On Tuesday, Eileen O'Connor was officially awarded the title of 'Servant of God' by the Vatican. This is the first of the steps to be taken before a person can be declared a saint.

The official process for declaring O'Connor a saint began in March this year after the Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher set in motion a formal process for her beatification.

"Eileen was a young woman who received the love of God, multiplied it in her heart, and passed it on to others. It is my hope that the heroic and saintly example of Eileen O'Connor will inspire everyone to live faithful lives as disciples of Jesus Christ," Fisher said when announcing her cause.

On hearing of O'Connor's Servant of God status, Fisher said: "Eileen's was a life of immense suffering and, judged by today's standards, many would have viewed it as lacking in dignity, value or hope.

"That she is on her way to possibly being our next saint shows even a short life, marked by incredible suffering, can be an inspiration to all and reminds us of the dignity of every human life."

When she was 21, O'Connor and a local priest, Father Edward McGrath, co-founded the religious order of Our Lady's Nurses of the Poor.

The order - also known as the 'Brown Nuns' because of their distinctive brown cloaks and bonnets - was committed to caring for the sick and dying poor in their homes.

Source

• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Magnet
• Daily Mail
• The Australian
• Sydney Catholic
• Image: The Australian

Known as a workaholic, a moderating force and a conservative, without being reactionary, that didn't stop Cardinal Clancy having his share of disagreements with Rome.

In fact, he once told a young priest heading for Rome to study to "trust nobody".

This didn't stop that young priest being an Australian archbishop today.

An obituary article written by a former editor of Sydney's Catholic Weekly, Kerry Myers, described some of Clancy's battles with Rome.

The Vatican once intervened in a project Clancy had authorised - the setting up of a heroin injecting room run by the Sisters of Charity from a Catholic hospital.

Then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger ordered the sisters to drop the scheme after strident protests from a number of conservative Catholics.

While the cardinal took Rome's decision "on the chin", one priest close to him said he took the rebuke personally, but that did not stop him publicly siding with Rome.

But after a 1999 bishops' Oceania Synod in Rome, a Statement of Conclusions reprimanded Australia's bishops over a perceived crisis of faith and religious practice in their nation.

Speaking to ABC radio on his retirement in 2001, Clancy expressed frustration at the reception the bishops got from Rome.

"I came away feeling that our brethren in Rome didn't fully understand the situation in real life as we have it here," he said.

" . . . there's a certain Australian egalitarianism that other people often misread and misunderstand, and also an openness."

During his tenure, Cardinal Clancy also decided to divide Sydney archdiocese into three dioceses for pastoral reasons.

And it was his support, especially in Rome, that resulted in the eventual canonisation of Australia's first saint, Mary MacKillop.

He was Archbishop of Sydney from 1983 to 2001, when he retired.

Previously he had been Archbishop of Canberra Goulburn and was also an auxiliary bishop in Sydney.

President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference from 1986 to 2000, he received the cardinal's red hat in 1988.

In 1992 he was made a Companion in the Order of Australia for service to religion, learning and the disadvantaged in the community.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Australian Associated Press
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

Sister Maria Casey, former postulator for Australia's first saint, Mary MacKillop, is visiting to push along Sister Aubert's claim for sainthood, a long and complicated process.

"So that there's a real integrity and there is not room for future contradiction or for skullduggery, for want of a better word," says Sister Casey.

Father Maurice Carmody has already presented the case to the Vatican.

"It's then examined by a committee of three historians and three theologians and that's the stage it's at now," he says.

But getting help from the Australian who was instrumental in getting that country's first saint recognised, is being seen as a significant boost towards Suzanne Aubert's claim.

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Source

• 3News
• Image: ScreenShot 3News

The place of burial was recently given a special blessing by Bishop Barry Jones. The blessing was attended by about 50 people, including St Joseph Sisters Provincial Sr Colleen Keeble, RSJ, a large number of sisters from around the South Island, Sisters of St Joseph Wanganui, and the Knights of the Southern Cross.

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