Foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, Venerable Catherine McAuley, is already a saint in the eyes of her vast Mercy Family of Sisters and Associates:

• The Church has already taken the first step in the official process.
• Catherine McAuley’s cause for Beatification was officially introduced in 1975 when Archbishop Dermot Ryan of Dublin set up a commission to collect and collate all available data.
  – Three years later, on 12th December 1978, the anniversary of her Order’s foundation, Archbishop Ryan convened a Diocesan tribunal.
• In due course all documents were lodged with the Congregation for Causes, in Rome.
• Pope John Paul II concluded on 9th April 1990, after much deliberation with the theological consultors ‘That Catherine McAuley, Servant of God, Foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, is adjudged to have practised in heroic degree the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity – towards God and towards neighbour – as also the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude’.

To carry on the Canonisation process, 400 Mercy Associates, Youth Mercy Associates and Sisters of Mercy, are to gather in Birmingham on 4th October 2008 for a conference dedicated to this purpose. The main speaker will be Sr Brenda Dolphin RSM, postulator for the cause for the Beatification of Catherine McAuley, and currently based in Rome.

Mrs Monica Mills

Mercy Associates, National Commission