Novena to Mary MacKillop leads to Miracle

Jack Simpson
Photo by Angela Wylie

MacKillop's Untold Miracle - The Sydney Morning Herald

The photograph and following excerpt is from smh.com.au:

By Barney Zwartz

JACK SIMPSON should have died at least five years ago. Instead, he is about to leave for Rome to honour the woman whose intervention he credits with his cure, which the Vatican accepts is a miracle.

Jack, 19, was the ''runner-up'', the one held in reserve, for the second miracle Mary MacKillop needed to be canonised Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop in Rome on Sunday week.

Disaster struck in April 1999. ''He went from a normal boy going to school to another boy we didn't know coming home that night. He lost all his competencies and became like a new baby,'' his mother, Sharon Simpson, recalls.

He was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, cancer, epilepsy and a loss of neurological functions.

Andrew Kornberg, director of the neurology department at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, called Jack's recovery miraculous and the Vatican agreed - not for the MS or cancer but the unprecedented recovery of his intellectual capacity.

Jack's story has not been told until now because while the case was being investigated by the Vatican the family was asked to keep it secret. It was presented to Pope Benedict last year along with Kathleen Evans's cure from inoperable brain and lung cancer - the case chosen as the second miracle.

The Simpson family's ordeal began in 1999 when Jack, then eight, collapsed at school. ''At first we thought he'd hit his head. His eyes were rolling, he couldn't stand and had no comprehension. It was unbelievably horrible,'' Mrs Simpson recalled yesterday.

For the first year there was no diagnosis, as his central nervous system went into meltdown, leaving him paralysed. Soon after the problem was revealed as juvenile MS - with a maximum life expectancy of five years - the family noticed lumps the size of bars of soap in his neck and groin.

''When he went to the nuclear medicine department and they put the tracer in, he was lit up like a Christmas tree. It was quite advanced, stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma,'' said his mother.

A friend organised novenas (nine-day prayer cycles) to Mary MacKillop at St Ambrose's Catholic Church in Woodend in 1999 and 2000, but nothing changed at first. For Mrs Simpson the turning point came one night in 2000.

''That night I thought Jack was going to die. He seemed to be in the last stage, with the breath rattling. I thought, 'You can't keep fighting forever, you have to surrender', and I said, 'If you want him, God, you can have him'.''

Read More: MacKillop's Untold Miracle

Kathleen Evans Healed by Prayers to Mother Mary MacKillop

Photograph from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mother Mary's miracle survivor opens up

The following article is written by ADAM BENNETT from The Sydney Morning Herald:

Miracle cancer survivor Kathleen Evans says she has no idea why she was touched by Mother Mary MacKillop, and probably won't know until she finally gets "upstairs".

The NSW woman, whose dramatic recovery from lung cancer was confirmed as Mother Mary's second miracle, has described herself as an ordinary churchgoer.

Surrounded by a throng of reporters at Sydney's Mary MacKillop Chapel, the 66-year-old said she was just an average mother-of-five and grandmother to 20, who just happened to be touched by the rebel nun.

Mrs Evans' identity had remained a secret until Monday, when she spoke publicly for the first time about her miracle cure.

In 1993, then aged 49, Mrs Evans was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, which was soon found to have spread and caused a secondary cancer on her brain.

The former smoker refused radiotherapy treatment and was given just months to live by doctors.

But with constant prayers to Mother Mary from family and the local parish, and wearing a relic containing a piece of the soon-to-be saint's clothing, she recovered from the disease.

"Wow" was down-to-earth Mrs Evans' reaction when doctors first told her the cancer had disappeared.

"When he (the doctor) was so excited the first question I asked him was, 'had it shrunk', and he said 'no, it's gone'," said Mrs Evans, who was flanked by husband Barry, daughter Annette and son Luke at Monday's press conference.

"Once he told me it was gone that was it. I've never looked back and thought I might have cancer again, or it might come back."

"I won't get cancer. I'll die of a heart attack," she joked.

In December last year, Pope Benedict XVI confirmed her recovery as Mother Mary's second miracle, paving the way for the canonisation to make her Australia's first saint.

Her first miracle, the curing of a woman who had leukaemia in 1961, was accepted by the Vatican in 1993.

Mrs Evans, who hails from the Hunter region, said that after years of anonymity she was overwhelmed by all the attention she was now getting.

"I'm not one to be on my knees all the time. I'm just an ordinary person," Mrs Evans said of her faith.

"If I miss a Mass, I don't think I'm going to go to hell or anything like that."

Mrs Evans said she didn't know why she had been saved.

"When I finally do get upstairs, it will be the first question I ask," she said.

Mrs Evans said she had felt a presence in her Windale home during her fight with cancer.

She still wears the relic - "it's on my bra" - and still felt the presence of Mother Mary in her life.

"I have many, many times felt Mary MacKillop's presence," she said.

"I do feel her presence. I do feel that she is with me. I feel she is praying for me.

"I talk to her as if she is a person. It's like when you lose someone in your family and you still talk to that person."

Mrs Evans said she felt privileged to be part of Mary MacKillop's canonisation.

She hopes to travel to Rome for the ceremony, expected later in the year.

"It makes me very humble," she said.

"Australia's first saint - it's pretty big."

Mary MacKillop died in 1909 at the age of 67, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995 after her first miracle was decreed.

She fought many battles with the Catholic Church when establishing the Sisters of St Joseph, and the dozens of schools they created for less fortunate children - earning her a reputation as a rebel nun.

MacKillop to become Australia's First Saint

MacKillop to become Australia's first saint - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The following excerpt is from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Australia will have its first Roman Catholic saint after Pope Benedict approved a decree recognising a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Mary MacKillop.

The approval means Blessed Mary is likely to be formally declared a saint at a canonisation ceremony next year.

Blessed Mary (1842-1909), who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph, is revered by Catholics for her work, especially with needy children, former female prisoners and prostitutes.

She was beatified by pope John Paul II in 1995.

The miracle approved on Saturday involved the healing of a person who had cancer and was cured after praying to Blessed Mary.

Sister Anne Derwin from the Sisters of Saint Joseph says many have been inspired by Blessed Mary's work in education and with the poor.

"It's not only the sisters, but many other people, men and women, who love the way Mary MacKillop lived her life," she said.

"They try and live in that spirit too, and do great things for people."

Sister Derwin says the Pope's decision is a significant event for the church in Australia.

"Mary herself wouldn't have expected this sort of limelight, but it makes us feel excited that the gift she was given for the church, for the world, is being recognised as valuable," Sister Derwin said.

"And that was a gift to focus on those most in need in our society."

Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne, worked throughout South Australia and died in North Sydney.

She co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1866 but was excommunicated from the Church at one stage for allegedly disobeying authorities.

However she continued to spend her life caring for those less fortunate.