MacKillop (1842-1909), Australia’s first native-born saint, was co-founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, an order of nuns dedicated to the religious instruction of children and care for the poor.
The strong-willed MacKillop, who worked under harsh conditions in the Australian outback, was once briefly excommunicated by her bishop for reasons that have never been entirely clear.
According to a new Australian television documentary aired a week before her canonization, at least one of the reasons MacKillop was punished was for denouncing clerical child abuse.
“The story of the excommunication amounts to this: that some priests had been uncovered for being involved in the sexual abuse of children,” the Rev. Paul Gardiner, the official advocate of MacKillop’s canonization, told Australia’s ABC television.
The same bishop who excommunicated MacKillop rescinded the decision on his deathbed five months later.
“If the facts support that account, then she should be looked to for her intercession by all who seek justice in the sex abuse crisis,” said James Martin, a New York Jesuit and author of “My Life with the Saints.”
