STORY - Walking in the footsteps of Mary MacKillop

As the centenary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop approaches, hopes for her canonisation are rising. One member of the diocesan community who has a unique insight into Mary and the Josephite way is Sr Carmel Pilcher rsj. Carmel grew up in Adelaide where Mary MacKillop founded and nurtured the congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

Carmel says with some satisfaction, “I can’t remember not knowing her. I am completely steeped in the history and life of Mary MacKillop – my mother’s godmother (who is still living) tells me stories of her mother running errands for Mary MacKillop when she lived in Adelaide.”

Carmel can remember a time when “I thought there were only Josephites”, so for her, to become a Sister was to be Josephite. She feels no need to draw a sharp distinction between vowed Josephites and those who live and work in the spirit of Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods, a diocesan priest from Adelaide who co-founded the Sisters with Mary.

“I remember as a teenager walking around the streets of Norwood and thinking, ‘Mary would have walked here.’ I was baptised in the church where she was excommunicated. My mother and I attended schools founded by Mary, and I know Penola [where the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart were founded in 1866] well. Something happens in me when I go to Penola - always.

“Mary was very hands on; not only would she begin a community, but she would then visit the Sisters when she could and stay in their houses, so many people did meet and get to know this woman. When I was 12, Sr Teresita taught us religion. She imprinted in our minds that Australia’s first saint would be Mary MacKillop. It wasn’t a prediction, it was conviction. She knew.” Sr Teresita Cormack has returned to Adelaide, after many years in administration at the Congregational Leadership Offices in Sydney and will probably witness the canonisation, fulfilling a life long wish.

While entering the congregation seemed entirely natural to Carmel at age 16, it was not a decision that pleased her family, and in particular her grandmother. Her parents were concerned because at that time all formation took place in Sydney, and they had to face the possibility of not seeing their daughter for five years. For her grandmother, Rose, it was a different story. Although a committed Methodist, Rose knew and loved the Sisters, but it was her greatest fear that Carmel would live in abject poverty. Rose had seen, many years before, that the Sisters were often close to starvation and she did not want that for her grand-daughter.

Rose visited Carmel during her formation in Sydney, not long before she died, and saw that, relatively speaking, the Sisters had plenty. She was then able to give Carmel her blessing.

The Mary MacKillop Sr Carmel knows is a happy blend of single-minded dedication to what she saw as the will of God, whatever that entailed, and human warmth that often revealed emotions just below the surface. “The courage and the strength of this woman really blew my mind. I was attracted to a woman who would take a stand, who would struggle for what she wanted no matter what, but all out of deep faith and prayer. It was always God’s work, not her own. Mary was 24 years of age when she founded the Congregation. Within a few years, after some opposition from certain bishops, it became apparent that the only way for the Order to flourish with the vision of the founders was for Mary to travel alone, and without any money, to Rome to gain papal approval of the rule. So, in the guise of a young widow, Mary begged a passage from Adelaide to Rome, and, eventually, succeeded in her quest. She was away from all her supports - the Sisters, her family and friends - for two years.

“The other thing that draws me to her,” says Carmel, “is the cross. Mary’s religious name was Mother Mary of the Cross. She had an ability to deal with sickness and to put things in perspective – she rarely had a day without pain, yet there was always hope in her life. She struggled with poor health, Fr Julian’s turning away, with some of the Sisters who turned against her, with some of the priests and bishops she encountered and of course with her excommunication and even banishment from Adelaide. During all these trials, it was those considered ‘outsiders’ who were her constant source of support. A Jew named Solomon took her under his wing after her excommunication. Amongst her greatest benefactors were Anglicans and Presbyterians.”

A watershed in Carmel’s life occurred when she was invited to head the committee planning the papal liturgies for the beatification of Mary MacKillop in January 1995.

“It was a rollercoaster at the time!” she recalls. A particularly gratifying memory is a statement made by the then Monsignor Piero Marini, Papal Master of Ceremonies, who said when introduced to Carmel in Rome, “At last they have sent a woman in charge of liturgy!”

The Josephite Sisters were prominent in the sanctuary for the ceremony at Randwick Racecourse and perhaps more importantly, they had significant input into every aspect of the planning, which took eight months to prepare. Our own Sr Clare Tobin was the other Josephite representative on the planning team.

Carmel is particularly proud of the fact that the beatification was the first liturgy to include the smoking ceremony, a sign of purification for Indigenous Australians. Her work towards the beatification gave her an insight into the ways of Indigenous people and she has a deep love for them. And of course, smoking ceremonies are now quite common in Australian liturgies.

A bond between Carmel and Clare Tobin was formed in 1995 that remains, and indeed Carmel feels “complete affinity” with the Lochinvar Josephites. Carmel is a ‘Central’ (‘brown’) Josephite while the Lochinvar Sisters are ‘Federation’ (‘black’) Josephites. Her love of liturgy was confirmed and strengthened by the beatification experience, and her role in Maitland-Newcastle gives her the opportunity to share her insights and work with parish, regional and diocesan groups, particularly through the Diocesan Liturgy Council.

Reflecting on Carmel’s experiences, it’s obvious that she is where she is meant to be, in every sense. For her, formally entering the Josephites felt just like “putting a hand in a glove”.

Please visit www.sosj.org.au You may wish to request the Sisters’ prayers through the intercession of Blessed Mary MacKillop.

Tracey Edstein

Back to Aurora Homepage