False mysticism compounded MacKillop’s woes: new book

By Anthony Barich
SPURIOUS claims of mysticism among members of Mary MacKillop’s Order were yet another unnecessary problem she had to face along with a raft of other issues that eventually contributed to her excommunication.

While claims by some members of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart that they were experiencing visions did not directly cause her excommunication, it added to the burden of having to deal with matters such as strained relationships with her Order’s spiritual director and intense opposition from some Australian clergy and Bishops.
Mary MacKillop and a Nest of Crosses, to be launched at the Mary MacKillop Centre in Kensington, South Australia on 17 June, clarifies the circumstances leading up to and during her September 1871 excommunication by Adelaide Bishop Lawrence Shiel.
Sr Sheila McCreanor, Secretary General of the Sisters of St Joseph, arranged and edited the book that looks at the sometimes strained relationship between St Mary and Fr Julian Tenison Woods, with whom she co-founded the Order in 1866.
Sr McCreanor told The Record that the Order lacked Mother Mary’s “strong leadership when they needed it the most”, as she was away from Adelaide in Queensland to establish new schools.
When St Mary was in Queensland from December 1869 to April 1871, a series of letters between her and Fr Woods detail how some Sisters in Kapunda had reported to him their concern about two recently-arrived Franciscan priests, Frs Horan and Keating, being involved in sexual abuse.
In Bishop Shiel’s absence, his Vicar General Fr John Smyth dismissed Fr Keating, which led some clergy to be determined to “destroy” St Mary and pressured the Bishop to excommunicate her, ABC programme Compass revealed in October 2010. The Josephites confirmed the programme’s account days before the show aired.
“At the same time, because of the spirituality of the time, some of the Sisters thought that to be holy they needed to have visions, and Fr Woods was encouraging of this,” Sr McCreanor said. “This led to some dissension among the Sisters as the more commonsense ones could see some were putting it on to get Fr Woods’ attention.”
It all came to a head when one of the Sisters who believed she was having visions, Sr Angela Carroll, stole the Blessed Sacrament from the Sisters’ main convent chapel in Franklin Street, Adelaide. “This distressed the Sisters … Sr Angela was a disturbed woman,” Sr McCreanor said. Another “significant factor” compounding the Order’s problems was Fr Woods opening many new schools around South Australia in poor communities, which grew antagonistic towards him as they were being asked to financially support the local priest as well as the Sisters.
“People blamed him for the difficulties, as sometimes he wasn’t too prudent, and Mary had to keep reminding him that prudence was important … he often acted before thinking,” Sister McCreanor said.
Sr McCreanor, who has now compiled four books of St Mary’s letters, said the process of editing this latest book revealed the saint’s “amazing, impenetrable faith” through a time of uncertainty.
She said St Mary consistently used the refrain “good God” in her letters, which reflected “the kind of relationship she had with God, even just after the excommunication”.
Page 285 reveals how, just a few days after the excommunication, she wrote to Fr Woods that “we are all in the loving hands of a good God”. Again, on page 261, two days before the event, she wrote to Fr Woods that she “never had more confidence in God and our rules than now”.
“There is no doubt the challenges she faced during this period were overcome by her impenetrable faith,” Sr McCreanor said. “The events not only made her stronger as a woman, but also as a leader and ultimately a saint. It helps people see her as a real woman.”
Pope Benedict XVI canonised Mary as St Mary of the Cross in Rome on 17 October 2010.