Jan 22, 2020
Pastoral care for the people of the Amazon
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been operating from the diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, or St Gabriel da Cachoeira, for over 20 years, ministering to the riverside parishes and working with local training and diocesan administration. The diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira is situated in the State of Amazonas, northwest of the Brazilian Amazon. Covering the municipalities of Barcelos, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, and São Gabriel da Cachoeira, it is larger than the state of São Paulo – and three times bigger than the country of Portugal.
Bordered by Columbia and Venezuela, the diocese is crossed by the River Negro and is covered by equatorial forests. It is nicknamed the “Head of the Dog” for its shape, and the main city of the diocese, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, has a population of approximately 45,000. About 95% of its population consists of indigenous people, divided into 23 ethnic groups and speakers of 18 local languages.
Communication with the communities along the River Negro is very poor, and often completely non-existent. Access to these community regions is almost exclusively by water, and it can take a week or more to reach the communities located furthest away, depending on the river conditions. Due to the vast distances involved, many communities can only be visited by priests three or four times a year. In the meantime, lay leaders conduct Sunday services and take over the teaching of catechesis in the absence of a priest.
Distance isn’t the only issue when it comes to the lack of pastoral care in these communities. There is also a severe lack of priests in the region, and the cost of travel is very high.
Currently, there are only five priests native to the diocese. Any other priests in the area are from other regions, providing a temporary service. Parishes often go long spells without the presence of a Catholic priest, and this leads to serious issues with the introduction of alternative theologies, such as the “theology of prosperity”, which generate great rifts and divisions between the local communities.
The local Church faces serious challenges with regard to evangelisation in the region, in addition to problems with social unrest and environmental issues, including deforestation. The MSC community in the area are working to bring hope to the indigenous people of the region who have long been begging for help.
Currently, MSC priests in the region are working from a newly established parish on the outskirts of the city of St Gabriel da Cachoeira, due to a new and worrying factor – an exodus of families from riverside communities to more urban areas. This migration has contributed greatly to existing urban issues with poverty, unemployment numbers, alcohol and drug abuse, prostitution, diseases such as AIDS, hostility towards indigenous communities, and suicide rates that top the national rankings.
This parish serves 25 communities – a total of 18 riverside communities, populated by indigenous people speaking various languages including Tukano and Nheengatú, and seven urban communities, made up of people of varied ethnicities.
MSCs in the area are doing their best to improve the quality of life for the communities they serve, but it is an ongoing struggle in the most difficult of conditions. In general, when conditions are good, it takes approximately three hours to travel from the parish headquarters to the farthest riverside community.
MSC Fr Girley writes to appeal for help for our missionary communities in the area, who are in great need of financial support in order to be able to continue their work with both urban and riverside communities in the parish. “Even in the face of challenges and difficulties, whether they be cultural, geographical, or financial, we are always confident that God’s grace and providence accompany us,” he writes. With a growing multitude of problems facing our MSCs and the local communities they serve, even the smallest donation can help to make a real difference in the lives of people facing hugely varying, but equally powerful, struggles for survival.
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Jan 9, 2020
Members of the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines recently paid a visit to the students at an MSC-run educational programme in Saints Peter and Paul Parish Learning Centre, in Tubod, Surigao del Norte.
For the past two years, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines have been supporting the programme, which provides educational assistance to children who have difficulty in continuing their studies because they and their families live in circumstances of severe poverty and hardship. The Philippine Province of the MSC provide financial support for their tuition fees, plus the necessary books for their studies, through this programme. “These children are very willing to study, but their parents are financially incapacitated,” say the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines. A total of 21 children are currently taking part in the programme – children who are all too pleased with the opportunity to be able to continue their studies, but who would not be able to without the help and financial assistance of the MSC Mission Office and the mission friends around the world who support our work.
The team at the learning centre include Mrs Norma Porcil, who is principal of the school. A retired teacher, she now works voluntarily to take care of the school and its students. The project manager of the programme is Mr Boni Dano, who is also the coordinator of the Chevalier Family Lay Associates in Tubod. He also volunteers his services in making sure the programme runs smoothly and benefits the children involved as much as possible. Finally, Fr Sansin Ebuna MSC is leader of the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines, and has been instrumental in ensuring the success of the programme for children who are in great need of help in order to be able to hope for a more positive future.
We send our best wishes and blessings to everyone involved in this wonderful project, as we continue to work together all over the world to make a difference where it is most needed.
Images via the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc. on Facebook
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Jan 2, 2020
November was a busy time for the MSC mission in Mozambique, where the celebrations of Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation took place throughout the month.
Early November saw Confirmations taking place in the community of Our Lady of Fatima in Meluco. The MSC Mozambique Facebook page described it as a “beautiful” day, and the accompanying photographs give us a glimpse into a very special celebration of faith.
Just over a week later, the community of St Augustine in Muaguide celebrated the sacraments of Baptism and First Holy Communion. Again, this was an exceptionally blessed day for all involved. “This is a time of grace and blessings from God,” said the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
It is a truly great thing to see communities across our MSC Mozambique mission marking these joyous occasions, particularly as recovery from the devastation caused by two cyclones earlier this year is still ongoing. The strength, resilience, and spirit demonstrated by local communities is an inspiration to behold, and while the journey to recovery is a long and arduous one, moments such as these provide much-needed encouragement and motivation to all involved in the mission.
Blessings to all who received the sacraments, and to the families, communities, and MSCs who joined them in celebration!
Images via the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
Dec 19, 2019
It is with great joy that we recently received an update from our MSC brothers at the Sacred Heart Bilingual College in Lada II, a small village situated 25km from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
Back in the summer of 2018, we appealed to our mission friends in the Irish Province to help the Sacred Heart family in Lada II, an area racked by extreme poverty and hardship. The Sacred Heart Bilingual College opened in 2016 to both male and female students, but remained in an unfinished state of construction with minimal facilities and equipment.
Poverty is a huge challenge faced by local families, who cannot afford to send their children to school when they are struggling to find enough food for daily meals. The students of the Sacred Heart Bilingual College are grateful for amenities that we take for granted every day; “I appreciate the toilets,” student Wilfried said, “because they have taps around them where we can wash our hands.”
The MSC community in Yaoundé contacted us in recent weeks with “great joy and satisfaction” that the project has made excellent progress, thanks to the support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province. “The new MSC community is now established,” they wrote. “It was blessed on October 21st by the UAF MSC Superior, Fr Yvon-César Banackissa, who installed also the new Superior of the community on that day, Br Magloire Njankou Samen. This structure will be greatly helpful in strengthening our abilities, our aims, and our dreams, particularly in running our school.”
“We are sincerely grateful to everybody who supported our project for your great generosity and openness of heart, for your support, help, and care. By so acting, you show us the real proof of your commitment to help people to live and to enhance their fundamental right to dignity.”
The Yaoundé MSC community sent us some pictures of the progress as the building works have been completed, and of the blessing of the community at the end of October. The MSC Mission Office on Facebook have also made photos available from a recent visit to the school in October, when they captured photos of Br Magloire and his team undertaking extensive carpentry projects, making the desks and furniture from the school.
“Thank you, once again, for your unceasing kindness and generosity towards our African community and mission,” wrote the MSC community in Yaoundé. “Thank you for your great generosity of heart!”
Read more about the Sacred Heart Bilingual College in Lada II
Dec 12, 2019
At the end of October, the 2019 pastoral assembly took place over a period of three days in the missionary area of Melquibi, Mozambique.
Over 70 people from the surrounding regions joined in the assembly, celebrating the work that has been done and the progress that has been made over the past year, along with discussion and reflection on the year to come.
This year’s theme was “Being the Church, Being People of God”, a wonderful celebration of faith and unity in the Lord’s love, with a specific focus on how our MSC missionary work can continue to make positive change in the region in 2020.
As the MSC Mission in Mozambique began just a year and a half ago, in March 2018, it is especially rewarding to see the great sense of community that is already evident between local areas. The mission has been faced with some extremely challenging setbacks, namely the devastation caused by the two cyclones that hit in the space of six weeks earlier this year, but this has not deterred our Mozambique family of faith – indeed, their strength, resilience, and faith been truly inspirational in the face of destruction and despair.
We send our congratulations and blessings to the MSC Mozambique Mission on a successful 2019 assembly, and we wish them a positive, prayerful, and productive year ahead.
Images via the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
Nov 28, 2019
MSC missionaries in Mozambique are continuing their ongoing work in providing relief to families who were affected by the ferocious cyclones that tore across the country earlier this year.
In mid-March, Cyclone Idai wreaked havoc in north-eastern Mozambique, killing over 600 people. Just six weeks later, at the end of April, the Pemba region was hit again by Cyclone Kenneth, and the death toll began to rise further.
Hundreds lost their lives, and over 21,000 people were left homeless by the disasters. Homes, crops, and livestock were destroyed by floods and mudslides, while wells were contaminated, leaving the local drinking water unsafe for consumption, with the threat of cholera and malaria a real danger.
“We have lost everything,” said one survivor. “Our house and most of our belongings were taken by the wind and the waves.”
The Mozambique mission began in March 2018, when MSC missionaries from Brazil began ministering in the Pemba diocese, an extremely poor part of the country with no church infrastructure or functioning pastoral ministry. Our MSC brothers immediately began working to bring positive change to local families and communities, and their reach has spread far and wide in the past year and a half.
The arrival of the cyclones was a huge setback to the work being done in the local area; however, our MSCs have continued to work hand-in-hand with local families in the area, helping them to rebuild their lives in the wake of the catastrophe, and continuing in their original mission to bring God’s gifts of faith, hope, and love to those in real need.
In October, our missionaries took part in a new aid endeavour, distributing essential supplies to families in the Meluco region who are still struggling to rebuild the pieces of their lives following the disaster. These supplies included shelter kits, with tarpaulin and tools, kitchen kits, containing pots, dishes, and utensils, personal hygiene kits, water treatment kits, and flashlights.
The MSC Mozambique Facebook page reports that this aid endeavour has been taking place throughout Meluco in conjunction with Caritas Mozambique, and will provide much-needed relief to 3,500 families in the region.
While the flood waters may have receded, the extreme damage done by the cyclones is still very much a real and pressing issue for families who lost everything in the disaster. Our MSC brothers continue in their tireless work to aid these families in their struggle for survival, and to help to rebuild the lives that were shattered by this dual catastrophe.
Images via the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
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