<p><br /> Thousands of Australians have gathered in the Vatican to celebrate the canonisation of the country's first saint.<br /> </p><p><br /> Mother Mary MacKillop was canonised by Pope Benedict at a solemn ceremony in Saint Peter's Square alongside five other new saints.<br /> </p><p><br /> Tens of thousands of Australian pilgrims were said to have travelled to Rome to attend the mass, where the pope read a sainthood decree for MacKillop, one of the few saints in Church history who were excommunicated and later rehabilitated.<br /> </p><p><br /> The nun was a 19th-century "whistleblower" who activists say should be the patron of victims of sexual abuse by priests because she was punished for exposing it.<br /> </p><p><br /> Documents recently uncovered in Australia showed that MacKillop was temporarily banished from the Church in part because her order uncovered a case of sexual abuse of a boy by an Irish priest.<br /> </p><p><br /> Pope Benedict spoke of her "saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer" and the many challenges she faced.<br /> </p><p><br /> Australian Mark Fabbro, who said he had been sexually abused by a priest at the age of 11, said: "Well for me as a survivor of sex abuse by a priest this is a very important day for me. Mary MacKillop was a carer of the disadvantaged ... a particular priest who was brought to light by her for abusing children so she was protecting children of child abuse."<br /> </p><p><br /> The Catholic Church has been rocked by scandal involving the sexual abuse of children by priests over a period of decades. The Pope met with victims of sexual abuse on most of his recent foreign trips, including in Australia in 2008.<br /> </p>
