Update on the Cause for Catherine McAuley’s Beatification

Even though we do not as yet have a miracle that is acceptable to the Congregation for Causes, there is plenty happening around the world that underlines the extent of Catherine’s “fame for holiness”, which is one of the most important criteria for canonisation.

Examples of favours received as a result of Catherine’s direct intercession continue to come in. These favours touch on all aspects of life and living. An example of one such favour is the story of the mother of a 37 year old man, who was still single at that age. His mother was beginning to get worried that he might never meet a suitable woman and settle down. So she prayed fervently to Catherine McAuley and within twelve months the man was married and settling in very happily to married life. Since then the mother, who would not consider herself a very religious woman, constantly advises people she meets to pray to Catherine for whatever they need. It is this kind of day to day experience of Catherine McAuley’s protection when sought, that has led so many people to explore further not alone her life but also her way of relating to a merciful God.

Each month during the Year of Faith, a prayer session based on the prayer of Catherine McAuley was posted on the website of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, and many people from all walks of life have been using it as a resource for personal and group prayer.  Click here to download all the prayer services.

At the end September 2013, a symposium on “Gathering the Harvest of Catherine’s Faith, Hope and Love” was held in Charleville, Co Cork. This was the second symposium on Catherine that has been held in Ireland in recent years. The previous one was held in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan in 2009.

Ireland is not the only place that host symposia on an aspect of the life and holiness of Catherine McAuley. In April 2013 a symposium on Catherine was held in Sydney at which collaborators, co-workers and associates as well as Sisters of Mercy attended in unprecedented numbers. The same can be said about the symposium held in Auckland, New Zealand for board members of Mercy Works.

The miracle today, I think, is the fascination that Catherine McAuley and the charism of Mercy continue to hold for the thousands of Mercy co-workers, collaborators and associates who flock to visit her tomb and who thirst for closer contact with and understanding of this intrepid and holy woman and her way to God. In this, maybe, we see the original dream of Catherine McAuley that took root in Coolock in the early 1800s, that developed in the 1820s in the establishment of the House of Mercy on Baggot Street, that took an unexpected turn in the 1830s with the foundation of the religious congregation of the Sisters of Mercy and which in our time is coming full circle. Or maybe we are witnessing the flowering of a whole new way of being Mercy that will see the charism of mercy, so well nurtured by Catherine and her followers, grow and develop into the twenty second century.

In the words of Oscar Romero – “We are prophets of a future that is not our own”. 

Brenda Dolphin rsm
Postulator for the Canonisation Cause of Catherine McAuley