Saintly
I don't normally make religious posts like this, but I'm at a point where I want to make one about today. Because it's kind of huge.
I come from a Catholic background and, whilst I no longer practice (in fact, I identify as agnostic now), a lot of my family still does. My Nona in particular is an avid Catholic and has worked hard in the movement to make Mary MacKillop Australia's first saint and today, they finally achieved that.
Mary MacKillop was a patron of not only educating the poor, but educating poor girls which was not a common practice in the 1860-1900s when Mary did most of her work. She worked extensively with orphans, children of abuse and neglect, girls in danger and the ill and, in 1870, after uncovering child sexual abuse in a parish in Adelaide and publicly seeking justice for it, she was persecuted and excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The excommunication was lifted later, and Mary continued her efforts in helping and supporting children and women who needed her.
Her work is embodied and continued by the sisterhood she founded in Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart and her canonisation in Rome (which occured today) is honestly so important, both to Australia and I believe, women internationally. It's so hard to find religious figures now who are worth looking up to and deserving of the titles and inheretances that they receive, and I think that Mary MacKillop is one of them.
To be honest as well, I feel that the whole thing is kind of tarnished by all of the recent child abuse within the Catholic church, because Mary's been deserving since the 1800s and it's only now, when they need a bit of good press that they canonise her as a saint who worked to stop said abuse in the church. It's my hope though that her sainthood will help other sisters now in feeling more able to come forth and talk about it when they know of it.
ANYWAY. Have a pic of one badass lady.
I come from a Catholic background and, whilst I no longer practice (in fact, I identify as agnostic now), a lot of my family still does. My Nona in particular is an avid Catholic and has worked hard in the movement to make Mary MacKillop Australia's first saint and today, they finally achieved that.
Mary MacKillop was a patron of not only educating the poor, but educating poor girls which was not a common practice in the 1860-1900s when Mary did most of her work. She worked extensively with orphans, children of abuse and neglect, girls in danger and the ill and, in 1870, after uncovering child sexual abuse in a parish in Adelaide and publicly seeking justice for it, she was persecuted and excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The excommunication was lifted later, and Mary continued her efforts in helping and supporting children and women who needed her.
Her work is embodied and continued by the sisterhood she founded in Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart and her canonisation in Rome (which occured today) is honestly so important, both to Australia and I believe, women internationally. It's so hard to find religious figures now who are worth looking up to and deserving of the titles and inheretances that they receive, and I think that Mary MacKillop is one of them.
To be honest as well, I feel that the whole thing is kind of tarnished by all of the recent child abuse within the Catholic church, because Mary's been deserving since the 1800s and it's only now, when they need a bit of good press that they canonise her as a saint who worked to stop said abuse in the church. It's my hope though that her sainthood will help other sisters now in feeling more able to come forth and talk about it when they know of it.
ANYWAY. Have a pic of one badass lady.