Jan 5, 2023
“Growing up in Ireland, it was impossible to get through December without hearing Do They Know It’s Christmas? repeatedly. Like crackers with bad jokes, or recipes that try (in vain) to make brussels sprouts tasty, the song was an essential and important part of festive season. It electrified people and called them to act in solidarity with the people of East Africa who were suffering from famine in 1984. As I wandered around the Loreto convent in Rumbek almost forty years later, I could hear it again – repeatedly. One of the sisters in the community is a keen Christmas music aficionada – and when I say keen, I mean really keen!
The run up to Christmas in Rumbek has certainly been busy. We finished up work in the Catholic University on the 16th, concluding the first half of our bridging course with our new students. Due to conflicts that eventually led to South Sudanese Independence and the civil war of 2013, levels of education remain stubbornly low. Consequently, everyone beginning our degree programmes must undertake six weeks of intensive maths and English to prepare them for third level studies. We are hoping to welcome almost forty new students who are planning to study a degree in either business administration or English and English literature. We have a record number of women joining our courses, which is a real gift. They benefit from a scholarship programme supported by the Mission Support Centre that reduces their fees and supports their studies. In our small way, we are looking to redress the gender imbalance in education that excludes that vast majority of women.
This last year has been one of the most peaceful in Lakes State, but it does not happen by chance. Initiatives on many levels in both Church and state work to create a safer, more secure environment. Just before Christmas, Sr Orla planned a peace walk with the young women from the Loreto internship programme. Over twenty of us began before dawn and walked towards Cueibet, a parish some 50km away. We got most of the way there, before the temperatures went up to the high thirties. Part of the reason for the walk was to model how young women from different ethnic groups all around the country journeyed together in solidarity and encouraged people they met, especially young girls, to pursue a brighter future.
We all went to a local parish where I was celebrating Mass for Christmas Eve. It was to begin at 8:30pm, but, based on my experience from being there last year, I settled on a wall outside and welcomed people as they gradually arrived. In no time at all, the church was packed to the rafters, and we all welcomed the birth of Jesus with joy and song. Previously, it would not have been possible to have so many people out that late at night, but now the streets were busy with groups of people on their way to their churches. They absolutely know it’s Christmas time.
For Christmas Day, the girls who stayed with us for the holidays cooked the food, while I was off for another Mass. Each year a group remain in the school, either because they live far away from Rumbek or they cannot go home due to a forced marriage issue. Either way, we all sat down to a lunch of pork, sakumawiki (like cabbage, but not really), tamalaka (a peanut and greens like sauce), paper food (not sure how to describe that one), and Irish potatoes (which are just potatoes, but in the market that’s what they are called). We were joined by our Bishop and some guests, including boys from the La Salle school who also couldn’t make it home. The day ended with Sr Orla introducing the girls to Monopoly, which in retrospect, based on years of inevitable conflict in Irish homes, was not the best idea. Still, good fun was had by all, even if the Bishop’s team cheated.
So, we are looking forward to the New Year with a sense of anticipation. The new library renovation for the University supported by the MSC benefactors will be completed in January. I won’t have to worry about the bat droppings landing on my desk anymore through a ceiling that looks like Swiss cheese, and the students will have a place to study and do group work. The Pope is planning to come to South Sudan in February as part of an ecumenical peace initiative. The Loreto team and students will lead an eight-day walking pilgrimage to Juba for the event. It should be a wonderful occasion. Please do keep us in our prayers, as you are most assuredly in ours.”
Wishing you and your families every blessing for 2023,
Fr Alan
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Dec 20, 2022
Throughout the month of November, MSC Missions in the Philippines responded to the urgent needs of families and communities directly affected by Tropical Storm Paeng (or Tropical Storm Nalgae), which made landfall at the very end of October 2022. Over 100 deaths were confirmed in the Philippines in the aftermath of the storm, with more people reported missing, and severe damage done to homes, farms, and businesses.
The MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc., working together with the MSC Centre for the Poor, issued an immediate call for help, and undertook an emergency response programme across Mindanao, providing essential items to communities in Maguindanao and Cotabato who were left reeling by the effects of the storm. Relief packs included basic food provisions and essentials, and were distributed to more than 200 families in regions of significant storm destruction.
On November 9th, 219 families received emergency aid packs through the relief operation in Barangay Tapian, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, as part of the ongoing mission response project in the Philippines, which aims to provide direct assistance to communities affected by natural disasters. In a country that is greatly impacted by typhoons, this mission response programme undertaken by the MSC Philippine Province is a true lifeline to families and communities who live under a constant threat of flooding and serious danger to both lives and livelihoods.
“We would like to thank all our Mission Partners and donors for your kindness and generosity,” wrote the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc. on their Facebook page. “We also thank the MSC – CFP [MSC Centre for the Poor] Butuan led by Fr. Richie Gomez & Bro. Franz Pelare, MSC for spearheading the project and to all our supporters & volunteers.”
As we approach the end of the year, we keep our MSC brothers and the communities they serve in the Philippines in our prayers, particularly those families in Mindanao who are rebuilding and restoring in the aftermath of the storm.
Images via the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc.
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Dec 16, 2022
MSC CHRISTMAS RAFFLE 2022
🌟🎄 Christmas Raffle Prize Winners:🎄 🌟
1st Prize: Shopping voucher to the value of €1,000
M Maher,
Tipperary,
Co. Tipperary.
2nd Prize: Jingle Bells & Whistles Luxury Hamper value €500
E Dinet,
Dublin,
Co. Dublin.
3rd Prize: All I want for Christmas Hamper value €400
A & E Durkin,
Mullingar,
Co. Westmeath.
4th Prize: Festive Feast Christmas Hamper value €300
P Vahey,
Tuam,
Co. Galway.
5th Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
K Henry,
Swinford,
Co. Mayo.
6th Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
A O’Grady,
Douglas,
Co. Cork.
7th Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
N Timoney,
Strabane,
Co.Tyrone.
8th Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
K Mc Carthy,
Ovens,
Co. Cork.
9th Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
P Murphy,
Dunmanway,
Co. Cork.
10th Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
J Scanlon
Knocknaheeney,
Co. Cork.
Special Seller’s Prize: Christmas Eve Luxury Hamper value €200
N Hourihane,
Skibbereen,
Co. Cork.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This year’s Christmas Draw took place on Friday, December 16th 2022.
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone for taking part.
Click here to read a special Christmas message from Fr John
Please note that the MSC Missions Office will be closed over the Christmas period,
from 4.00pm on December 23rd to 9.00am on January 3rd.
With warm wishes to our mission friends everywhere for a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas season.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Dec 14, 2022
Please note that the MSC Missions Office will be closed over the Christmas period,
from 4.00pm on Friday, December 23rd to 9.00am on Tuesday, January 3rd.
With warm wishes to our mission friends everywhere for a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas season.
Nollaig Shona dhaoibh go léir – Christmas greetings to you and yours! What a great blessing it is to write to you this Christmas, as we reflect on the challenges and triumphs of the year gone by, and look with hope to the new year to come.
2022 has been a special year for me, my first as Director of the MSC Missions Office. It is a particular privilege to be in this position and to witness first-hand the kindness and generosity of spirit of our mission friends and benefactors at home and abroad. The sense of unity and community is immensely powerful, particularly when extending to people at the other side of the world, to friends you will never meet, but whose lives have been and will be changed immeasurably because of the compassion of strangers in name, but not in spirit.
It goes without saying that recent times have been turbulent, and we all continue to face our own challenges, in our homes and as a society. Our organisation is no different; with each year that passes, we’re trying to do more with less, at a time when finances are tight for everyone and the people that need us, need us more than ever. It is a difficult balance to strike at the best of times, and with the current issues troubling our world, we are often facing an uphill battle. Nonetheless, it is thanks to you, our great mission friends, that we can continue to climb that hill and continue to do our best to help those in need. Without the slightest exaggeration, your support transforms lives, and because of you, many, many communities and families have hope where before there was none. Together, we can continue to make a difference.
Of course, Christmas can be a difficult time for many people; this year, it may be you, or someone close to you, who is dealing with loss, illness, financial difficulties, or personal challenges. To all who find themselves struggling for any reason this Christmas – my prayers are with you, and you will be in the prayers of our MSCs everywhere throughout the Christmas season.
May the spirit of peace, goodwill, and the Lord’s love fill your heart and your home this Christmas, and may God bless and protect you and your loved ones as we approach a new year. On behalf of our MSC community at home and abroad, I thank you once again for your friendship, and I pray that you will have a safe and peaceful Christmas, with an abundance of blessings to come in the year ahead.
Wishing you a happy and holy Christmas,
Fr John Fitzgerald MSC
Dec 13, 2022
Advent is well underway at Croi Nua, our MSC spirituality centre in Co. Galway, with a three-day Christmas retreat taking place from Thursday, December 15th to Saturday, December 17th.
The Christmas retreat will be led by Fr Patsy Kelly MSC, in preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ. This special time of reflection will take place at 7.30pm to 9.30pm each evening from December 15th to 17th.
The retreat session will take place in person in Croi Nua Spirituality Centre, while a Zoom facility is also available for anybody who would like to take part remotely.
In addition, all are welcome to join what promises to be a beautiful Service of Reconciliation, which will take place on Wednesday, December 21st, at 7.30pm.
For more information, please contact Croi Nua Spirituality Centre:
Phone: 085 782 9855
Email: croinuacentre@gmail.com
Website: www.croinua.com
If you would like to join the Christmas celebrations online via Zoom,
please email croinuacentre@gmail.com to get the video link.
Dec 2, 2022
It’s Advent in South Sudan, which means that everybody is busy with endings and beginnings. It is a beautiful time here right now, as the rains ended in October and the land is still green. We have been enjoying a time of relative security for the last few months, which has allowed us to harvest the groundnut crop in peace.
This week in Loreto Secondary School is taken up with the end of term exams, so all of students are diligently going over their class notes, working in study groups, and preparing as best they can. I usually go for a walk around 6:00am, as the sun comes up and before the heat of the day sets in. Already, there are students sitting under trees or in classrooms getting ready. However, this is nothing unusual. It happens right throughout the year. The girls know that education is their best way of ensuring they and their family have a better future. School is serious business.
It’s not so serious though that they can’t take time to have fun or get involved in important extracurricular activities. Last Friday, a group participated in a local government project around the rights of women. On Saturday, our Peace Club staged a roadside play in the local village. Before a group of the chiefs, families, and school children, they debuted their new drama on the need for peace in South Sudan. There was also poetry, traditional dance, some speeches, and plenty of laughter. It was the first time that they, as a group of young women, addressed the chiefs about their hopes for the future. The Benydit, or head chief, was delighted with the work and encouraged them to continue.
In the Primary School the kids have been busy too. Last week, we had a fancy dress competition, where kids created wonderful papier mâché lions and cows, along with weather conditions, mathematical symbols and shapes, fruits and vegetables, and traditional costumes. On Thursday, the focus was on arts and crafts, again related to their studies. They drew pictures of insects for biology, model villages and farms for citizenship, and the water cycle for general science. Everything was made from scrap paper and reused cardboard. Their creativity was extraordinary.
While things are winding down for Christmas in the schools, we are only getting started in the Rumbek Campus of the Catholic University of South Sudan. We have had a new intake of students for our degree programmes in English and English literature and in business administration. Right now, they are taking part in an intensive six-week course in English and maths to improve their basic standard and prepare them to begin their classes at the end of January.
It is an exciting time, because it is hoped that from this group we will have a new generation of well-trained secondary school teachers and business leaders. We are carrying on with our partial scholarship for women to encourage greater participation. We already have quite a few enrolled and a number of these are mothers who are returning to education, something that rarely happens here.
In addition, we are refurbishing our library and student centre. Previously, the building we used was dilapidated and bats were in the process of eating through the ceiling. The entire power supply came from an old solar unit and a couple of second-hand car batteries. The floor was cracked and pockmarked, although potholed might be a better description. As I write, the builders are putting in a new ceiling. Once that is finished, they will plaster the walls properly and we have sourced a durable, but inexpensive, tile for the floor.
Some may argue whether this is the most urgent need. However, education is the essential foundation of a country that, if done properly, will ensure development that is sustainable for everyone. It is about giving someone a rod, instead of offering them fish year after year. Our students make real sacrifices to be here, whether they are in primary, secondary, or third level, but with their energy, vision, and commitment the future is bright indeed.
Ben Nhialic areer kek a yin,
Fr Alan
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
