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Sky News: Canonisation of Mary MacKillop

SKY News will provide extensive coverage of the canonisation of Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop from Friday.

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SKY News will provide extensive coverage of the canonisation of Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop, beginning on Friday.

SKY News coverage will be led by SKY’s National Affairs Correspondent Celina Edmonds who is in Rome for the preparations and Sunday’s ceremony. Celina will be speaking to the Sisters of St Joseph, Holy See Ambassador Tim Fischer and some of the thousands of pilgrims who have travelled to Italy to witness the canonisation.

Celina Edmonds will report live during First Edition from Friday.

On Sunday, SKY News will also take you Mary MacKillop’s home town of Penola in South Australia, where Mother Mary began her first school. About 20,000 people are expected in Penola to celebrate Blessed Mary’s canonisation.

SKY News reporter Gemma Veness will be reporting live from Mary MacKillop Chapel at North Sydney where thousands of pilgrims are expected to visit the tomb of Australia’s first saint.

SKY News’ continuous coverage begins at 4pm AEDT ahead of a service at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney from 5pm. At 6.30pm live coverage from the Vatican as the Pope presides over the formal canonisation service.

Guiding us through the canonisation ceremony will be an expert panel; Sister Mary Ellen O’Donoghue from the Sisters of St Joseph, Peta Goldburg, Professor of Religious Education at the Australian Catholic University and Rev Dr Gerard Kelly, President of the Catholic Institute of Sydney

From Friday October 15, A-PAC, Channel 648 will be dedicated to interviews and features on Australians involved in the “journey to sainthood”.

Plus on Saturday at 9.30pm and Sunday at 2.30pm, Sky News presents “A Conversation with the Sisters of St Joseph”. Celina Edmonds talks with the Sisters about Mary and the process that’s led to the canonisation of Australia’s first Saint.

9 Responses

  1. Why does Mary appear to be peeking through a crack in the door in the photo?

    I used to know a guy in Adelaide who was prominent in the Catholic Church in the early 1980s and he was campaigning hard back then for MacKillop’s canonisation, so it’s been a long time coming. A lot of the people who started this ball rolling, including my old friend, have long since died.

  2. @Allie…. I understand what you are saying about the miracles being attributed to Mary Mackillop because I actually personally know the lady Kath Evans that was cured of cancer.

  3. If I was in Rome I’d probably knock down a couple of sherbets just to celebrate and mosey down for a gander.Nothing like seeing the blind leading the blind in full flight at the Vatican.I as there in 78 when John Paul the 1st was shoe horned into the top job only to be ripped off a month later when he fell off the perch (or was he pushed).

  4. @newtaste, that’s because the two miracles are being attributed to Mary MacKillop herself, or rather, her intercession with the Almighty, rather than God acting alone, if that makes sense. It’s hard to explain.

    @DJ, yeah, there is a lot of emphasis being put on Mary MacKillop’s life but that is because she has been dead 101 years and people need to know her story in order to understand her achievements relative to the times she lived in. As for people scoffing at the reason she is being canonised, of course there are going to be both doubters and believers in relation to the miracle cures she is said to have performed. Bottom line is the two miracle cures attributed to her cannot be explained by medical science, and they have both been exhaustively investigated by both Vatican and secular authorities/medical doctors. Some things in life simply can’t be explained, they are of supernatural origin. It has taken well over 20 years for both miracles to be investigated by the Vatican. Personally, I think the canonisation is a very significant event and something to be proud of, whether one is Catholic or not.

  6. Virtually everything I’ve been reading and hearing about talks about MacKillop herself in terms of what she did and was noted for. Practically no one is talking about the reason she’s actually being canonised for (miracles attributed to prayers made to her) – I suspect most people would scoff at the reasoning which is why no one is bothering to discuss it.

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