A 19-year-old man from Woodend, north of Melbourne, has been revealed as the so-called “back up” miracle in the canonisation of Mary MacKillop.

As a boy, Jack Simpson developed multiple sclerosis, cancer and epilepsy and lost his intellectual capacity.

No intellectual capacity? Sounds like an ideal candidate for religious faith tripe.

His mother, Sharon, says when there was nowhere else to turn, she started a series of nine-day praying cycles to Mary MacKillop.

Nine-day praying cycles? Are they a revival for the Australian bicycle manufacturing industry?
Watch out, Malvern Star!

I expect that she was not aware that she was praying to an excommunicated non-catholic, non saint.

In Mary’s favour, she did get into trouble for the right thing: reporting a pædophilic pederastic parasitic priest for sex crimes.

I guess that she deserves some sort of award for that alone! But being the Saint? (Did they have Volvo 1800s in the 1800’s?)
I’m thinking of a far more equitable award, such as the EAC’s (ntie) Medal of Honour for services rendered toward the cause of Atheism.

She says the miracle occurred a year later when her son regained his intellectual capacity.

A year between praying to deadly-tredlies, and getting a result?
Why the connection between cause and effect, except if by wishful-thinking?
Oh, I forgot: the mum was a catlick too, and therefore the proud possessor of acquired brain-damage.

“It’s like people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and that sort of thing, once you’ve lost that competency of that part of the brain you don’t get it back and Jack did.”

Wow! She’s a consulting (or academic) neurological physician as well as being a loony.

I shall have to ask Prof. Steven Novella if she has written any papers on the subject.

The case was presented to the Vatican as a back-up to the second miracle needed for Mary MacKillop to be made Australia’s first Catholic saint.

Why on Earth would they need a “back-up”?

What, exactly, is the Mean Time Before Failure for a Miracle?

Meanwhile, the New South Wales Lands Department, together with Mary MacKillop’s order, has released a booklet of title deeds bearing the sister’s signature.
Lands Minister Tony Kelly says the documents will show how the nun helped her order flourish.
He says the idea for the booklet came from Lands Department staff.

What the hell are Lands Department Staff doing spending your tax $$$ on this theological nonsense?

Jesus H. Christ-on-a-Crutch, it has turned into a circus, where the main performers are the acephalic Catlick robots, the money-grabbing opportunists, and now our inanely grinning government de-part-mental staff popping out in droves from a tiny clown car to rapturous applause from the peanut gallery.