Australian Jesuit Father Paul Gardiner, the former postulator for the cause of Mary MacKillop's canonisation, will concelebrate the event's Mass on October 17 with Pope Benedict. Fr Gardiner spent 25 years working behind the scenes to champion the cause for canonisation, said a Catholic Weekly report.
He is awaiting the event with anticipation, particularly "the imagination of Mary MacKillop walking across St Peter's Square, as she often did".
"She was a lonely young woman from Australia, knowing very little of the language and having no close friends there, having nobody in Rome who cared very much about her, going into St Peter's to pray for the interests of her order in Australia, and for herself and her mission there in Rome, and nobody would have taken any notice of her," he said.
"And there we will be at her canonisation, with her picture blazoned up on the side of St Peter's, and the Pope telling the whole world to heed her person, her faith, her perseverance, her embracing of the cross, her kindness, all the things about her that we're being asked to imitate."Personally, I think I will find that very moving."
He currently serves as chaplain of the Mary MacKillop Centre in Penola, South Australia, and says he hopes Australians understand the significance of the country's first saint.
"It's an encouragement to realise that we have a special friend in heaven."
SIC: CNA