Australia's first saint a new era for nation's Catholics

THE Pope will today confirm the status of Mary Mackillop as Australia's first saint, with official word due in Rome's St Peter's Square today.

THE Pope will today confirm the status of Mary Mackillop as Australia's first saint, with official word due in Rome's St Peter's Square this afternoon.

Australia's ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer, will be on hand for the announcement, as will Sister Maria Casey of the Sisters of St Joseph and while there is surely nothing between heaven and earth that will prevent Australian Catholics from celebrating the moment, it's not yet clear whether it's a moment for more general Aussie pride.

Philip Almond, professor of religion in the Centre for the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland, has "no doubt it's a moment for them (Catholics) of enormous significance, but there seems to be a great deal of simplistic patriotism flowing from it".

Mackillop is said to have been used by God to work miracles, most recently in 1993, when prayers to her were said to have cured a NSW grandmother, Kathleen Evans, of lung and brain cancer.

Professor Almond says "something extraordinary" obviously happened. "But it's a big step from there to say it's the power of prayer."