Mary MacKillop left a striking example for school leaders today. Perhaps the greatest legacies for our schools are a willingness to act – inspired by the signs of the times, to see God in the communities we walk with, and a Holy Spirit enthused passion for authentic equity.

Mary modelled witness and vision as an Australian, creating an education system for the Australia of her time. In presenting her case to Rome for approval of her Sisterhood in 1873, Mary had argued her case on the premise that ‘It is an Australian who writes this…’.  We shouldn’t underplay the significance. Australia at that time was dominated by an Anglo-Irish Catholic clergy and she was writing to an Italian born Pope. She understood and articulated the power of education in overcoming the poverty and challenges of the isolated harshness of the Australian outback, just as well as she understood the role of her sisters in supporting the marginalised in bustling colonial cities. Her legacy to us as Josephite educators is to similarly sense the challenges of our communities and walk alongside them in their battles.

Despite insistence from clergy, Mary refused to divide her community along class lines into ‘lay’ and ‘choir’ sisters. We can intuit a commitment to all her sisters as formed Imago Dei (image of God). In her schools, she refused to segregate fee paying children from those whose families could not pay, and her unwillingness to have her sisters teach music was similarly borne of a commitment to equality. Mary faced opposition in the 1870s for her lack of deference to colonial class structures and her insistence on simplicity in her Order. What an example she leaves us as leaders, in her willingness to serve the least of her brethren – even in the face of adversity and direct challenge.

In October 1873, Mary wrote to Monsignor Kirby, seeking to convince him on ‘The Necessity of the Institute’. She began by writing, ‘May the Holy Spirit, my God, direct me in what I am about to write’.  As leaders now we speak often of the charism of Mary MacKillop. Interestingly, were we to ask her at the time about charism, she would likely not have an answer – the word gained renewed meaning after the Second Vatican Council. In our modern context, it can be applied loosely with a different complexion. However, if we were to ask of the role the Holy Spirit played in enabling her outstanding gifts to be showered upon the communities she served, we would more likely receive an answer. Mary saw God in all around her and stirred by the Holy Spirit she manifested a vision of justness, access and, as a result, transformation via education.

Perhaps her greatest message to educators today is that, if we seek to follow her witness and serve God in our schools, we should prioritise ways our young people can genuinely live with dignity, access fullness of life and be shown the ways that justice is always better than charity.

Chris Gabbett
President of AJASS (Association of Josephite Affiliated Secondary Schools)