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Pope Benedict XVI - Source: Reuters -
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The Vatican is expected to decree Mary MacKillop's second
miracle between December 21 and December 25, all but confirming her
as Australia's first saint, the woman at the centre of the campaign
for her canonisation in Rome says.
Sister Maria Casey says the Vatican planned to announce last week
that Mother Mary's apparent curing of a woman with cancer during
the mid-1990s was indeed a miracle, but was forced to delay the
announcement.
"There was the possibility that we would've heard sometime last
week but events in Rome precluded that," Sister Casey, the
Australian Catholic Church's official representative in Rome
campaigning for the canonisation, said.
"I don't envisage any announcement before or during next weekend
but we do think it might be before Christmas, we are very hopeful
indeed."
Sister Casey said it was usual for the Vatican to make
announcements in the run-up to Christmas Day.
The Vatican already recognises that Mother Mary is responsible for
one miracle.
She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995, meaning the Vatican
verified her first miracle of healing a woman with terminal
leukaemia.
The second miracle said to have been performed by Mother Mary,
which would confirm sainthood, has already been ratified by medical
experts.
Sister Casey said if the second miracle were decreed by the Vatican
before Christmas, Mother Mary would probably be canonised early in
the New Year.
Speculation that an announcement was near began building after
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attended mass at Mary MacKillop Chapel in
North Sydney, where Mother Mary is interred, on Sunday
morning.
A spokesman for the prime minister would not confirm if the visit
had anything to do with any announcement but a spokeswoman for the
Sisters of St Joseph, the congregation founded by Mother Mary,
admitted excitement and expectations were running high in Rome and
in Australia.
"The sisters are very excited and they're waiting on an
announcement sometime, hopefully, before Christmas," the
spokeswoman said.
Mother Mary is revered for her lifetime of work across Australia
establishing schools and refuges for orphans and the needy.
She was born in Melbourne, worked extensively in South Australia
and died in North Sydney in 1909 aged 67.
