Sunday July 13th. 2008
Second Blessed Mary MacKillop Miracle
The Vatican has launched a long-anticipated judicial inquiry into the case of an Australian woman who claimed to be cured from inoperable lung cancer through the intercession of saint-in-waiting, Mary MacKillop.
Two expert doctors will examine the case to determine whether it is evidence of a miracle according to the strict criteria set down by Rome for saints.
The development is the closest the Josephite order has come to meeting the requirement for a documented second miracle, and raises hopes that the Pope might indicate canonisation plans on his first visit to Sydney for the World Youth Day.
Two expert doctors will examine the case to determine whether it is evidence of a miracle according to the strict criteria set down by Rome for saints.
The development is the closest the Josephite order has come to meeting the requirement for a documented second miracle, and raises hopes that the Pope might indicate canonisation plans on his first visit to Sydney for the World Youth Day.
It follows the presentation to the Pope earlier last month of a dossier carrying letters of support from devotees, as well as evidence that devotion to the Blessed Mary exists
in 46 countries spread across all the continents. Evidence of universal devotion is another requirement for sainthood.
The case before the Vatican is of an unidentified Australian woman, who was given weeks to live in 1993 when her lung cancer proved untreatable.
She carried a small picture of the Blessed Mary, with a piece of the nun's habit attached to it, pinned to her clothes day and night. Ten months after her diagnosis, the woman, then 50, was tested again and no cancer was found.
The Josephite nuns say doctors could find no scientific explanation for her recovery.
In January 1995, Pope John Paul beatified Blessed Mary, which earned her the title of blessed. The miracle for beatification was the cure of another woman from leukaemia in 1961.
To become a saint, a second miracle must take place after beatification. The Vatican has agreed this month to consider the case as evidence of a second miracle.
'' This is a very important step in the progress of the cause of canonisation for Mary MacKillop," said the vice-postulator, Sister Maria Casey, who travelled to Rome to meet Fr Paul Gardiner S.J, who was the postulator when Mother Mary was declared Blessed. Although Fr Paul is getting on in years, he has been asked to be the principal postulator again to present the case for Blessed Mary’s canonisation,
Fr Paul has spent two vacations at the chapel house in Roy Bridge. .
The next step is the examination of the cure by a panel of doctors and if the result is positive, it would then be sent to a group of theologians. This process usually takes up to 12 months.
This month the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, said it was unlikely that the second miracle would be accepted in time for the Pope's visit.
Deirdre MacDonald, and her friend, Fiona Douthwaite. will join the youth from all over the world to welcome the Pope when he arrives in Sydney next week.
