The headlines read: Pope hopes excommunicated nun might become saint.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Mother Mary MacKillop, the foundress of the Australian-based Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was, in 1871, officially excommunicated by her local bishop, on the grounds that 'she had incited the sisters to disobedience and defiance'.
That same church leader, Bishop Sheil, had earlier invited her to work in Adelaide, where she and her sisters would eventually set up schools, a women's shelter and an orphanage, among their many works. But MacKillop's independent spirit was a threat to Bishop Sheil, who had her booted out of the Church.
Last month, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke with Pope Benedict XVI about MacKillop's possible canonisation. Just last year, the pope visited MacKillop's tomb in Sydney during his visit to Australia for World Youth Day. Prime Minister Rudd said that the visit 'left a deep impression on the Holy Father'.
In April of this year, in an extraordinary gesture, Bishop's Sheil's successor, the current archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, made a public apology to the Sisters for their foundress's excommunication. Standing before her statue, he said that he was 'profoundly ashamed of the Bishop's actions in driving the Sisters out onto the streets'.
MacKillop was beatified (the next-to-last step for canonisation) by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
The idea of a holy woman who had been at loggerheads with the hierarchy — and was even excommunicated — is not new in the annals of the saints. The most recently named American saint, Mother Theodore Guérin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence of St Mary of the Woods, was once locked into a room in a presbytery by her bishop, who was infuriated by her (similarly) independent spirit.
Around the time of her canonisation in 2006, I recounted her story in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, called 'Saints That Weren't.' (Their title, not mine.)
It was a tough article for some Catholics to read, and I got letters by the dozens. Half of them praised me for reminding Catholics that being in trouble with the church hierarchy is no barrier for holiness; and the other half expressed fury that I was suggesting that being in conflict with the church was a requirement for holiness. (I was arguing only the former — and from history.)
The canonisation of troublemakers shows that the Vatican typically has a clearer understanding