say Mary MacKillop would be horrified at the immense expenditure and massive carbon footprint associated with trying to attribute miracles to her so she qualifies for sainthood: an opportunity cost that could be well used on the disadvantaged people she worked and fought so hard to help.

By all means, recognise and pay homage to Mary MacKillop's wonderful work for the needy.

But to make her a Catholic saint through a system riddled with misleading notions and dubious outmoded administrative practices demeans the status she deserves.

SIC: SMH/AUS