SAINT MARY MACKILLOP – A SIGNIFICANT AUSTRALIAN
ANMAREE IACCARINO
16 FEBRUARY 2019
In 2010 the Catholic Church publicly recognised Mary MacKillop as our first Australian saint. Mary MacKillop lived a life of service. She was a woman of action. She accomplished this in the companionship of her God and her fellow Sisters of St Joseph. With God and the Sisters of St Joseph at her side she cared for the poor, the orphans, the uneducated, the homeless, the unemployed, the aged and unmarried mothers and their babies. She worked tirelessly for the most marginalized – those that are often forgotten.
Mary accomplished these acts in a very Australian way and in doing so Mary’s service was not without obstacles. She was excommunicated, expelled from the Adelaide diocese and forced to withdraw her Sisters from both Bathurst and Queensland diocese. This presentation seeks to share Mary MacKillop’s story.
Anmaree Iaccarino presented an enlightening talk and subsequent discussion with an audience of 32 members on the extraordinary, selfless and at times unconventional contribution Mary MacKillop made to colonial Australia. She rubbed bureaucracy the wrong way, drew the ire of the bishops but with her Sisters of St Joseph never wavered in their dedication to assist those for whom life’s burden had become too great.
by Mark Denniston
Thanks, as always, to Barry McIntosh for this wonderful photography of the event and to Anmaree.