Iam often impressed by how creativity and compassion go hand in hand. The Sisters of St. Joseph in Australia provide a good example of this.

On Friday, the nuns begin a nationwide road trip to raise funds for disaster recovery in Australia. The nation has had severe floods and other natural disasters in recent months, and many people continue to suffer from the effects of these events.

Sister Julianne Murphy is in the driver’s seat for the seven-month project. She’ll lead the effort with stops across the nation for fundraising dinners, visits with young people at schools, and visits to areas affected by natural disasters.

All the funds will go to grants for local projects for disaster recovery, through the Mary MacKillop Foundation. Mary MacKillop founded the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1867 and is the first Australian saint (canonized October 2010) in the Roman Catholic Church. For more information about the Sisters Travelling Roadshow, visit their website ( http://bit.ly/ifC77w).

As the sisters get ready for the road, I pray that they will have a safe trip and that their Travelling Roadshow will raise lots of funds for people in need.

Please join me in prayer by writing a blessing for the sisters in the comment box below.

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

A favorite IHM custom of mine is the prayers of the faithful during Mass during which time we remember by name our sisters who have died on or near that day. The name of the sister is read along with the year that she died. This custom reflects a profound sense that are sisters who have died are still truly with us albeit in a new way. As an IHM community, we trust in their love and prayers as we continue God’s mission as IHM sisters.

I was thinking about this custom because today we have a long list of saints to celebrate. We celebrate not only the memory of them and how they lived the Gospel, but we also celebrate how they continue to be with us, encouraging us on our journey, praying with and for us.

We are blessed to have 6 new saints in our midst! On October 17, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI canonized the following women and men:

• Saint Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), an Australian religious and first Australian saint
• Saint André Bessette (1845-1937), a Canadian religious
• Saint Stanislao Soltys (1433- 1489), a Polish religious
• Saint Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola (1845- 1912), a Spanish religious
• Saint Giulia Salzano (1846- 1929), an Italian religious
• Saint Battisat da Varano (1458- 1524), an Italian religious

In addition to these newly minted saints, we celebrate today the feast day of the North American Martyrs, Jesuit missionaries who were martyred in the 17th century.

• Saint John de Brébeuf (1649)
• Saint Noël Chabanel (1649)
• Saint Antoine Daniel (1648)
• Saint Charles Garnier (1649)
• Saint René Goupil (1642)
• Saint Isaac Jogues (1646)
• Saint John de Lalande (1646)
• Saint Gabriel Lalemant (1649)

We give thanks for all those saints (canonized or not) who have gone before us and who continue to be with us on our journey.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Mother Mary MacKillop, the Australian sister who will be beatified on October 17, was excommunicated by her local bishop. This is common knowledge. But the reason for that excommunication has just been revealed: she was pursuing a case against a sexually abusive priest.

Read Mary MacKillop: Patron Saint of Sexual Abuse Victims? by Father James Martin, SJ, on the America Magazine blog, “In All Things.”

More on Mother Mary MacKillop. Also, mark your calendar — Father Martin will be joining us here on A Nun’s Life Ministry for our In Good Faith live broadcast on December 2 at 8 pm CST (your time zone).

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Australia will have its first Catholic saint in the person of Mary MacKillop, a Sister of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Mother MacKillop founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, a religious community that has ministered across Australia and New Zealand, including building dozens of schools for impoverished children in the Australian Outback in the 1800s. They are also committed to “care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and Refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life.” (source: Sisters’ website)

Mary MacKillop is not only a saint for Catholics but she is a saint for Australia. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd noted that her canonization is “a great, great tribute to her hard work in education” and “a great honor for Australia.” (source: Associated Press) She is even featured on a one dollar coin, the first of the Royal Australian Mint’s series featuring inspirational Australians.

This saint, like many saints before her, took her religious vows seriously and followed God even when it meant challenging the Church that she loved dearly. “She was a strong-willed advocate who sometimes got into trouble for challenging orthodox thinking within the male-dominated church. In 1869 she was excommunicated for inciting her followers to disobedience, though the bishop who punished her recanted three years later and she was exonerated by a church commission.” (source: Associated Press)

The Sisters themselves note, “Throughout her life, Mary met with opposition from people outside the Church and even from some of those within it. In the most difficult of times she consistently refused to attack those who wrongly accused her and undermined her work, but continued in the way she believed God was calling her and was always ready to forgive those who wronged her.” (source: Sisters’ website)

Blessed Mary MacKillop is, even today, “an example of great courage and trust in her living out of God’s loving and compassionate care of those in need.”

Mary MacKillop will be canonized on October 17, 2010, in Rome. The process of canonization is an expensive one, so please, keep the sisters in mind and consider donating funds to them.

Congratulations to the Sisters of Saint Joseph and all women religious, to Australia, to the Catholic Church, and to all whom Mary MacKillop inspired and will continue to inspire.

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Join us for prayer this evening during our live Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/live .

Thanks to Father James Martin, SJ, for this article – “Pope Hopes Excommunicated Nun Might Become Saint (America, July 9, 2009).

Mother Mary McKillop, the foundress of the Australian-based Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was, in 1871, officially excommunicated by her local bishop, on the grounds that she “‘she had incited the sisters to disobedience and defiance.”  That same church leader, Bishop Sheil, had earlier invited her to work in Adelaide, where she and her sisters would eventually set up schools, a women’s shelter and an orphanage, among their many works….

In April of this year, in an extraordinary gesture, Bishop’s Sheil’s successor, the current archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, made a public apology to the Sisters for their foundress’s excommunication.  Standing before her statue, said that he was “profoundly ashamed of the Bishop’s actions in driving the Sisters out onto the streets.”  McKillop was beatified (the next-to-last step for canonization) by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

This is an interesting article in its own right but also in light of the swirling news about the Apostolic Visitation to some U.S. women’s religious communities. There is a great variety of speculation, study, interpretation, experience, and plain old ignorance about the Visitation. Sadly, some in the Catholic blogosphere have used this opportunity to slander individual Catholic sisters and nuns and congregations with accusations that sound pretty much like the ones Mother Mary MacKillop received. I am reminded of the words of Saint Augustine (which someone had posted elsewhere as a rebuke to slanderous comments) — “In essentials, unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”

I’d love to hear your comments about Father Martin’s piece, Pope Hopes Excommunicated Nun Might Become Saint. The article goes a lot deeper than the headline suggests and includes the fabulous line “Musty stories of dead nuns?” How can you resist wanting to know how Father Martin slipped that line in??

Found this article about Sister Mary MacKillop on Zenit.org

Sister Mary MacKillop Featured on Coin
1st of Inspirational Australians Series

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 9, 2008 (Zenit.org) – Australia is honoring Blessed Mary MacKillop, who will likely be the country’s first saint, by featuring her on a collector’s coin.

Senator Nick Sherry, minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, launched the Sister Mary MacKillop coin Tuesday.

The $1 uncirculated coin is the first of the Royal Australian Mint’s series featuring inspirational Australians, which commemorates unique Australians who have made an extraordinary contribution to the nation.

“As the Australian people’s saint, and someone who could be called Australia’s saint in waiting, Mary MacKillop is a fitting choice for the first coin in the Inspirational Australian series,” said Sherry.

He explained that Royal Australian Mint coin designer Vladimir Gottwald depicted MacKillop as “guiding future generations.”

“Mary was an exceptional Australian woman who stands as an example of great courage, trust and compassion, and as our first saint, she will forever inspire our nation,” said the senator.

Mary MacKillop was born in Victoria in 1842.

She founded the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph, the first religious order to be founded by an Australian.

Under the sister’s guidance, the order established schools and charitable institutions across Australia and was devoted to the care of orphans, neglected children, the homeless, sick and aged. She died in 1909.

Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Mary MacKillop in 1995.

To order the coin go to the Royal Australian Mint.