I'll respond to your scatological meadow-muffin,and question your mojo hypothesis ! The newly sanctified Mary McKillop cannot be compared to VC winners, Weary Dunlop or even bush-ranger extraordinaire Ned-the-irish-git-Kelly. Your choice of National heroes leave much to be desired. This momentous occasion is not about how tough and mean, we claim to be, but about resilience, fortitude and ambrosial charity from within.

Oz history is resplendent with statesmen, shysters, thespians, charlatans, and under-belly crims.

Since the inauguration of the First-fleeter's disembarkation at Sans Souci. Botany Bay, the scramble for notoriety and celebrity status has not abated one iota, in fact it has exacerbated tenfold.
From Governor Phillip, to the first week, of a public hanging for rape, lewd behavior and drunkenness All proponents made herculean / Olympian quests to become a first in the antediluvian Guinness Book of Records.Lawson, Wentworth, Macquarie etc strived their level best for Public acclaim and history book recognition. The fame / fortune aka celebrity status quo, was unofficially launched in Terra Australis from Day one: 18 Jan.1788.

Quixotically, " fortune " it seems, took a back seat momentarily. It was not until it became fashionable to do a ' robin hood ' and rob stage coaches when they went over the Blue Mountain Ranges, and ran out of puff. Evidently, the jejune practice didn't pay off as handsomely as some denuded micks expected, so they took up cattle rustling, and blamed it all on the Aboriginal Tribes, who lived along the Hawkesbury, where the modern Windsor / Tropicana is today. This led to full scale " shock-an-awe " skirmishes and reprisals, which owe it's genesis to Governor Phillips untimely intervention. The tribes took a G-awful thrashing. Musket-ball, power beats boomerangs and nulla-nulla's, hands down any Day !

cont..

Despite Manning Clark, Herbert Xavier, Donald Horne, Germain Greer etc, academics fought a losing battle. University was universally shunned and ill affordable. Majority had little time for hoity-toity upstarts. People much preferred their sporting heroes, and still do. They are the most venerated, highly paid and most aspired of all creatures, that walk on water ! More yokels attend the Grand Finals, then the entire Vatican's Canonization extravaganza of Maria Helena McKillop, and her retinue of mock followers, cheerleaders, commercial vendors, and street hawkers.

The hungry need for Heroes has a long history. The myths of Gallipoli, Somme, Bullencourt, Aust Light Horse etc soon followed. Enigmatic Charles Bean spawned the " digger & Anzac " image, even as when PM Hughes brought in conscription, to bolster depleted numbers- victims of horrendous trench warfare, in far off Flanders. Ironically, it was Keith Murdoch who blew the whistle on the gruesome carnage which created the legends of Bean's imaginative literary style. Nevertheless, the fog of War was soon forgotten. They built the AWM, i Fisher, to house all the reminders of those infamous battles and defeats. A legacy and aide memoire to the futility of fighting another man's War !

Enter the Dragon - oops Kevin who ? His vision splendid of Utopia, and his globe-trotting exploits; rubbing noses with the rich and famous, and laying the seeds for his seat in the United Nation's Security Council, on his retirement, until he/it was unceremoniously cut short. It is one thing to hob nob and big note with the Clinton Clan, Koffi Anan, and G20 summit gurus, but back heme in suburbia, and on Capitol Hill, his Brutus mates had other TKO ideas ?

Kevin's Grand Plan A, stretched to appointments far and wide. Currying favor among World Leaders, he created an unheard of Apostolic Resident Ambassador to the Holy See in Rome.2008. Tim Fisher.AC. Deputy PM, and National Party Leader, and inherent sworn foe of Labor Party stalwarts, was sent to take up the position with a gratuitous grant of three million dollars, to expedite if possible, a yet unheard of..

cont..

of Oz first Saint.

Cardinal Pell, and the CC hierarchy provided all the miracles, exemplary curriculum vitae, and all the compassionate paraphernalia vital to her nomination. The ground swell and hysteria came much later, when to prove the veracity of miraculous Divine intervention, the Papal Nuncio had to microscopically research the relevant information, which would take years and countless cross checking to prove beyond the realm of probabilities, the nominee qualified for Sainthood. The whole procedure takes time, infinite patience, and lots of lucre.

Cardinal Vicar Camillo Ruini, from the Congregation of Saints in Rome, vets all proposals. Miracles must be instantaneous; not attributed to any treatment, and disappear for good ! Nominee's must conform to the Latin Rite of the Mass, and the essential " non culties " ie. Exhumation and forensic examination. There are no foregone conclusions.

The criteria is fulsome. One maybe classified as either venerable, blessed, before sainthood is even mentioned.
Saints, were generally understood to mean anyone who was a Christian and in Heaven ! Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormons etc worship saints. Many practicing Protestants believe prayers, devoted to specific saints, to be barefaced idolatry, even necromancy !

The Sister's of St Joseph,which McKillop founded, have been the force majeure and driving impetus behind her canonization. They are custodians of her sepulcher, relics, history, personal possessions, and sacrosanct writings. TV footage Ch 7 and SBS, show they were well represented; waving to the crowds, and decked out in the Oz Flag. Yet another symbol of National pride.

Never before, has the Nation been swept up with so much precedence, pomp and pulsating pantomime. It has energized so many, to great heights of enthusiasm never before displayed in my life time. It has invigorated so many to return to Catholicism and Religion of birth.

As they once said: " miracles DO happen ".

[Spam.]