PATRON SAINT OF WHISTLEBLOWERS

Mother Mary MacKillop won't be canonised until October 17 but some Roman Catholics already have an unofficial title for the 19th-century Australian nun: Patron Saint of Whistleblowers.

MacKillop (1842-1909), Australia's first native-born saint, was co-founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, an order of nuns dedicated to the religious instruction of children and care for the poor.

The strong-willed MacKillop, who worked under harsh conditions in the Australian outback, was once briefly excommunicated by her bishop for reasons that have never been entirely clear.

 According to a new Australian television documentary set to air a week before her anonisation, at least one of the reasons MacKillop was punished was for denouncing clerical child abuse.

"The story of the excommunication amounts to this: that some priests had been uncovered for being involved in the sexual abuse of children," the Rev. Paul Gardiner, the official advocate for MacKillop's canonization, told Australia's ABC television.