Vatican studies Australian nun's sainthood bid

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The Vatican is investigating whether a woman who had inoperable lung cancer was cured by a miracle that would qualify Australian nun Mary MacKillop for sainthood, Australian media reported on Saturday.

Two doctors are looking into the case of a woman who was told in 1993 she had weeks to live.

She pinned a small picture of MacKillop and a piece of the nun's habit to her clothes and, 10 months after being diagnosed, had no sign of cancer, said Maria Casey, the lead nun lobbying the Vatican to canonize MacKillop.

If verified, this would be the second miracle needed for McKillop to become a saint in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

"We cannot yet say if this is a miracle, it's a cure that's under investigation," Casey told Australian Broadcasting Corp Radio.

MacKillop, who died in 1909, was recognized for apparently curing a woman of leukemia in 1961 and was beatified by Pope John Paul in 1995, marking the first step toward sainthood.

Casey said many cases attributed to MacKillop had been looked at but had not met the criteria set by the Catholic Church.

"This case however seems to meet the criteria and the Vatican is now looking into it in greater detail," she said.

Australia's Cardinal George Pell does not expect MacKillop to be canonized when Pope Benedict makes his first visit to Australia in July, as the process of recognizing a miracle takes some time and canonizations are always done in Rome.

"There won't be a canonization while he's here," Jim Hanna, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Sydney, told Reuters.

"It would be wonderful if (the Pope) he gave us some indication, but we're not expecting anything."