18th- 20th January 1995
This was his second papal visit to Australia to beatify the Venerable
Mother Mary of the Cross, MacKillop (1842-1909). It was his 63rd
pilgrimage. He was 74 years old.
This visit was only in Sydney where the Pope undertook several
public and private engagements.
Mary MacKillop's beatification
Mary MacKillop was a nun whose outstanding achievements in the
education of poor children had a major impact on the Catholic Church
and Australian society in general. She established at Penola, SA,
a religious order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart
(Brown Josephites). She is credited with two miracles which has
lead to her beatification.
[Paraphrase of article by Paul Gardiner In: The official MacKillop
Papal Visit book 1995: pp. 34-35]
The road toward beatification began in 1925 but it wasn't until
April 1926 when a decree appeared in all Catholic Churches requesting
anyone with documents from Mary MacKillop's pen to come forward.
This resulted in her letters and papers being catalogued and annotated.
Theological assessors in Rome examined her output. In April 1954
a decree was issued stating her documents contained nothing to impede
her sanctity. A total of 112 sessions were conducted to ascertain
her holiness between 1926 and 1961. In 1972 a 600 p. document containing
evidence and other papers was issued entitled The position on the
introduction of the cause which officially promoted her holiness.
In 1973 at the Eucharistic Congress, Melbourne a decree officially
proclaimed her cause but that more information was required to fill
in the gaps.
After delays due to the change in the laws of canonisation the Pope
set the date of her hearing for the 5 November 1991, the decision
of the judges was unanimous and approval given on 5 May 1992. On
13 June the Pope approved a Decree declaring Mary MacKillop had
lived a life of heroic virtue and entitled to be called Venerable.
Many cures were examined but one dying woman who recovered in 1961
provided the necessary evidence and passed the test of being a miracle
which was decreed on the 6 July 1993. The Pope expressed a desire
to have her beatified in Sydney rather than in Rome. Canonisation
may follow if another miracle occurs after Mary MacKillop's beatification
[end of paraphrase]
Itinerary
18th January, 1995
Mary MacKillop Celebration, Domain [5.30-7.30pm]
Included two concerts, pageant with fireworks for the public prior
to the arrival of the Pope.
" Youth and the Community celebrates, Domain [5.30pm]
A concert compered by Bobby Limb.
" A Celebration for Mary, Domain [6.30pm]
A concert featuring Maree Johnson, Normie Rowe, Grace Knight, Genevieve
Davis, David
Lemke, Julie Anthony under the musical director Tommy Tycho.
" The Legend is Alive: Mary MacKillop
A pageant presented by the Sisters of St. Joseph under the direction
of Tommy Tycho; compered by Bobby Limb; letters read by Geraldine
Doogue; story by Clare Koch, Margaret McKenna, Colleen O'Sullivan.
Arrival and welcome at Sydney Airport [6.25pm]
Public & Interfaith Welcome, Domain [7.30pm]
The Premier of NSW, John Fahey welcomed the Pope. The Interfaith
welcome was in the presence of sixteen leaders of religious communities
in Australia headed by Archbishop Clancy. The MC was Angela Punch
McGregor.
19th January
Morning prayer, addresses the Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Mary's
Cathedral [8.00am]
Visits Admiralty House
Private visit to the tomb of Venerable Mary MacKillop
Visits MacKillop Art Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum
Luncheon with Australian Bishops
Celebration of the Mass and Beatification of the Venerable Mary
MacKillop, Randwick
Racecourse [5.00pm]
During the celebration of the Mass a Beatification Rite was included
where the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Edward Clancy, the Postulator,
Fr. Paul Gardiner SJ, the Superior General of the Sisters of St.
Joseph, Sr. Mary Crisp and the President of the Australia New Zealand
Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Sr. Mary O'Dea came forward.
Cardinal Clancy the petitioned the Holy Father:
Holy Father, I, the Archbishop of Sydney and President of the Australian
Catholic Bishop's Conference, humbly request your Holiness that
the Venerable Servant of God,
Mary MacKillop, co-founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred
Heart, be proclaimed blessed.
Mary Cresp RSJ, read out a biographical note about Mary MacKillop,
her virtues and work, the founding of the order.
The Holy Father read out the Formula of Beatification:
Accepting the wishes of our brother, Edward Cardinal Clancy,
Archbishop of Sydney
And President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
And others of his brother Bishops,
And also the entire religious families
Of the Sisters of St. Joseph
And many of the faithful,
And having received the favourable response
Of the Congregation for the Cause of the Saints,
We declare with our apostolic Authority
That the Venerable Servant of God,
Mary of the Cross MacKillop,
Be named Blessed in posterity and we give permission
For her Feast day to be celebrated each year
On the 8th August, the day of her birth to eternal life
In places according to the norms established by law.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Cardinal Clancy's response:
Most Holy Father, I, Archbishop of Sydney, join with the Sisters
of St. Joseph and the
whole Australia church in giving heartfelt thanks to your Holiness
for granting the title of
Blessed to the Venerable Servant of God, Mary MacKillop, co-founder
of the Sisters of
St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
Attendance at the Beatification was estimated at 250,000.
20th January
Farewell and departure, Sydney Airport [9.30am]
For more information visit the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred
Heart website http://www.sosj.org.au/index.html
A Polish Australian journalist's reminiscences of the three
visits
Mr. Eugene Bajkowski was an accredited journalist covering the
1986 and 1995 papal visits. He also wrote many articles covering
Cardinal Wojtyla's first visit in 1973. He reminisces about these
visits.
The 1973 visit
When a group of journalists met with the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla
in the media room of Sydney International Airport early in 1973,
none of us thought that we had come to interview a future Pope,
who is being mourned throughout the world. This was reflected in
our modest numbers. With photographers and radio and TV crews there
was about a dozen of us all told at the press conference organised
in a fairly spacious room by Jozef Drewniak, a childhood friend
of Karol Wojtyla from their home town of Wadowice in Poland. Thirty
two years later only two names remain in my memory: Isabella Lucas
("From the Sydney Morning Herald") and Francki - I can't
remember his Christian name or his media organisation. "The
Catholic Weekly", the AAP and most Sydney dailies sent their
reporters while I represented "The Bulletin" and also
the Sydney Polish-language weekly "Wiadomosci Polskie"
and the "Panorama" periodical.
Cardinal Wojtyla had come to Australia in 1973 for the World Eucharistic
Congress in Melbourne. His visits to Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane,
Perth and Geelong really were something of a sideline, mainly for
the benefit of Australia's Polish Community. For the mainstream
media this was not yet a major event although Karol Cardinal Wojtyla
already was the Metropolitan Archbishop of the historical and politically
highly sensitive See of Cracow (Poland's former Royal capital) and
a leading personality of the Episcopate of Poland.
Looking back, our modest numbers had been a distinct advantage.
We could all ask questions and get unhurried, detailed answers.
We could meet at very close range, sitting next to him a very dynamic,
determined but also humane personality, experience Karol Wojtyla's
very personal charisma. He was also wholly unpretentious, liked
a joke and was good at telling one. The press conference provided
a good insight into the Catholic Church's future third-longest serving
Pope who both opened it to the world and took it to the world from
the Vatican in Rome. Mainstream media, of course, focused on political
sensitivities of the time.
Of which there were plenty. The relations between the Church and
the Government controlled by the Polish United Workers (Communist)
Party (PZPR) were complex and often tense. The Church was slowly
but continuously winning not only hearts and minds but also political
ground. PZPR's influential, Soviet-supported hardline wing was worried,
anxious, deeply resentful and keen to hold on to all aspects of
political power. Some others within the PZPR were beginning to accept
the sheer inevitability of approaching change, while no one in Poland
wanted a repetition of the bloody events of December 1970 in the
Baltic ports of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin.
As Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Wojtyla had only recently prevailed
in a major political contest that was then called "the Battle
of Nowa Huta". The suburb of Nowa Huta (which means the New
Steel Mill) was built around the Lenin Steelworks located about
14 km from Cracow. It was designed and built as a "City without
God", a totally "secular and progressive" satellite
city that would counter Cracow's "traditionally reactionary
clerical" influences. Not a single Church or chapel was allowed
in Nowa Huta. The result was exactly the reverse. Nowa Huta became
the most devout part of the Cracow metropolis.
Karol Wojtyla became assistant bishop of Cracow in 1958 and then
Archbishop in 1964. When the inhabitants of Nowa Huta began to demand
a church, their Archbishop strongly supported them during a long
period of administrative and political harassment, sometimes direct
police persecution. This was a saga on its own. Finally, the Communist-controlled
authorities caved in. A great Basilica was built in Nowa Huta. On
one of the altars of this Basilica stands a metal statue of Our
Lady of the Southern Cross, the work of Sydney Australian-Polish
metal sculptor Feliks Godulski.
| [Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of
the Southern Cross]
Photographer Eugene Bajkowski. 1973
Reproduced with permission |
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Cardinal Karol Wojtyla personally placed it on the altar of the
Nowa Huta Basilica on returning from Australia in 1973: "Our
Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, cast in steel - a gift from Australia
to the people of Poland's City of Steel". The statue, abound
which there are several legends, was a gift to Cardinal Wojtyla
from the Polish Ex-Servicemen's Association (SPK) in Canberra. For
the Australian-Polish community the future Pope's visit was a very
major event and the beginning of a very long personal association
with Australia, symbolised by the famous photograph of Cardinal
Wojtyla with a kangaroo in Healesville (Vic.) that long adorned
his study.
The Community's meeting with the Cardinal at Sydney International
Airport in 1973 (largely organised by Jozef Drewniak) was a great
event, well remembered ever since. The meeting was attended by the
Australian Roman Catholic Hierarchy, Polish Community chaplains
and all community organisations, with youth being particularly prominent.
This first visit to Australia had many aspects and highlights and
the bonds with the Pontiff were further strengthened during his
next two visits to Australia as Pope John Paul II - in 1986 and
1995. It's not an exaggeration to say that Papa Wojtyla's death
has created a truly profound and immensely personal sense of loss
in the Australian Polish community.
I was privileged to cover both of Pope John Paul II's official visits
to Australia and his first three official visits to Poland for Australian,
Polish and Polish-language and some other news media. Each one was
intensely exciting in very different ways. In Poland, his homeland,
in 1979 the Pope told his nation-wide flock: "Don't fear! Do
not be afraid to practice your faith and proclaim it. Your faith
covers all aspects of life. Remember your human, social and political
rights and don't be afraid to stand for them. But also remember
your duties and do not shirk them." On one occasion after another,
the Pope showed how immense was his influence and how restrained
was his exercise of it. It was always there though and it was growing
and inspiring, and a year later Solidarity, the first ever independent
trade union in the entire Soviet bloc was born. True, it was crushed
under martial law 16 months later but by then it was too late tear
out its roots. Not that the majority of PZPR leadership really wanted
to. In 1983 the Pope's visit to Poland rekindled hope and determination
to achieve change. Three years later, John Paul II made it clear
that the time for change had arrived. He made the point strongly
in several forceful homilies. All these three visits were closely
watched in Australia. By then, the Polish Pope often was front-page
news in the mainstream media. Of this later.
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