Fr David Nixon MSC, Fr Joe McGee MSCÂ and Fr Manus Ferry MSC
We welcome our new Provincial team, Â Fr David Nixon MSC and Fr Manus Ferry MSC, Fr John Bennett MSC Â and Fr Alan Whelan MSC and new Provincial Fr Joe McGee MSC who begin their new term of office today. May God Bless them along the way.
Welcome to the Summer 2023 edition of the MSC Message!
Welcome to the MSC Summer Appeal 2023
Including:
Click here: MSC SUMMER Appeal 2023
The world of education in Central Africa is small and even after only a short while you can link up with people from all over. With this in mind I Whatsapped a friend who is a religious priest who runs a Catholic university in Khartoum to see how he was doing. In short, not well at all. When he replied he said he had been forced to shutter the university and he is currently in Port Sudan. What state things will be in when he returns remains uncertain. What is certain is that the violence in Sudan has persisted far longer than even the most pessimistic estimations.
It was only last week when one of his students called into our office in the Catholic University of South Sudan, Rumbek. He was hoping to finish his degree in computers here, but the near totally absence of computers, coupled with prohibitively priced internet access, means that it was an impossibility. Still, he is happy to be home with his family safe and sound.
In the midst of the violence to the north, coupled with ongoing tensions in the Tigrayan region of Ethiopia, and following a terrible attack on a school in Uganda that even made the European news, it important to stop and be thankful of the peace that we currently enjoy here in South Sudan. Sure, we have our ups and downs. The University’s entire electricity supply, consisting of four old car batteries and a few solar panels, decided to give up the ghost, so there was a lot of running around to jury rig a solution. Still, in no time at all the printer was working again. No lights, but thankfully the lack of sunshine is rarely a problem here.
In the last few weeks we had loads to do, and the odd power cut aside, it was all good. We had a full week of teacher training for our Loreto Primary School teachers during a midterm break. It included class preparation and management, the history of the Sisters, and the nature of Catholic identity in school (run by myself). As you’d imagine the team of primary teachers are just the best. When you are singing the Gloria during the Mass they are the ones with their hands right up in the air. When you are dealing with over 1,300 boys and girls enthusiasm is a must!
Peace happens quietly. It’s violence that makes most of the noise or at least it does most of the time. The Senior 4 Students (the equivalent of our sixth year class) take part in an annual peace walk. This year we walked the 45km from Loreto to our neighbouring parish of Cueibet. We had an early start, beginning at the school grotto with some prayer and then we hit the road. The girls were delighted to get out and about in the community. The people in turn were happy to meet our students, especially when they found out what they were doing. Not so long ago such a trip would have been impossible, due to the proliferation of small arms, banditry on the roads, and widespread insecurity. That day we made plenty of noise, singing and laughing as we walked, and before you knew it we arrived in Cueibet in time for a simple Mass for peace in South Sudan and a warm welcome from the people of the parish.
Since I wrote last we had two people over from Ireland, Linda Cardiff and Brendan Smith, to work with our University students on computer coding. We have just purchased two laptops, doubling the number of computers on the campus. You’d be amazed how many student you can fit around one screen when you really need to! We also had two new arrivals to the Diocese. The sister congregation of the MSCs, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, welcomed two new members from Indonesia to their Mapourdit community. One is a trained teacher and the other an excellent nurse. We wish them the very best. Finally, as it is the season for cultivation, our students and teachers were out this week planting trees and weeding their plots of groundnuts, the national staple. Taken individually these are all small things, inconsequential in the eyes of national media its pursuit of the dramatic and the immediate. For the people of Lakes State though, this is significant, as after a long time of insecurity things are slowly building and life is flourishing. Peace is certainly a fragile thing, as evidenced by the world around us, but it is something worth fighting for.
Nhialic ke yin (or God Bless)
Fr. Alan
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
Spirituality of the Heart invites us to journey into our own heart and into the heart of the human condition to be aware of God’s transforming love inviting and empowering us to be like Jesus, the gift of this love for others. This way of living opens up enormous possibilities for life and love and offers a challenge to grow ever more deeply in kindness, compassion, humility, forgiveness, understanding, simplicity and a sense of humour.
We are called to be God’s Heart on earth and to offer ourselves to be used as a source of healing for the wounds of the world. We believe, as did Jules Chevalier that this love is the remedy for the ills of the world. We are all called, religious, diocesan priests and above all laity, to share this mission to be the vehicle of love everywhere, in every culture and at every level of society.
Spirituality of the Heart is lived together with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, who formed and carried the heart of Jesus and who points to his heart.
A Spirituality of the Heart is a way of living – a way of being in the world…a journey to be travelled (with others)… an energy that sustains and moves us, a dance in which we are all participating… a way of being in the world in relationship to self, others and God; a way of coming to rest within ourselves at our deepest centre. (J. Maher MSC)
St. Augustine put Spirituality of the Heart in very practical terms:
“Once for all then, a short precept is given unto you: Love God and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare. In all things, let the root of love be within, for of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”
Statement from Laity of the Chevalier Family Newsletter
Encounter of Hearts, Edition 3, June 2021
It has been heartening that many people got in touch over the last month to see how things were here, due to the ongoing civil war in Sudan. The situation there is dire, as rival leaders seek to gain as much power and wealth as possible, regardless of the suffering they cause. The only time they think of their people is when they look down to see who they are standing on. The loss of life in the conflict and the subsequent humanitarian crisis have sent shockwaves around an already fragile region.
Tens of thousands of the people now fleeing Sudan into northern South Sudan are themselves South Sudanese refugees who had fled South Sudan in 2013 because of the civil war here. Over the past few weeks they have arrived exhausted, carrying their meagre belonging, and uncertain what will happen next for them or their families. They have come at the worst possible time, as the rains have just started. Flooding usually cuts off the roads around the country, making it far more difficult to transport aid to impacted regions. To complicate matters further, by now people have used up most of their stores from last year’s harvest and it is a waiting game to see how long they can hold on for before they are forced by necessity to harvest what they have just planted. Finally, South Sudan’s largest export is oil from the north of the country, pumped through Sudan to Port Sudan. With the civil war this has all come to a sudden halt. This has fuelled hyperinflation nationally, making basic food and medicine prohibitively expensive in the market. The rains, which are seen as a real blessing, also unfortunately bring with them mosquitos and malaria. A single treatment for a family member can cost almost a month’s wages.
Uncertainty, however, is often the norm here and the South Sudanese are nothing if not resilient. How they manage continues to be something of a mystery to me. They have little alternative though. Within Loreto School and the University things are continuing as normal for the moment. In the school we have just welcomed a whole new group of first years students the Sunday before last. As part of our policy of cooperation and integration, they have come from all over the country, from different backgrounds and ethnic groups. They will be looked after through a fantastic system of school families, where students in second, third, and fourth year will act as their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmothers. Judging by the dancing and singing around the school last Saturday night I think they will be fine.
In the University we are coming to the end of our first term and are due to finish exams on Saturday. The number of students enrolled has almost doubled this year and there is already a healthy interest among people hoping to apply for our next academic year. Our focus remains on raising up business leaders, who will build the South Sudanese economy, and training teachers for secondary school. We hope to begin a new Bachelor of Education programme this year in commerce, religious education, and citizenship. In addition, we will continue growing the Catholic ethos aspect of our curriculum, with courses on ethics, theology, and introduction to the Bible as part of our ongoing human formation.
When trying to learn how to play the guitar years and years ago, one of the first songs I practiced was by the Beatles. The lyrics are known by practically everybody and they seem relevant to where I find myself today: Obladi, Oblada, life goes on, brah Lala, how the life goes on. As I said earlier, how things go on here at times, I’ll never understand, but people have no choice, so they just get on with it. Self-pity is a luxury no one can afford. They do the best they can with what they have and they do it better than I ever could. Let’s continue to pray for the situation in Sudan and to pray for each other.
Nhialic ke yin ( God bless),
Fr. Alan.
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan: