Australia still waiting for St MacKillop_2835

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The Archbishop of Sydney,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, Cardinal Pell says the title is a "certainty" and urged the Vatican to make the declaration soon.
Mary MacKillop died at 9am on August 8, 1909,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, aged 67, in North Sydney with her remains interred at a chapel bearing her name.
But with Pope Benedict XVI on his summer break, Mother Mary's admirers will have to wait at least a few weeks longer before sainthood can be confirmed.
"It's almost completely certain she will be become our first publicly recognised Australian saint and we hope Pope Benedict will make the declaration soon."
A service was held in Newcastle on Friday.
The centenary of her death would have been a fitting time for the Vatican to bestow the title on a figure revered across the world for her work helping the poor and needy.
Mary MacKillop did not become Australia's first saint on Saturday, despite fervent support for her elevation.
A second miracle said to be carried out by MacKillop which would confirm sainthood is being investigated by the Vatican.
"This community needs its home-grown heroes and local models to encourage us in the right direction," Cardinal Pell told the service.
"We should renew and strengthen our prayers on this day and pray for the canonisation of the Blessed Mary MacKillop, that she will be, in fact, Australia's first saint,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login," he told the service.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart led the service and backed calls for Mary MacKillop's canonisation.
A service at St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, Adelaide, was led by Archbishop Philip Watson.
Similar services celebrating MacKillop's life were held in Adelaide, where she spent much of her working life, Melbourne, her birthplace and Brisbane, location of several of MacKillop's charities, on Saturday.
Mary MacKillop was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995 meaning the Vatican verified her first miracle of healing a woman with terminal leukaemia.
"Pope John Paul II declared her blessed in 1995 which is one stage short of her being proclaimed officially a saint," Australia's Catholic leader told a eucharist service in North Sydney on Saturday celebrating the centenary.
Cardinal Pell said Mother Mary had, at times, been treated "disgracefully" by the Catholic Church but said she had not lapsed into "bitterness".
Australia still waiting for St MacKillop
Mary MacKillop co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph and was instrumental in setting up schools, orphanages, charities and refuges in South Australia and Queensland in the mid to late 19th Century, and has been credited with carrying out at least one miracle.
In the end the prayers went unanswered - for now at least.
More than 1,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login,000 people attended the Melbourne service at St Patrick's Cathedral.
"We need Blessed Mary as a guide. We know Australians are good but some can be very good."