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This clip shows the historic town of Penola in South Australia and the Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre. It features interviews with the Ambassador to the Holy See, Michael Tate, and pilgrim Majory Vidot, with narration by Sandy Gore. The story of Mary MacKillop is told through the interviews, which are intercut with historic portrait photographs of contemporary dignitaries from the Roman Catholic Church, voice-over narration and black-and-white archival footage of the Australian countryside in the second half of the 19th century.

Educational value points

• The clip blends interviews, shots of Penola, archival footage, historic portrait photographs and voice-over narration to tell the story of Mary MacKillop (1842–1909). MacKillop was the first, and remains the only, Australian to be given the title 'blessed’.

• Born in Melbourne, MacKillop arrived in Penola in 1861 and worked as a governess and a teacher before becoming a nun. With the assistance of Father Julian Woods, the parish priest, she started the Sisters of Saint Joseph, the first Catholic order to be established by an Australian. She dedicated her life to educating the less privileged. Pope John Paul II beatified MacKillop on 19 January 1995 after Church authorities decreed that, through her prayers to MacKillop, a woman had been cured of cancer.

• Mary MacKillop opened the Saint Joseph’s School in Penola, the first free Catholic school in Australia, in 1866. MacKillop and other nuns in her order travelled widely and she continued to establish a network of schools throughout Australia and New Zealand. The order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph continues to have an influence on Catholic education both locally and on an international level, where it has established schools and orphanages, and provided education and aid for refugees.

• The clip highlights the discrimination Mary MacKillop encountered as a woman from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. MacKillop faced significant opposition to her initiatives from the bishops and she was excommunicated by the local diocese. However, after appealing to Rome, she was reinstated and her order was put under the guidance and direction of the Vatican. The Church continues to be criticised for its discriminatory practices against women, particularly in relation to its opposition to women being ordained as clergy and its stance on women’s reproductive rights.

• The hierarchal constitution and the complex structure of the Roman Catholic Church are revealed in the clip. The Pope is considered the patriarch of the Church. Cardinals are appointed by the Pope as his advisers. Bishops of varying rank typically provide pastoral governance for a diocese, or territorial area. Priests assist bishops and usually work with a particular parish in a bishop’s diocese.

• Mary MacKillop is the first Australian to reach the third stage in the process of becoming a saint. In 1983 the process, known as canonisation, was reformed by the Church and the four key steps were streamlined. First, the person is proclaimed a Servant of God and detailed information about his or her life is collected. Second, if the evidence produced proves that the candidate has lived a life of 'heroic virtue’, the Rome-based church body with this responsibility recommends to the Pope that the Servant of God receive the title of Venerable. Third, if the Venerable is considered to be a martyr, or if a miracle has taken place by his or her intercession, he or she becomes blessed. To then become a saint, one more miracle needs to be attributed to the blessed person.

• The historical town of Penola located approximately 390 km south-east of Adelaide in South Australia is featured in the clip. Penola was settled in 1850 by Scottish-born Alexander Cameron who was a pastoral pioneer. John Riddoch, also Scottish-born, established the Penola Fruit Growing Colony, which was renamed Coonawarra in 1897 and became one of the region’s most prolific wine producers. The Coonawarra region is renowned for its terra rossa soils, a red soil ideal for growing red grape varieties for wine production.

This clip starts approximately 11 minutes into the documentary.

In this clip we see modern day Sharam Cottage, a man chopping wood with a child standing near watching, another cottage and the church in the historic town of Penola in South Australia and the Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre.

Sandy Gore, narrator Australia can boast few religious shrines, but it seems with places like Penola in South Australia, where Mary MacKillop began her work, all that is about to change.

Interview with Honorable Michael Tate, Ambassador to the Holy See, with the St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, in the background. We see black-and-white archival footage of the Australian countryside in the second half of the 19th century and a close up photograph of Mary Mackillop.

Michael Tate I think she was an Australian before there was an Australia. 35 years before Federation, she set about constructing a revolutionary female taskforce to bring education and welfare services Australia-wide, without regard to the old colonial boundaries. She anticipates – she took responsibility for the provision of these services Australia-wide, well before Federation, decades before any national government took on those responsibilities. That’s an extraordinary achievement. She anticipated and helped create our sense of being Australian.

There is black-and-white footage of a coach riding through the bush. We see the Cobb and Co Booking office in Penola as we transition from black-and-white photograph to modern footage of the building. We then see a museum display of mannequins at a table representing Mary Mackillop surrounded by children at a table doing school work.

Sandy Gore, narrator It was in 1861 that Mary MacKillop arrived in Penola by Cobb and Co coach to begin her work. Mary MacKillop established a network of schools for underprivileged children in Australia and New Zealand. But, not without opposition. Bishops, uneasy with nuns who chose to work outside their convents, nuns who insisted that their authority came foremost from the Pope and not the local bishop, made life extremely difficult.

Interview with Majory Vidot, there is a picture of Mary Mackillop in the background.

Majory Vidot, pilgrim Mary MacKillop was a powerful, down-to-earth lady who was very shrewd, and although she saw all the games that were played against her to upstage her, she always responded firmly and compassionately.

We see historic portrait photographs of the contemporary dignitaries from the Roman Catholic Church. We see a photograph of a make bishop in dress.

Sandy Gore, narrator Mary MacKillop’s independence angered and challenged a number of bishops. They engaged in a campaign of slander and defamation, finally excommunicating her, banning her from the church in South Australia.

Majory Vidot Many of the bishops had a limited vision intellectually, and they just couldn’t see a future where a woman could be a leader, like Mary was.