May 2, 2018
The summer edition of the MSC Message has arrived!
• Catch up with the latest news from the mission fields, with updates from our ongoing projects in South Africa and South Sudan.
• Discover more about new mission projects in Mozambique and Cameroon.
• Read a special tribute to the late Fr Mark McDonald MSC, former Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
• Read a summer message from Fr Michael O’Connell MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Get up to date with the latest news from Fr Alan Neville MSC and the MSC Vocations Team.
Read the MSC Message Summer 2018
May 2, 2018
Khana Kockedhie Magel, a 16-year-old student at the Loreto Girls’ Secondary School in Rumbek, has been named winner of this year’s UN Missions essay-writing competition for secondary school students in South Sudan. As a young woman in a country that has been torn asunder by conflict and violence, Khana composed a message of hope and optimism in response to the topic set by the UNMISS contest: “How can women contribute to durable peace in South Sudan?”
“Women may be the only hope left to bring peace to South Sudan.”
12 Loreto students entered the contest, with two girls reaching the top five in the Lake State region. Ating Kaman Makoi won third prize, while Khana, a student from the Senior 3 class, was awarded the regional prize for the winning essay, with the message that “women may be the only hope left to bring peace to South Sudan”.
Khana’s message is clear: if South Sudan is to achieve lasting peace, women’s voices need to be heard. “Women play an important role in bringing up the future generation,” she says. “If they get the chance, they can provide permanent solutions to the conflict in South Sudan and assure the young that peace will come. Eventually it will result in economic growth and a better South Sudan for all of us, and for generations to come.”
“For women to make a difference, they need to be given a proper education.”
Mr Dut Makoi Kuok, Minister for Education in Western Lakes, spoke at the awards ceremony, acknowledging the crucial role of women as “builders of the nation”. “Women, in my understanding, are the builders of society,” he said. “They will always think about and do what is right for their children, and therefore for their society.”
Speaking at the awards, Mr Kwame Dwamena Aboagye, Head of the UN Mission’s Field Office in Rumbek, also gave words of encouragement to the students gathered, urging them to “study well”. “It is only through education that durable peace can be realised in South Sudan, and for women to make a difference, they need to be given a proper education,” he said.
This is exactly the message that the Loreto community promotes at their Rumbek schools, and we at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are proud to support them in their efforts to help as many young women as possible.
“I hope that fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say: yes, women can.”
Khana has taken this message to heart, and her award-winning essay speaks clearly of the need for respect, mercy, and peace – beginning in the home. “If a mother fights with a neighbouring woman, her child on the following day will fight with the neighbour’s child, hence leading to disputes and hatred,” she writes. Peace must begin within every individual, Khana surmises: “If you find peace within yourself you become the kind of person who can live in peace with others.”
A national winner of the essay content will be named at an awards ceremony in Juba, the country’s capital, on May 9th. Khana will represent the Loreto schools at the ceremony – and she has already made her school and her community very proud. She closes her essay with a truly inspirational thought for us all: “I hope that fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say: yes, women can”.
Congratulations to Khana, from all at the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart!
PLEASE SUPPORT EDUCATION IN SOUTH SUDAN
Read more about Khana’s award on the Loreto Rumbek website and on ReliefWeb.
Apr 30, 2018
Early this April, the Loreto schools in Maker Kuei swapped their times tables for dancing and textbooks for cake as they celebrated their 10th anniversary in style!
The week-long celebration included a host of activities and events, alongside special meals with the students and the wider community of locals who work with the Loreto Sisters.
“This has been a wonderful week for us all.”
“The school has received immense support from Ireland,” says Benjamin Sprunger, the Loreto Programmes Manager in Rumbek. As well as aid from the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the school has also received funding from IrishAid through Misean Cara. IrishAid Ambassador Sonya Hyland travelled to Maker Kuei to join the celebrations, representing the Irish support for the Loreto schools and the great work that is done in the community. Construction of the Loreto Graduate House, supported by MSC funding, had such been completed, and Sonya Hyland was able to stay in one of the rooms on her visit, before the girls moved in just last week.
“This has been a wonderful week for us all,” says Sr Orla Treacy, principal of the Loreto schools. “Each day was packed with activities and fun.”
“We were, however, very conscious of the absence of two visionaries for our schools – our late Bishop Cesar, who dreamed the dream of the girls’ school, and our late Provincial, Sr Teresa MacPaul, who helped take the steps to make the dream a reality.”
The Loreto community first opened the doors of their secondary school in 2008, with just 35 students in Primary 8 and Senior 1. Today, two schools welcome 1057 primary school students and almost 300 secondary school girls. The Loreto Sisters have also set up a health care clinic, which provides medical aid and health education to women and children in the Maker Kuei community.
“Thanks to you all for joining hands with us in prayers and support to ensure this dream continues, from all of us in Loreto Rumbek,” says Sr Orla.
We send our heartiest congratulations to the Loreto Sisters and students in Rumbek on this wonderful occasion! We at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are proud to support the great work being done to bring hope to a country in peril; together, we are on the path to a brighter future.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE ONGOING WORK IN SOUTH SUDAN
Apr 23, 2018
“Sister India” recounts the story of Sr Loreto Houlihan, a 91-year-old Irish missionary, who has spent 70 years teaching in India.
A new documentary by Irish filmmaker Myles O’Reilly, which is currently being screened at a number of film festivals in Ireland and in India, tells the story of a 91-year-old Irish missionary sister who has spent 70 years teaching in India.
‘Sister India’ recounts the story of Presentation nun, Sr Loreto (Peg) Houlihan who was born near Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary in 1927.
The documentary has already been screened at the Dingle International Film Festival and the Silk Road Film Festival.
“Sister India” is due to be screened at the Fastnet Film Festival on 23rd-27th May and at the International Christian Film Festival in Florida. Later this summer, it will be shown at the Ink Well Theatre in Tracton, Co Cork on 18th August, and at the Clare Island Film Festival.
Film-maker Myles O’Reilly has said that he is not very religious but when he saw Sr Loreto’s deep love of India and its people, he found it heart-warming.
“Sitting in front of her and listening to her talk was like being warmed by the hearth of an Irish fireplace on a rainy day hearing stories as she it from ‘the long ago’. I learned from her that India and its culture retains more of the life she left 70 years ago in Ireland than the country of her birth today, and so she chooses to live the rest of her days in India for that natural familiarity” he explained.
Read more about the life of Sister Loreto Houlihan here.
Information sourced from articles written by Áine Edwards for The Irish Times and Sarah Mac Donald for Catholic Ireland.
Apr 16, 2018
Who is Sr Loreto Houlihan?
Born into a large family in 1927, Peg Houlihan grew up in hard times, especially in the 1930s with a worldwide depression and an economic war between Ireland and Britain. By the time she was five years old, her mother was already a widow as her father had died. In 1943, 16-year-old Peg left rural Tinhalla near Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary and joined the Presentation Sisters in Britain. She was missioned to India and set sail from Liverpool to Bombay as the Second World War was drawing to a close; she celebrated her 17th birthday on board.
After landing in Bombay, she made the rest of the journey by train down to Madras. On arrival at the Presentation Convent, there was a letter waiting from her mother. It opened with “Céad míle fáilte” to India.
In the documentary, “Sister India”, Sr Loreto speaks lovingly of that letter, as she knew it was a huge sacrifice for her mother to let her go. They never saw each other again.
Sr Loreto dedicated her life to love and serve others through education in Chennai. After completing her teacher training at Church Park College in Madras, she went on to work as a primary school teacher spending most of her life at St Joseph’s Anglo-Indian School in Perambur in north Chennai.
The children in her class were six years old and over the years, she has taught three generations of families, and become a well-loved and respected person in the community. In class she says she was strict, but outside of school, “I didn’t have enough fingers for them to hold onto.”
Sr Loreto with Irish Ambassador to India Brian McElduff, celebrating her Jubilee at the Presentation convent. Phogoraph: Justin George/ DTNEXT
After Indian independence in 1947, the Indian government asked the Presentation Sisters to continue their education, and the doors were opened to the indigenous population, which in India is almost 80 per cent Hindi. The children were encouraged to celebrate their culture in the schools.
Today, Sr Loreto says she is “blessed with strong faith, good sleep, and no regrets”, and intends to live out her life in her beloved India.
Venerable Nano Nagle – founder of the Presentation Congregation – has been her role model in life. Nano is known as “The Lady of the Lamp” – a pioneer of Catholic education in Ireland during penal times.
The idea for the film “Sister India” was sparked by Irish woman, Áine Edwards, who has been living in India since 2003 where she runs a business consultancy service.
“My many conversations with Sr Loreto evoked a passion in me to produce a documentary on her. I wanted to not only share her story, but also to celebrate the work of so many other Irish educators in India, as this era draws to a close and another starts.”
According to Áine Edwards, “The Irish legacy of education in India is one of Ireland’s strongest links with the country. The seeds have been sown for the Indian sisters to take this legacy forward for the next generation of children. ‘Sister India’ was made to preserve not only the story of Sr Loreto, but to remember all the Irish who have dedicated their lives in the service of education and community support in India.”
Sr Loreto with Irish Ambassador to India Brian McElduff, celebrating her Jubilee. Phogoraph: Justin George/ DTNEXT
“The adults I meet nowadays who attended schools where Irish brothers and sisters were teachers, talk fondly of them and their education. The late chief minister of Tamil, Nadu Jayalalitha, has spoken of her school days at Church Park as being the happiest of her life.”
The first Presentation mission in India began in 1842 when four pioneering sisters from Ireland arrived in Madras (Chennai). The mission spread to many other states in the Indian sub-continent including Rawalpindi which later became part of Pakistan. Sisters from India went on to establish mission foundations Matlock in England, in Zimbabwe, and in Zambia. More recently sisters from India are also ministering in Thailand, Slovakia, Ireland, and the Holy Land.
There are currently 165 sisters living and ministering in a number of states including Tamil Nadu, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. They are involved in formal and informal education, social work, health and pastoral care, as well as justice, peace, and advocacy on behalf of those on the margins, especially women and children.
Watch the trailer for Sister India here.
Information sourced from articles written by Áine Edwards for The Irish Times and Sarah Mac Donald for Catholic Ireland.
Apr 5, 2018
The World Meeting of Families started in 1994, when Pope St John Paul II asked the Pontifical Council for the Family (now part of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life) to establish an international event of prayer, catechesis and celebration that would draw participants from around the globe and that would help to strengthen the bonds between families and bear witness to the crucial importance of marriage and the family to all of society.
As you will already know, Dublin has been chosen by Pope Francis to host the next World Meeting of Families from 21-26 August 2018, guided by the theme “The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World”.
Held every three years, this major international event brings together families from across the world to celebrate, pray and reflect upon the central importance of marriage and the family as the cornerstone of our lives, of society and of the Church. The event has at its heart the following key moments:
- 22 to the 24 August 2018, a three-day Congress. Each day will reflect on the theme “The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World” chosen by the Holy Father and will include an enriching programme for adults of keynote speakers, workshops, talks, testimonies and discussions; an engaging and exciting programme for young people as well as fun activities for children. The Congress will also include daily celebration of the Eucharist, prayerful activities, exhibitions, cultural events and musical performances.
- Saturday 25 August 2018, a Festival of Families, comprising a reflective concert style event within a prayerful and joyful atmosphere, in which personal stories of faith will be shared by families from all continents.
- Sunday 26 August 2018, WMOF2018 will close with a solemn Eucharistic Celebration, that will gather thousands of people from Ireland and all over the world.
Credit Photo: Des McMahon
The main events of the WMOF2018 will take place in Dublin, at a large conference venue as well as in other venues in and around the city. It is also anticipated that related events, including the hosting of international groups, will take place all over the island of Ireland.
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Pope Francis
Pope Francis recently announced that he will make the first papal trip to Ireland in nearly 40 years, visiting Dublin for two days later this year to take part in the World Meeting of Families celebrations.
Confirmed events that Pope Francis will be participating in include:
- Saturday 25th August 2018: Attendance at the WMOF2018 Festival of Families.
- Sunday 26th August 2018: Celebration of the WMOF2018 Final Mass.
A detailed itinerary of Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland will be published on the WMOF website once final plans are announced.
