Great news, Catholics! It is now official: “Blessed” Mary McKillop, dead these last ninety years, was roused from her mortal torpor in 1995 to perform a minor medical miracle on a faithful devotee in Sydney, Australia. (It was her second miracle in 90 years, which means she is a less proficient intercessor than John Paul II but a damned sight better than Saint Damien of Molokai.) View the story here, and see why Sister McKillop, the fiery founder of the Josephites and Australian pedagogical innovator, is now ready for canonization.
Skeptics might raise the usual objections. Why would Mary McKillop intercede in the advanced lung and brain cancer of one granny from Windale while blithely ignoring the pain and misery of so many others? Answer: Because the grandmother in question, Kathleen Evans, kept a piece of McKillop’s robe on her person during her convalescence. Oh, sure, a skeptic might say. So you’re saying that dead Catholics can only intercede on behalf of those who’ve swiped some of their clothing? Answer: No. It is that the petitioner has opened her heart to the saint’s intercession, and the wearing of the relic is only an outward sign of inner readiness to be healed. Oh!, a skeptic might say, Then people without saints’ relics can’t possibly be inwardly ready? Answer: No, they can be. They can be healed, too. By God. So God only heals those whose who are inwardly ready? Answer: Well, um, no, not precisely, because God often has a will of His own… That’s good! Because I was gonna say, there must have been a whole lot of Haitian Catholics who were absolute gluttons for punishment…
And that’s the kind of conversation that can only end badly. But I’m not as skeptical as all that. I’m just curious why the Vatican thinks it was the relic that saved Kathleen Evans life, rather than the Madonna poster over the bed of Evans’ 13-year-old daughter, or the pornographic magazine under her husband’s mattress. Other likely culprits: the quartz crystals in the yard, the silver spoons in the drawer, the linen sheets in the closet, the chopper in the garage…
When you begin ascribing magical powers to inanimate objects, it’s hard to know when to stop.