This year, we’re celebrating the 60th anniversary of the MSC Missions Office on the Western Road, Cork, and as part of our anniversary commemorations, we’re looking back on old issues of our newsletter, the MSC Message, on a walk together down Memory Lane.
Winter 2007: Fr. O’Connell reports on his visit to South Africa
In the Winter 2007 edition, Fr Michael O’Connell MSC wrote a report following a visit to our long-running mission in South Africa.
I visited our missionaries in South Africa earlier this year to see at first hand the great work they are doing, often under very difficult circumstances. I saw the beautiful scenery and modern buildings of the new South Africa on the one side and on the other I witnessed deprivation, hunger and poverty that is difficult to imagine without seeing it…
I brought home from Africa a picture of poor, sick, and under-nourished people smiling. Yes, smiling in spite of all the hardships in their lives.
Two young lads aged 17 and 15 welcomed me into their home. A tin shack in a settlement area. Their mother with the help of God had got them this home. Their mother was a good provider. There was room for two beds and a kitchen area with a table and a TV covered by a dolly on top of the fridge, and one electric bulb. It was so neat and tidy. On a washing line outside were their school uniforms. The water was got from taps half a kilometre away.
Their mother must have been very proud of them both. But she wasn’t there. Mother would never be there again. She was dead. These boys nursed her to the end as she died of AIDS.
They tried to support themselves by running a little stall buying crisps and peanuts in threes and selling them in ones. There was no electricity. The fridge, TV, and light bulb didn’t work. Their neighbour whom their mother paid for electricity stopped it when she died.
The boys only had one another. Their faither was non-existent. They get no support from the state… no children’s allowance… nothing! They have no identification papers and no birth cert. As far as the state is concerned these two orphans don’t exist.
Only the field worker from the parish of Fr. Herman van Diijck, msc and a few neighbours support these 2 orphan boys. The smile on their faces… the hope in their desperate lives is only there because of the support of Mission Friends, like you. You enable our MSC priests to be the Heart of Christ in Africa. Thank you.
Michael O’Connell, msc
Winter 2003: A personal reflection…
Don’t look for flaws as you go through life
It is easy enough to find them
It is wise to be kind, and sometimes blind
And to look for the virtues behind them.
Winter 2007: Direct from the MSC Mission Fields
Stories straight from our global mission fields, from Winter 2007.
For this young child a bath is a wash in a small plastic basin outside on the open ground. In the context of the comforts enjoyed by most of us in Ireland and Britain, this photo brings home to us the poor living standards of fellow humans in many parts of South Africa where Fr. O’Connell took this photo during his visit last Spring. But the child seems reasonably happy with his lot. Not only is housing very poor but water is a scarce resource. Our thanks to the Mission Friends who made donations recently towards the well-drilling work of Fr. Andre Bohas, msc who deeply appreciates the support.
House building South African style! In a township Fr. O’Connell met this young man building a house for himself. He had no worries about planning permission, foundations, or the type of materials. He just identified a piece of ground and laid claim to it, then collected pieces of timber and sheets of galvanise and Perspex, and started building. For a window he found an old one in the dump, and he expected to pick up a door likewise. His house was right beside an old drain taking refuse water from thousands of other such houses.
To us an empty Kerrygold butter carton is rubbish – question is will we recycle it or send it to landfill. No such worries for this orphan queuing up for his daily meal at the Sithandz Care Centre in Tsakane, Guateng Province in South Africa… he is one of 450 who call each day, and the Kerrygold carton is his bowl for his meal. Sr. Mary Tuck – a Dominican Sister – does great work at the Centre that provides a variety of services for the poor of the area.
When Fr. Tom Jordan msc visited his relations in Athenry, Co. Galway recently we got this photo from him. Fr. Tom is such a caring and jolly person, and this elderly lady is obviously very pleased with his home visit to her in his parish in one of the poorest areas of Caracas city in Venezuela. Fr. Tom runs several social projects in the parish including a soup kitchen for children and the elderly, subsidised medical and dental services, 3 pre-schools for 100 children, training in computers, and plans for training for women in hairdressing and in cooking. He thanks the Mission Friends who made recent donations towards this work amongst the very poor.