Sep 30, 2021
“It’s official. Last week a journalist from the Irish Times tweeted that vaccines distributed throughout Africa would not be recognised by the countries of the European Union. This was initially thought to be directed against vaccines manufactured outside of the EU, but is now understood to include even the vaccines donated from the US, the UK, and the EU itself.
So what does this mean in practice? On one level, not much. To date, South Sudan has just received 60,000 first and second doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. There has been a commitment from the US for just over 100,000 Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccines. That’s it. For a country of over eleven million people, these donations are only a drop in the bucket, but, to paraphrase Mother Theresa, it would be a drop in the bucket that would be missed if it were not there.
You might well ask, why are African countries not producing their own vaccines? Well, they are, but there’s a catch. Earlier this year a company in South Africa produced 10 million Johnson and Johnson vaccines. The continent clearly has the know-how and the technology. What they don’t have is the buying power. The entire ten million doses were sold to the EU as part of their vaccine drive. At this point, it might be good to look at the disparity in COVID health care. As of the last week in September, there is 74.4% full vaccination coverage in Ireland and just 4% coverage throughout Africa. It was only after international outcry at the manifest injustice of the act that the vaccines were returned to South Africa to be distributed there.
As I have mentioned before, we have been lucky in South Sudan that the number of COVID infections have been quite low. This has been variously attributed to the country’s low average age, hot climate, and relative inaccessibility of the towns and cities. Whatever it is, it is evident that our luck is running out. Only yesterday, two of the religious sisters in our Diocese were diagnosed with COVID, with another going for testing today. One of the sisters working in a nearby hospital has also tested positive. Given the modest budget for testing, the emergence of these cases among front-line religious sisters is indicative of a significantly higher infection rate among the general population.”
“This is the time for solidarity, not division; for unity, not injustice.”
“However, there is good news too. Ten days ago, the second dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccines were delivered to Rumbek. Last time, we had so many people come from Loreto to receive the first dose that the hospital saved us a trip and sent a dedicated team to our Mary Ward Primary Health Care Clinic. We now have almost two hundred teachers, nurses, religious sisters, and agricultural workers who are fully vaccinated against COVID.
While a welcome relief, this level of take up was not easy to achieve. Rumours and the most ridiculous conspiracy theories abound about vaccines. The fact that the leadership team of Loreto were the first to take the vaccine gave others the confidence to go for their own. This frustrating reality is that this is not restricted to South Sudan, but is something of a global challenge.
Many of these rumours are easily dismissed as pure nonsense. However, the latest ruling by the EU quite reasonably has provoked doubts and concerns. We have been asked what the problem is with the vaccine that is been distributed in South Sudan. In spite of the fact that the entire enterprise is been undertaken by the World Health Organisation and their partners, the decision by the EU further emphasises the divide between the global north and south. We have many dedicated, professional medical personnel here who are entirely committed to an efficient vaccine roll-out. To disregard their work in such a cavalier manner is sheer prejudice. This is the time for solidarity, not division; for unity, not injustice.”
Bi Nhialic arrer kek yin,
Fr Alan
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Photos of Loreto School courtesy of Life on Earth Pictures
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Sep 29, 2021
Welcome to the Winter 2021 edition of the MSC Message!
• Read a special seasonal greeting from Fr Michael O’Connell MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Join us as we congratulate Br Giacomo Gelardi on his Perpetual Profession to the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
• Catch up on the latest news from the mission fields, including the erection of the new MSC Province of the Pacific Islands and an update from our MSC brothers in Ecuador.
• Read more about the latest updates from our global COVID-19 relief ministry, with reports from Vietnam, Fiji, and our OLSH Sisters in the Philippines.
• Fr Alan Neville MSC writes from South Sudan, where he is currently ministering with the Loreto team in Rumbek.
• Read all about the beatification of the martyrs of El Quiché, including three MSC priests and seven lay catechists who were killed for their faith in Guatemala between 1980 and 1991.
Read the MSC Message Winter 2021
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Sep 23, 2021
Here, we share The Way of the Heart, a beautiful reflection on the glory of God’s love in our world. Each of us has faced our own challenges in the past year and a half, from the fear and stress and uncertainty of living through a global pandemic, to the age-old issues of hunger, poverty, illness, and war that have long plagued many parts of our world, and continue to do so while the coronavirus rages on. Today, we remember to “recognise God’s love alive”, and to “have heart for each other”, keeping the spirit of compassion alive in love.
The Way of the Heart
We know that God’s love is alive in our world.
We see that love come to life,
recognise it, every time we know ourselves
loved and respected.
We experience it every time when people
give us their trust and don’t withdraw it
even when we disappoint.
And whenever we can forgive and start again
– individually or as peoples –
we recognise God’s love alive.
In Jesus of Nazareth, in the story and event of his life,
we have learned to recognise how God’s love
shines through whenever we live
as brothers and sisters to one another.
God’s only real concern is to love, Jesus taught us;
God shows himself never more God
than when he opens his heart.
He believed in that love, enough to stake his life on it.
He opened his heart, without reserve, to all
and – as brothers and sisters can do –
he gave most of his heart to those more in need,
oppressed and sick, forgotten and unloved.
He touched a leper, looked a blind person in the eyes.
He talked with deaf and dumb,
held hands with women of ill repute.
Time was never too precious for him
to laugh and play with children.
And often he shared a good glass
with men with dirty hands.
He told – for his time and for ours –
to all who have ears to listen, eyes to see
that all these were signs of a new world growing,
of our world becoming at last God’s paradise,
God’s Kingdom: life for all, and to the fullest,
respect and freedom, justice and peace,
learning to let our hearts win it over our greed,
to rather believe in love than in power,
rather in peace than in war,
to serve one another,
rather than to oppress and abuse.
By following him in his way of the heart
– sometimes with fire in our breasts
but often too with trembling knees –
we dare to keep his dream alive,
his promise and his mission,
that our world is the fruit of God’s love
and carries the seeds of his Kingdom.
We are not blind for the darkness.
We see – too often are part of it –
oppression and war, hunger and suffering,
but we have good news to share:
by giving his heart to the world
God showed us an alternative, a new way,
promised to lead us to a new and better world,
if we dare to follow him –
and to have heart for one another.
Our way to do that is to be
missionaries of the heart of Jesus.
But we walk together
with women and men
of all colours and creeds
who dare to walk in their own way,
the Way of the Heart.
Taken from the MSC Philippine Province’s 2004 Jubilee Book
via Ametur MSC on Facebook.
Sep 21, 2021
We would like to invite you all to join us for a very special Triduum of Masses on our virtual pilgrimage to Lourdes, which will take place online from Thursday, September 23rd to Saturday, September 25th.
For over half a century, the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have led annual pilgrimages to Lourdes. Last year, the arrival of the COVID pandemic meant that, for the first time in over 50 years, we were unable to travel to Lourdes with our mission friends and fellow pilgrims. Instead, we hosted a virtual pilgrimage, and this year, with many restrictions still in place and with safety still a significant concern, we invite you to take up your pack and join our group of virtual pilgrims as we pray together from home.
Every year, each one of our pilgrims undertakes a journey that is entirely individual, yet remains a quintessential part of something bigger. People join us for a host of different reasons, from struggles with personal challenges to a simple desire for prayer, reflection, and thanksgiving. The experience of pilgrimage is different for everyone, but that awareness of being part of something special, of something more, remains the same for all.
Undertaking a pilgrimage is a truly special experience, with strangers becoming friends on a shared journey. This year, we will once again be praying together from home – but we will be praying together. That spirit of unity and community never fails, as the message of God’s love overcomes all barriers in the pilgrimage celebration of faith, togetherness, and intimacy with God.
You are very welcome to join us as we follow in the footsteps of St Bernadette on this year’s virtual pilgrimage, with Masses streamed streamed live from the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork, and a torchlight procession streamed live from Lourdes on the evenings of Thursday, September 23rd and Friday, September 24th at 8.00pm. Thursday, September 23rd will reflect on following in the footsteps on St Bernadette, Friday, September 24th will be a Day of Healing, and Saturday, September 25th will be a Day of Thanksgiving. Like so many other things that have had to change over the last two years, this will be a new and different experience for us all, but a valuable and meaningful one nonetheless. We look forward to having you pray alongside us on this year’s journey.
Click here to view the full schedule for our 2021 Virtual Pilgrimage
Watch our 2021 Pilgrimage Masses & Celebrations Live
Submit your prayer intentions online for our 2021 Virtual Pilgrimage
If you would like to read more about previous pilgrimages,
and view our galleries of images from Lourdes, please visit our posts on our 2018 and 2019 journeys.
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Sep 15, 2021
Sr Ruth S. Yburan FDNSC, Regional Leader of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, writes from Manila in gratitude for funding provided by the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to our OLSH Sisters in the Philippines, in support of their ongoing COVID-19 relief ministry. In regions where many families had already been living a hand-to-mouth existence, the pandemic has made simple survival a priority, and OLSH Sisters in the Philippines are working to provide even the most basic necessities to as many vulnerable communities as possible.
Some of the ways in which the OLSH Sisters have helped local communities thus far include:
- Running a community pantry in Surigao, where families are encouraged to take only what they need. In this way, more families can have access to the food they need and the OLSH Sisters can help as many people as possible.
- The distribution of rice to construction workers in Manila, where lockdowns have meant work has been stopped, and so has pay.
- A livelihood programme for families in Lapu Lapu. This programme caters especially to women whose husbands lost their jobs because of lockdowns, teaching them practical skills they need to earn money to contribute to their family living expenses.
- The provision of care packages to trisikad (Philippine pedicab) drivers in Cordova, who would have earned approximately 150 – 300 Philippine pesos (the equivalent of €2 – €5) per day prior to the pandemic.
- A six-day training course took place at the end of July for an indigenous Filipino group called the Badjao. Their training was free of charge, while MSC donations paid for their meals, which needed to be provided as they can no longer go fishing (which is also their main source of income). The skills taught included measuring, cutting, and machine work/sewing, providing those in attendance with useful practical skills that may bring in a much-needed wage. Those on the training course are leaders of their respective tribes, and were very grateful for the opportunity.
“This pandemic has opened the minds and hearts of our people to work together as a community and help each other in whatever way we can.”
Dear Fr Michael and our generous donors,
In many different parts of our world and especially here in the Philippines, people are just in need of basic necessities as the end of this pandemic is nowhere near in sight. A lot of families we minister to have suffered much as their loved ones got so sick and even died.
Nevertheless, this pandemic has also opened the minds and hearts of our people to work together as a community and help each other in whatever way we can. Last April, May and even up to this time, community pantries are mushrooming and made a huge difference in the lives of our people suffering from COVID-19.
Your generous donation of €5,000 through Sr Jenny Christie and our sisters at the generalate, made a big impact in the lives of our poor people whose lives are becoming even more helpless with on-going lockdowns brought about by the detection of new COVID variants. Thank you very much, dear Fr Michael, and the generous donors who enabled you to help us reach out to those most in need. You are helping us reach more people whose daily lives can be made a bit easier with your generosity.
On behalf of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart here in the Philippines, I would like to thank you for enabling us to distribute assistance to more or less 150 families from Visayas and Mindanao, and here in Manila, who came alternately due to COVID restrictions. Your donations also helped our indigenous people with their meals during a six-day skills training offered by the non-government organizations.
Rest assured of our prayers that God will continue to bless you and protect you from all harm so that you can continue to help others in need.
Much gratitude,
Sr Ruth FDNSC
Sep 14, 2021
Heartfelt thanks to all who participated in our 2021 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, which took place from Tuesday, August 31st to Wednesday, September 8th at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
While this year’s Novena once again took place behind closed doors due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was nonetheless a truly blessed celebration of a much-loved annual tradition. It is of course difficult to navigate a new way of living, and in this case, a new way of praying, but the fact that we could not come together in person did not take from the wonderful sense of community and connection that comes with being part of our great family of faith. Over 9,300 people joined us in prayer via our live stream over the course of the nine days, reminding us of the tremendous spirit of our extended Sacred Heart family, at home and across the world.
The theme of our 2021 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was “Hope of the Hopeless”, and Fr Paul Clayton-Lea was the lead celebrant this year.
Fr Paul is a priest of the Archdiocese of Armagh, who has enjoyed a wide and varied ministry to date and is currently the priest in residence in the parish of Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. Having studied Education and Family Ministry at Fordham University in New York in 1988, he also ministered in the Riverdale area of the Bronx at the time, and has since served as a teacher of politics and religion, a college chaplain at DKIT, a Diocesan Advisor for Religious Education, and a parish priest. Author of In The Light Of The Word: Family Life Through The Lens Of Scripture, which was published by Veritas in 2018, Fr Paul is also about to resume his position as editor of Intercom, the monthly magazine of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. We were delighted to welcome Fr Paul to the Sacred Heart Church, and we are very grateful for his contribution to this year’s celebrations.
“May Mary and her merciful heart bless all of us.”
Fr Paul provided us with pause for thought in his daily sermons, summing up our great blessings in the closing Mass on the evening of September 8th. “Wouldn’t it be beautiful to be free of the lure of the world?” he asked. “Free from the things that draw us in and suck us in all the time, making us want this and want that and want more. Mary may not offer us all the wealth that we want, all the success that we want, but she will make sure that we do not want.”
“May Mary and her merciful heart bless all of us,” he concluded.
At the closing Mass, Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC spoke on behalf of Fr Michael O’Connell, who had travelled to Dublin on the final day of the Novena to attend the Perpetual Profession of Br Giacomo Gelardi to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. “Fr Michael asked me to speak to you to thank you for being with us and walking with us,” said Fr Tom. “We’re a tremendous outreach in the world; I remember being at an international conference and one of the Indian brethren said, ‘If it weren’t for the Irish Province of the MSCs, we couldn’t continue’. So, we’re helping so many other people. You’re helping so many other people. You walk with us and pray with us and celebrate with us.”
Once again, we send our sincere thanks to everyone who took part in what was a truly blessed occasion, and for your ongoing friendship and support. God bless you all.
If you would like to watch this year’s Novena Masses,
please click here to view recordings of our 2021 MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart.
