to mrschisholm.com, a website that seeks to increase knowledge and appreciation of the life and work of Caroline Chisholm – of her heroic virtue, in short – and thereby, please God, to help in promoting the commencement and advancement of a Cause for her beatification in the Catholic Church . . . and, in time, her canonization.

2008 is the 200th anniversary of Caroline Chisholm’s birth on 30 May, 1808, and special activities associated with the bicentennial celebrations will be mentioned on this website, which is maintained by volunteers. To ensure this saintly woman becomes better known and to contribute, as best we can, to the Church’s official processes of recognition, a range of new resources are being planned. These include printed information, audio and visual materials and participatory activities (such as pilgrimages to significant sites associated with Mrs Chisholm). We would appreciate receiving your ideas and suggestions as to what should or could be done – and, if possible, offers of assistance with your drawing, writing, office, singing or other skills: please email webmaster@mrschisholm.com.

Caroline Chisholm was a prophet of the laity, writes historian Clara Geoghegan. Indeed, it can be fairly said that Caroline Chisholm prefigured in her life and work in the 19th century many important principles of subsequent social teaching by the Church’s magisterium from the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum [Latin for “of new things”] onwards and of the laity’s many-faceted responsibilities and roles as taught by the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s. You can read Clara’s Caroline Chisholm: Prophet of the Laity paper by going to the Saint-making page on this website. On that page you can see another of her papers: Caroline Chisholm and the Polemics of Sainthood. It is thoughtful and stimulating and hopeful.

One of the major current news item is the recent launch of Unfeigned Love: Historical Accounts of Caroline Chisholm and Her Work. It is the first book published on the topic, and can be ordered from this website, www.paulinebooks.com.au and good bookstores.
The other major news item is the release of Caroline Chisholm’s Sydney – Self-guided Walk – go to the Pilgrimages page