Jan 27, 2022
Founded by MSCs in 1984, Centro Faustino Villanueva is a vocational centre dedicated to helping disadvantaged youths, located in the rural region of San Agustin, Alta Verapaz, in Guatemala.
With the motto âOpen doors to educationâ, the centre currently works with 215 students from impoverished villages and vulnerable family groups, with a waiting list for places. Youths at the centre can study a range of three career skill sets: business administration, science, and teaching.
The remote setting of the school means that daily travel is extremely difficult for students of severely limited means, and so half of the students board at the school. However, the COVID pandemic has generated several social and financial crises in the region, and the centre has suffered greatly in terms of funding and resources.
The newest undertaking at the centre aims to provide students with invaluable life skills – an agricultural programme, involving tending to livestock and growing produce, which will supplement the food supply at the school, while also enabling students to take these skills back to their own localities to improve living conditions there. With suitable space and land for this agricultural endeavour, and basic equipment such as sheds and feeders for pigs and chickens, the centre is currently raising funds to set up and launch these farms as soon as possible, so the school can continue to provide opportunities for young people who otherwise have very little hope.
A total of âŹ21,300 will provide the Centro Faustino Villanueva
with the livestock, vegetable seeds, and equipment they need to produce food for their community,
while bringing vital skills back to the studentsâ villages.
âWith Godâs wisdom and your support, we will continue to help our young people who yearn for a dignified and better life.â
~ Fr Jairo Uriel Sevilla Mendoza MSC,
Director of the Faustino Villanueva Centre
PLEASE HELP US TO SOW SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE IN GUATEMALA
Jan 27, 2022
OLSH Sisters in Mirinzal, in northern Brazil, minister to local communities across the region in a variety of roles. The parish here is responsible for 18 small chapels, where people can meet, worship, and pray together. These chapels are located in extremely remote rural areas; the state of the roads and a lack of funds for safe transport means that transport is difficult, and attending Mass at these small local chapels is one of very few ways in which these communities are brought together in person.
This opportunity to pray and worship together offers a valuable sense of unity and community in regions where many families and individuals find themselves sadly isolated due to a combination of their rural location and poverty. Keeping this sense of togetherness alive is vital and brings a lifeblood to these regions, where it would be very easy for struggling families to fall off the radar entirely.
Last year, as part of our 2021 MSC World Projects Appeal, the OLSH Sisters in Mirinzal appealed to our mission friends here in the Irish Province to help to buy essential liturgical items for Mass, such as missals, chalices, and lectionaries, for three of the 18 mission stations in the region. The funds raised as a result of the generosity of our mission friends here facilitated the purchase of the liturgical items needed for families and individuals across these mission stations to continue to join together in faith and celebrate Mass in their spiritual communities.
âThe parish communities that were helped in Brazil are very poor,â writes Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. âOnce again, you have our deep gratitude.â
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OLSH OUTREACH PROGRAMMES
Jan 20, 2022
Fr Richie Gomez MSC, community leader at the MSC Centre for the Poor, located in Butuan, updates us on the current situation in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Odette, which struck on December 16th, 2021. In a letter to Irish Provincial Superior Fr Carl Tranter MSC, Fr Richie writes of the deep gratitude of the Filipino MSC community for the support of our mission friends in the Irish Province. âI would like to thank you for your untiring support to the Philippine Province,â he writes. âWe are your extended arms, feet, mind, and heart in reaching the poor, and now with our typhoon survivors.â
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart â Social Initiative and Collaborative Action Project (MSC-SICAP) is a group of missionary volunteers âwith a charismatic heart,â working as a dedicated disaster response and management team under the umbrella of the MSC Centre of the Poor and led by Fr Richie, the centreâs director.
In response to the devastating impact of Typhoon Odette, Fr Richie has gathered a group of community-based volunteers, including doctors, engineers, teachers, business people, artists, students, and many more. âWhen it made landfall, winds of up to 210 km per hour were uprooting coconut trees, ripping down electricity poles, and hurling slabs of corrugated tin and wood through the air,â reports the MSC-SICAP group. This group initiated an immediate active response to provide a basic relief kit of necessities including food, water, medicine, and hygiene products, to victims from both the mainland and islands of Surigao. âThe group aims to amalgamate passionate and compassionate volunteers in the region, whose hearts are dedicated and committed in the service of humanitarian movements,â writes Fr Richie.
MSC Strategic Disaster Response Plan
The MSC-SICAP group, working with the MSC Centre for the Poor, have developed a strategic disaster response plan, detailing three recovery stages:
Stage 1: Bangon-Igsoon (In the immediate aftermath of the typhoon)
This stage has focused on answering the immediate and urgent needs of survivors, with the distribution of essentials such as food, water, medical aid, and clothes. All of these necessities have been issued directly to victims of the typhoon at designated distribution points, with a target reach of 10,000 households.
Stage 1 also includes the installation of water filtration stations in Siargao Island, which is currently suffering from a dangerous cholera outbreak. These water filtration stations cost 100,000 Philippine pesos, an equivalent of approximately âŹ1,700.
Stage 2: Bahay-Buhay (Approximately one month after the typhoon)
Stage 2 involves helping to build simple houses for families who cannot afford to repair or rebuild homes that have been destroyed by the storm. The target goal is to build 500 houses, benefitting people from the communities of Siargao, Nonoc, Bayagnan, Dinagat, Loreto, and the Islands.
Stage 3: Heal-Surigao (Taking time to heal the island)
During Stage 3, MSCs around the islands will pray with local communities for cleansing and renewal of the land. This stage will also incorporate the arts as a vehicle for healing children and the wider community, through music, dance, storytelling, and more. Through the creative process, it is hoped that children and their families will be able to better process the impact of the typhoon and look with renewed hope towards the future.
âFaith based, love driven.â
The motto for the response plan is âFaith based, love drivenâ, as MSCs throughout affected areas work together with local communities to rebuild a ravaged land. The MSC-SICAP group are working to âreact, respond, and rescueâ the victims of natural disasters such as Typhoon Odette, providing fundamental needs, from the physical to the spiritual, and bringing the light of hope into the hearts of survivors.
As they continue in the implementation of their response plan, the MSC-SICAP group write of the impact of Typhoon Odette, and the power of faith and unity in the hope of renewal:
ââExpect the unexpectedâ â a classic line that could somehow happen to anybody at any moment in any place, just like the typhoon, Odette, that wrecked Surigao. It was once a haven of natureâs bounty, with exciting hullabaloo coming from different nationalities. Now, nothing but silence! December 16th 2021 was an unforgettable traumatic moment for every Surigaonon and tourists in the area, along with other areas where the typhoon made landfall. It was a nightmareâŠ
Strong winds of 165 km/h near the centre, with gusts of up to 205 km/h and central pressure of 950 hPa, swept away houses, buildings, trees, and street posts, leaving the entire place destroyed. The roaring storm sounded horrid, bouncing back into each corner, frightening the children, the elders, and the weak, a miserable experience of anxiety and fear. The unthinkable orchestration of chaos, fear, hunger, and hopelessness has savaged and saddened our Surigaonon brethren.
Emotionally, the circumstances have been intensified because it was near Christmas season when the typhoon hit â supposedly a season of merry making and thanksgiving, to celebrate the most awaited Simbang Gabi, but this year, it turned out differently. Many have suffered and been broken, dreams have been shattered, smiles have been torn, and hearts have been wounded. That echoing feeling of devastation resonates in the whole island of Mindanao and to the heart of the world.
They need our HELP! They need our PRAYERS! They need US!
We, the Missionary of the Sacred Heart- Social Initiative and Collaborative Action Project (MSC-SICAP) volunteers, have initiated a massive calamity response from the very start, beginning with providing basic needs to over 5,000 families in several parts of Surigao. The operation runs under our own strategic organising and management system to accelerate the distribution of relief goods with the help of our partners. Hundreds of volunteers convene 24/7 at the district house of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Butuan City, and together we are working hand-in-hand to address the urgent necessities continuously.
Fr Richie Gomez is the captain of the project and keeps our vessel afloat amidst exhaustion and sleepless nights, for the sake of the wailing sacred land of Surigao that seeks our comfort. We will stand right beside them until they will rise back.
For us, this is an awakening journey and a profound reminder of what our hearts are made of â compassion and kindness. Together, we will rebuild the hopes and dreams of our fellow Surigaononsâ brothers and sisters, and with the provisions of Godâs divine grace we shall rejoice back the victory of our loving and united place, Caraga.â
Jan 19, 2022
Luis Carlos AraĂșjo Moraes MSC is a member of the Brazilian Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Recently, he spoke with The Irish Catholic newspaper, sharing his experience as a missionary working in the Amazon region.
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) in Brazil work in parishes on the outskirts of large cities. They attend to the human needs of people, especially the poorest, giving rise to the most diverse humanitarian services: Schools; health care for the poorest; care for abandoned children and adolescents, care for people with chemical dependency; psychological care, solidarity service for the hungry, support for institutions that work with homeless people, etc. All these activities are carried out in partnership with lay people and professionals from the most diverse areas.
In 1998, moved by the desire to be the presence of the human Heart of God, the MSC took on a challenging mission in the northern State of Amazonas, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon Forest. The Brazilian Amazon Region is almost another âBeing the Heart of God, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazonâ country, with its own characteristics. This demands from the missionaries a deep process of enculturation, of detachment, respect and acceptance of the various indigenous ethnic groups and their languages, as well as their local culture.
We work in the city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira within the Diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the State of Amazonas which has a population of 91,148,000, of which 89.3% are Catholic. In this city, nine out of ten inhabitants are indigenous, it being the municipality with the highest predominance of indigenous people in Brazil. Throughout the diocese, there are more than 20 indigenous ethnic groups, with their own languages and cultures. In addition to the Portuguese language, there are 4 official indigenous languages: Tukano, Baniwa, Nhengatu and Yanomami. Evangelizing, respecting all this cultural and linguistic diversity is a great challenge! Another major challenge is the geographical distances between communities. To reach these communities the only means of transport are small boats which means these visits take place less frequently than desired. We make four visits a year. These communities are no longer completely isolated from urban life. However, many indigenous people speak the languages of t heir ethnic groups as well as Portuguese.
Challenge
Cultural shock is also a challenge: how to keep the original cultures, with their traditions, customs, and values, in the face of the Western culture, experienced in cities? The tendency is to lose oneâs own identity, in order to be able to insert oneself into the global culture. It is worth mentioning that the original process of evangelization of indigenous people, prohibited the experience of local culture with their customs. Today, the Church seeks to rescue, the culture of indigenous people, which has been practically destroyed by herself. And finally, there is a lack of vocations and missionaries willing to come to work in this region of Brazil. There are few native priests. Most priests in the diocese come from other regions of Brazil and here they remain only for a period.
After more than 6 months on this mission my eyes have seen, on the one hand, the abundance of the wonders of God, present in the indescribable beauty of forests and rivers, as well as the different indigenous ethnic groups. On the other hand, I have seen sad smiles which hid deep sufferings. I have seen misery and abandonment of the elderly. I have seen and continue to see men and women lying on the corners, as a result of the high rate of alcoholism, which is destroying families and causing domestic violence, especially against women and the elderly.
Iâve heard the laments of the people, who forced to leave their homes are thrown into an urban life style, out of their native environment, their mother tongues, and are now living in a city system that exploits them and leaves them with no possibility of developing, because it treats them as âeasy preyâ, for greedy investments, especially the sale of alcoholic beverages. I also heard reports of violence and sexual exploitation of women, especially adolescents.
Faced with all this, I feel sadness, impotence and indignation, to see how the colonial and consumerist mentality from the outside, marginalizes and enslaves those who had lived in harmony with nature. On the other hand, I continue to feel the joy, of being able to come into contact with the beauty and richness of ethnic groups, with their various languages, their cultures, their food customs and their simple and detached way of living; I feel compassion and mercy and a strong appeal to personal conversion.
Synod
After the Synod of the Amazon Pope Francis wrote:
âI dream of an Amazon that fights for the rights of the poorest, of the native peoples, of the latter, so that their voice may be heard and that their dignity may be promoted. I dream of an Amazon that preserves the cultural richness that characterizes it and in which human beauty shines so differently. I dream of an Amazon that zealously safeguards the seductive natural beauty that adorns it, the overflowing life that fills its rivers and forests. I dream of Christian communities capable of devoting themselves and incarnating themselves in the Amazon, to the point that they give the Church new faces with Amazonian traitsâ (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation â Dear Amazonia, n. 7).
You may ask yourselves: What do the MSC accomplish in this Amazon mission? We do our best to âBe the presence of Godâ who loved humankind with a human heart. Whenever we can do nothing to change the reality, let us be present!
May we Missionaries of the Sacred Heart be the presence of tenderness, compassion, and meekness of the Heart of God for the Amazonian people!
“Beloved be everywhere the Sacred Heart of Jesus, forever!”
Originally published with images in The Irish Catholic on October 21st, 2021.
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Jan 13, 2022
Over the Christmas period, we were delighted to receive blessings of the season along with a news update from Bishop Toussaint Iluku Bolumbu MSC, who was ordained bishop of the diocese of Bokungu-Ikela in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2019, and who has been working since to improve desperately needed educational facilities in the diocese.
Previously named superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart for the French-speaking African region, Bishop Toussaint is the first MSC African bishop. The diocese of Bokungu-Ikela, located in North West of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was founded by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1961. Covering an area of 42,000 km, the population of the diocese is estimated at 620,000, and a small clergy of 24 priests, incorporating three MSC communities, have been ministering to the 15 parishes in the diocese for over 60 years.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is ranked as one of the poorest countries in Africa, and the majority of parishes in the diocese of Bokungu-Ikela are located in extremely isolated areas, where transport is difficult as the roads are in a severe state of disrepair. Living conditions are tremendously difficult for local people, who largely depend on agriculture and livestock for their livelihoods, and who struggle terribly with poverty.
Since 2020, Bishop Toussaint has been fundraising and working to build a new school in the Yetsi region, with mission friends and benefactors here in the Irish Province lending their support through our MSC World Projects Appeals in 2020 and 2021.
Thanks to the generosity of our mission friends here in the Irish Province following our 2020 appeal, Bishop Toussaint and his team were able to begin funding the initial stages of the construction of a school building in Yetsi. With the help of our 2021 appeal, Bishop Toussaint and the MSC team were able to buy essential basic equipment such as benches and tables. Prior to this, many children spent classes sitting on the floor. âSome of the pupils bring their own chairs from their homes,â Bishop Toussaint wrote at the time. âHowever, many of these children are from homes that have so little, they donât even have a chair to bring to school. Those children who donât have them, they have the floor, where they sit down and follow the teacher.â
This Christmas, Bishop Toussaint writes with news of further developments in the ongoing construction of the Yetsi school, as the MSC community there continue to work towards giving local children the education they need.
âGreetings from our deepest forest centre, Bokungu,â writes Bishop Toussaint. âI wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, full of the blessings of the Lord.â
âWe have been collecting local material for the Yetsi school construction, and the boat we have been waiting for, for so long, finally is close to arriving in Bokungu. Cement, sheet metals (plates), and iron bars will finally reach us here. It is my duty to build a good school for our pupils there. Thank you so much for your support and please keep in your prayers an intention for Bokungu-Ikela, a rural diocese full of challenges.â
In a Christmas letter, Bishop Toussaint writes, âWhile all humanity is facing multiple challenges and fears, the Lord opens before us, through the birth of his beloved Son, Emmanuel, a path of light and life, of hope and love. It is with the Prince of Peace that we can say to all of you: âTrust, do not be afraidâ. (Mk 6:50).â
âI express my deep gratitude to you and to the Promotion Office for the support to our Diocese. May the Lord bless you.â
With the Catholic Church being one of the main sources of hope for struggling families in the region, Bishop Toussaint and our MSCs continue to do their best to lay the groundwork to give local children, and generations to come, vital resources in education and with it, hope for the future.
Jan 12, 2022
As relief efforts continue in the Philippines following the devastating impact of Typhoon Odette in December 2021, MSC Mission response programmes are ongoing.
On January 11th, the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines reported that relief outreach to date has been far-reaching, with 3,791 relief packs, 575 sacks of rice, and 730 gallons of water distributed since the typhoon hit in mid-December, killing over 400 and rendering hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
The Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines shared a collection of photographs of the relief distribution programme based in Guilutongan Island, Cordova, which is one of the most affected communities in Cebu. These images give just some indication of the sheer scale of the damage done by Typhoon Odette as it tore through the country, leaving close to 600,000 people without homes.
Writing from an evacuation centre on Christmas Eve, community leader Fr Richie Gomez MSC told Irish Provincial Superior Fr Carl Tranter MSC how grateful he was for the âoverwhelming supportâ that our Filipino MSC brothers have received from the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. We ask that your continue to keep our MSC brothers and the people of the Philippines in your prayers as they continue to navigate this landscape of loss and destruction.
Images via the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc. Facebook page.
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