Jul 31, 2024
SOUP KITCHENS IN MARACAIBO
MSCs in Maracaibo, Venezuela, are running several soup kitchens across multiple locations in local barrios, urban neighbourhoods where the populations are very poor. One such facility is in the barrio of Virgin del Carmen, where poverty is rife and living conditions are extremely difficult.
This area is home to communities of native Indian and indigenous Wayu people who came originally from Guajira, which crosses the border with Columbia. They arrive with nothing, in the hope of a better life for their families and themselves, yet life in the barrio brings its own challenges.
The people here make their homes using basic materials, and take on what jobs they can find with little or no education, such as cleaning or housekeeping. Due to the economic and political crises in Venezuela, the people who owned their own homes and would hire domestic staff are now emigrating themselves, abandoning their houses in the hope of better prospects elsewhere, and leaving no work for those who remain to support their families.
BRINGING BREAD TO THE HUNGRY
The barrio of Mirtha Fonseca is named after an indigenous Wayu woman. This barrio has a sewage system running along its periphery, making living conditions very unhealthy for the people living there.
Irish MSC Fr John Jennings built a church here with the support of our mission friends in previous years, and MSCs in the area now work with the help of local catechists who prepare the people for First Holy Communion and Confirmation, while also helping with the church and liturgies.
Mass is said every Sunday at Maria Auxiliadora y San Jose church. Galwayman and local curate Fr Tom MSC, purchases bread each week, and after Mass, this is distributed to parishioners who are hungry and depend hugely on this weekly provision.
A LIFELINE FOR POOR FAMILIES
Our current soup kitchens also serve communities at the chapel of the Sacred Heart at El Cujicito and La Ezparanza high-rise apartments. The facilities on hand are far from state-of-the-art kitchens, but are the basic resources we have to feed as many people as possible.
Working together for positive change
Ministry to the sick is also a large part of our missionary outreach in Maracaibo. Our MSCs provide spiritual support to those in need, and bring food to nourish the sick and housebound.
Catechists working across the barrios also go out to local schools where the children have not been baptised, sharing the love of the Sacred Heart and offering spiritual guidance.
From vital nourishment to spiritual support, our MSCs are doing all they can to help those in real need across the barrios of Maracaibo – and with your help, we can do so much more.
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR VENEZUELAN MISSION
Jul 25, 2024
Today, we’re sharing some wonderful photos of one of the latest initiatives from the MSC Centre for the Poor in the Cebu District of the Philippines – a series of music lessons for young students.
These music lessons encourage the children to learn new skills and discover new talents in a fun and enjoyable way, while keeping them encouraged and motivated throughout. These pictures show the young class taking on new knowledge with little more the most basic equipment and boundless enthusiasm – and even with the help of some furry friends!
The MSC Centre for the Poor in the Cebu District is part of a larger programme in the Philippines, with the original MSC Centre for the Poor in Butuan now having branched out to several additional locations across the country. The ethos of the centres remains the same – to provide the poor and disadvantaged with a better quality of life by teaching and fostering skills for self-sufficiency and personal growth, and to promote this in harmony with the natural world around us, nurturing the people and the planet in unison. Dedicated to caring for the community and the environment, with initiatives such as plastic waste prevention and clean water and food sustainability programmes, the award-winning MSC Centre for the Poor Agricultural Cooperative (MSC CEPAGCO) are determined in their work to improve the quality of life of the people in their programmes, while fostering ecological awareness and balance.
    
The music class demonstrates one of the many arms of the multi-faceted plans and programmes in play at the Centre for the Poor, as they continue to inspire people of all ages. Well done to all the budding young performers in the Cebu District, and good luck as you continue in your musical endeavours!
Images via the Facebook page for the MSC Centre for the Poor – Cebu District
*
Jul 18, 2024
It has been a busy few months in the Catholic University of South Sudan, Rumbek and, as always, life is filled with activity. The economic crisis has deepened, due to the war in Sudan and runaway inflation here. Teachers, nurses, policemen, and civil servants have now not been paid since last October. How people manage to survive at all is one of the enduring mysteries. However, the South Sudanese are a courageous and resilient people and life has to go on.
Joyful Graduations
We are a new Catholic third-level institution, so this year marked the graduations of our first class. Our four Diploma in Business Administration and two Diploma in Accounting and Finance students joined us in our mother campus of Catholic University in Juba. In addition to our Diploma class, thirteen more Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Education students will graduate later this year.
For many of them, they will be the first member of their family to have earned a third level qualification. It is a source of tremendous excitement for all involved. More importantly, after decades of deliberate underinvestment in the south before independence by the Sudanese government, these men and women are among the first groups of South Sudanese men and women to be graduate as local teachers and business people. Our Bishop, Christian Carlassare, was the guest of honour on the day, and spoke with pride about the difference the graduates would make in creating a stronger, most sustainable future for South Sudan.
We have also established a group for these new alumni, so that they can continue to avail of the resources of the University as they begin their careers. Access to the internet here is among some of the most expensive globally due to our isolated location. However, with the support of the MSC Mission Office Australia, all of our computers are online, allowing them to search for employment, carry out research, and prepare CVs and applications. For our current students, it has opened up an entirely new dimension, giving them access to textbooks, videos and online software that previously they could only have wished for.
Creative Collaboration
Resources here are few and we are always looking for innovative ways to support the professional development of our students. To this end we are collaborating closely with the Department of Human Sciences in the University of Salerno. Every three weeks, our Bachelor of Education students have a special input delivered online by a senior member of the faculty. They focus on some of the latest techniques and methodologies that will help develop their teaching practice. To date we have studied cognitive difficulties in youth, the design of classrooms to facilitate greater participation, and Universal Design for Learning.
All of our students speak English as a second, sometimes third language and the demands of academia can present a significant challenge. To tackle this issue, we currently offer advanced English classes for our first and second years. In an exciting new partnership with the Loreto Education Centre, we are also setting up small group classes for students who need extra support, along with classes in English for business professionals.
New Beginnings
While these last months have been a time of saying goodbye to some, we are getting ready to welcome others. Earlier this week we launched our admissions programme for new students. While our Bachelor of Business Administration remains popular, the two Bachelor of Education degrees are our main focus. The development of well-trained local secondary school teachers is our central goal, and we see it as an essential component in the continued development of South Sudan.
As part our admissions drive, we will have students involved in talk shows on two different local radio stations, use social media advertising, put up posters around town, make announcements after Masses, distribute flyers, and most importantly encouraging our students to spread the news by word of mouth. As ambassadors for the University, their recommendation is the most effective way of engaging new students and they have been enthusiastic in their mission. As always, we endeavour to encourage as many women as possible to study with the help of our partial scholarship programme and along with our measures to facilitate mothers with young children. We are also one of the few institutions nationally that have a wheelchair toilet and a fully accessible campus. Here, education is for everyone.
Nhialic ke yin (or God bless you),
Fr Alan
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
Jul 11, 2024
The MSC community in Manila, capital of the Philippines, have been working on an ongoing project where discarded plastic bottles are repurposed and made into “ecobricks”, finding new life as fences, planter boxes, outdoor furniture, altar decorations, and even chapel walls.
Part of the “Sowing Hope for the Planet” campaign, a worldwide movement to promote environmental awareness, the ecobricks project is just one of many efforts in the MSC mission for ecological sustainability and care of our common home. MSCs in the Philippine Province are also extremely active in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, a Vatican initiative based on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, not least with the remarkable efforts of the community at the MSC Centre for the Poor and their accompanying agricultural co-operative.
Fr James Espuerta MSC was rector at the Manila seminary from 2018 to 2023, where he led countless workshops in the construction and use of the ecobricks. Each brick is comprised of a 1.5 litre plastic bottle, which is then stuffed with smaller pieces of plastic, all compressed with a bamboo stick. Often, the plastics and bottles are painted in bright, appealing colours. The creation of a single brick is time-consuming, and can take a full day to be produced.
“If we have plastics, instead of throwing them away or into the trash or to the garbage cart, better to keep them and then organize ecobrick-making,” says Fr James.
A recent article by Earthbeat reports how the MSC ecobrick initiative began in 2019, at the seminary in Manila, and has since expanded into 15 parishes in the care of our MSC brothers. A chapel in Santo Nino Parish, on Camotes Island in Cebu, has been constructed using ecobricks, and several plastic banks are in operation, whereby people in need can trade plastic they bring from home, or pick up on the street, for food.
Ecobricks help to reduce the costs of building materials while also promoting recycling and ecological awareness, and MSCs in the Philippines are very much aware of the need to reduce the use of single-use plastics in addition. “We have to care for our common home. And plastics destroy creation,” explains Fr James. “Human beings are not the only residents in the world. We also have our brother creatures, and we have to take care of them.”
“Being responsible for the use of the plastic could be a good way to save our environment,” Fr James says. With the support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province and around the globe, MSCs in the Philippines continue in their mission to work in harmony with the natural world, while developing sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyles for the vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in their care.
Original article and images via Earthbeat:
https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/science/philippines-catholic-priests-tackle-plastic-waste-brick-brick
*
Jul 9, 2024
Welcome to the Summer 2024 edition of the MSC Message!
• Read a special greeting from Fr John Fitzgerald MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Read all about the ordination of Fr Gabriel Shikongo MSC, which took place in Swakopmund, Namibia, as he celebrates his first year as an MSC priest.
• Catch up on the latest news from the mission fields, including updates from the Holy Family Care Centre in Africa, from our OLSH Sisters in Papua New Guinea and Burkina Faso, West Africa, and from our MSC brothers as they celebrated Holy Week & Easter around the world, .
• Join us as we celebrate the new Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in India.
• Find out the latest updates from the team at the MSC Centre for the Poor in the Philippines.
• Discover more from Centro Faustino Villanueva in Guatemala, where staff and students are celebrating 40 years of ministry at the MSC-run vocational centre this year.
• Fr Alan Neville MSC writes from South Sudan, where he is currently ministering with the Loreto team in Rumbek.
Read the Summer 2024 edition of the MSC Message
*
Jul 3, 2024
The month of June saw great celebrations in the MSC Missions Office in Cork, as we marked the outstanding dedication and loyalty of our Missions Office team with long-service awards for six of our staff members.
Fr John Fitzgerald and Fr Joe McGee celebrate the long-service awards of Anne, Patricia, Mary, Fiona, and Ann – not forgetting Maura, who wasn’t able to be with us on the day.
Our Missions Office on the Western Road, Cork, is manned by a small but mighty team of long-serving staff members whose commitment and enthusiasm is second to none, and has only grown stronger throughout the years. Patricia and Ann both celebrated 45 years of working with our MSC Missions, Mary and Fiona each hit the 35-year milestone, and Maura and Anne marked 10 years of service each – a combined total of 180 years!
Irish Provincial Leader Fr Joe McGee and Missions Office Director Fr John Fitzgerald were on hand to lead the celebrations, and to present each of the team with a token of appreciation to commemorate their outstanding contribution throughout the years. We often speak of our extended Sacred Heart family, which is made up of our religious members and lay friends alike; it is only with our combined efforts that we have the power to generate positive change, and it is in unity that we have strength. Our six long-standing ladies have each played an invaluable role during their time to date with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and we would like to thank them sincerely for their hard work, their unwavering reliability, and their positive energy as they keep things running smoothly behind the scenes. We look forward many more years on our shared journey as we work together to bring the love of the Sacred Heart to life across the world.
Sincere congratulations and a heartfelt thank you
to Patricia, Ann, Mary, Fiona, Maura, and Anne!
*
