Opinion Articles

SOUL MATTERS: MacKillop Cross is a reminder for Aussies
By Tracey Edstein

Almost two weeks ago, the Mary MacKillop Cross visited our region, spending time at Sacred Heart Cathedral, St Joseph's Convent Lochinvar and St Patrick's Church Singleton.

The Cross was an initiative of the Knights of the Southern Cross (KSC), an order of Catholic men with families and careers who make time in their lives for fellowship and faith-based action. Blessed Mary MacKillop is their patron, and of course they share the enthusiasm of their church community and the nation for the heroic goodness she displayed.

The Knight who had the foresight to preserve the floorboards of the original schoolhouse at Penola, founded by Fr Julian Tenison Woods and Mary MacKillop in 1866, probably never imagined that they would travel Australia in the year of Mary's long awaited canonisation.

In fact, there are two Crosses. One was given as a gift to Pope John Paul II in 1995, the year of Mary's beatification. The other was given to the Sisters of St Joseph, North Sydney. However, when the canonisation was announced, the Knights conceived the idea of the Cross travelling around the Land of the Southern Cross as a focus for prayer and a tangible link with our first recognised saint.

There are echoes of the World Youth Day Cross, which travelled from Rome to Australia in the year preceding World Youth Day, held in Sydney in 2008. The Mary MacKillop Cross is smaller and lighter than the World Youth Day Cross. Just as well, because it has no entourage, just a driver and ‘roadie’, travelling in a van with distinctive KSC 007 plates.

Something in me wanted this Cross to be a little more worn, a little less polished, like that tiny schoolhouse in Penola. No doubt Occupational Health and Safety is a factor here! In NSW, driver Greg Briscoe-Hough’s ‘roadie’ is his uncle, Leo McInerney, formerly of Newcastle. Greg is a dedicated man: beginning a new job recently, he explained that he had committed himself to be custodian of the Cross, so he needed leave without pay. It was granted.

Greg jokes that his driving leads his uncle to pray many rosaries (a repetitive prayer in honour of Mary, Mother of Jesus) while on the road. It was clear to me when I spoke to Leo that he is a man of deep faith who relishes his contribution to what he sees as a noble cause.

I spoke to one stylish young woman who had rearranged her schedule to pray before the Cross. Around her neck she proudly wore a Mary MacKillop medallion. “My mother brought this for me from Mary MacKillop Place and I haven’t take it off since,” she told me. Her little daughter also held a cross.

People of all ages and backgrounds came to spend time before the Cross. Mass was celebrated, with Dean of the Cathedral, Monsignor Allan Hart, preaching about the “matrix of Mary MacKillop”. She was a woman before her time whose legacy is lasting. The most significant influences on her were family, faith and a strong sense of being an Australian.

In this, she is no different from so many of us.

Tracey Edstein is the editor of Aurora, the magazine of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. This article is submitted by the Churches Media Association www.cmahunter.com.au.

*This article was published in The Newcastle Herald, 20th September 2010