Fed: The miracles that put Mary on the path to sainthood

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2009
Fed: The miracles that put Mary on the path to sainthood

SYDNEY, Dec 20 AAP - To achieve sainthood, two miracles must be officially confirmed
by the Vatican.

In 1993 the Vatican accepted Mary MacKillop was responsible for miraculously curing
a woman who had leukaemia in 1961.

Despite doctors giving her no hope, the woman fell pregnant and gave birth to a baby
boy after praying for Mother Mary's interception.

She then had another five children over the next decade.

"The whole thing was medically surprising," a Catholic priest remarked.

On Saturday Pope Benedict XVI confirmed Mother Mary's second miracle, paving the way
for her to become Australia's first saint.

The approved miracle involved the healing of a NSW Hunter Valley woman with inoperable
lung cancer during the mid 1990s.

Given just a few months to live, she asked the Sisters of Joseph, which Mother Mary
founded, to pray for her, and was given a relic of Mother Mary's to wear.

Against all odds she not only recovered but all traces of the cancer disappeared.

"I feel personally humbled and grateful to Mary MacKillop, and the influence she has
had on my life," the woman, who does not want her identity made known at this stage, said
in a statement read by Sr Anne Derwin at Mary MacKillop Chapel in North Sydney on Sunday.

"On a day like today, you might have a thousand questions to ask about my story, and
sometime in the future, I do want to share that with you."

The woman added Mother Mary had always provided her with hope and inspiration.

"I hope this news today provides others, especially younger Australians, with inspiration
and encouragement to live as generously and as compassionately as Mary did."

AAP bc/jfm/apm

KEYWORD: MACKILLOP MIRACLES

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