University in Olsztyn, Faculty of Theology “Between sacrum and profanum - the Saints in the culture”
The title and theme of this conference was - Between sacrum and profanum - the Saints in the culture. It was held by the University in Olsztyn, Faculty of Theology in the north of Poland, on 7-9 November 2016, at the Pedagogical University of the National Education Commission. The paper given by D.P.G. Sheridan was "Saint Mary McKillop - A Saint for the Vast Horizon". It was not specifically about AGWP, but it does go to background, and was beneficial to the project.
Abstract/Introduction
In the November of 2015, I stood in front of Saint Mary MacKillop’s tomb in North Sydney, Australia. As I was saying my beads, she lay there before me, silent and restful, whispering to my mind the mysteries of her life. These mysteries tell of many things, but they all lead me to one thing in particular; trust in God. You see, Mary possessed a trust in God far beyond a trust in man, and as a result, she loved God more than anyone. She had been silenced in her life through injustice, weakness, jealousy and corruption, but now she speaks louder in death than she ever did in life, for she has silenced the ‘resounding brass and clanging bell’ with the same charity spoken of in 1 Corinthians 1-3. At her death, Cardinal Moran said, “Her death will bring many blessings, not only on yourselves, and your Congregation, but on the whole Australian Church.” Mary had become an exemplary of charity, but also a Simon of physical pain, mental trial and spiritual poverty that would raise a star in the southern skies above a land that had once been known as ‘Terra Australis Incognita’, a land of convicts. Now it is a land of saints; illuminated and known to the world.
In the beginning of Australian white history, from 1788 to 1820, it was a crime to be a Catholic in Australia. For 32 years Catholics could not go to Mass or receive the sacraments. The only two priests who were in Australia in these early years were Fr Dixon (1803-1804); deported from Australia after a convict uprising in 1804 at Castle Hill, and Fr O’Flynn (1817-1818); deported from Australia for secretly saying Mass. Just before Fr O’Flynn left however, he consecrated the Eucharist and left it with a Sydney Catholic called, William Davis. The instruction was that Davis and other Sydney Catholics were to say the rosary in front of the Host each day until a priest came back to the colony. This practice went on for 18 months when a visiting French priest on a French ship came in 1819 and consumed the Host, leaving Sydney Catholics with nothing but their rosaries.
After the arrival of Australia’s first non-convict priests, Frs. Therry and Connelly, Catholics in Australia could finally, but with slowly decreasing restrictions, go to Mass and receive the sacraments. However, as late as the mid-1900s, Catholics were treated with contempt and scorn in Australia by their Protestant counterparts. It was this Australia that Mary MacKillop was born. A hostile place for Catholics, even though, by 1842, when she was born, the Catholic Church was well established in Australia. Yet Mary’s greatest trials would not come from outside the Church, but rather from within its ranks. The paper is a brief overview of the life and times of a most remarkable Australian woman.
Mgr D.P.G. Sheridan giving a lecture on "Saint Mary McKillop - A Saint for the Vast Horizon" at the University in Olsztyn, Faculty of Theology, Poland.