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.
Summer 2000: Floods in Caracas – An eyewitness report by Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC
The people of Venezuela are very much on our minds and in our hearts at the moment, as our MSCs work to help communities in Caracas to repair and rebuild after a devastating double earthquake in June of this year. In the MSC Message of Summer 2000, Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC wrote with reports of terrible flooding in Caracas, and its tragic impact.
“The 15th of December 1999 brought profound changes to Venezuela,” Fr Tom wrote. He went on to describe the social and political situation in the country at the time, with the new Constitution being voted in on December 15th. “On the night of the 15th we listened to our President make his announcement of victory. The announcement didn’t do anything to dispel fears for the future,” he explained.
Fr Tom then continued, “It had been raining all year but the 14th and 15th of December were particularly bad… The night of the 15th and early morning of the 16th brought the real disaster. Water, rocks, mud and trees came tumbling down the northern face of the Avila at about 60mph, destroying all that happened to be in its way. The Avila is called a corro or hill but it is really a mountain. In that short time about 25,000 people were killed.”
“When the news broke, one of the most incredible things happened. Venezuela had been divided by the referendum. There are many religions; some of them very anti-Catholic. Venezuela reacted as if it were one person. Believers and non-believers, those who voted Yes and those who voted No… The civil population and the army, the government and non-government all pulled their weight. If you ask me where was God in all this, I would say ‘in the response of the people.’ It really was incredible.”
“You wouldn’t have seen… the medical students who made a make-shift bed and took a woman who was badly wounded over rocks, rubble and mud to the nearest medical centre at great personal risk to themselves.”
“As I write, it is still raining in places including Caracas. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that further slippage will take place. We are still not out of the woods.”
“The geography of the state of Vargas has changed. It looks like a particularly heavily bombed area. However, I believe the interior trauma is much worse. People who have lost children, parents, brothers or sisters, and in many cases, seen them drown, carry a very heavy burden. It will take a long time to recover. In the meantime, houses must be found for about 200,000 people. That’s a mighty challenge for the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela.”
Summer 2000: Before there were churches
In 2000, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart marked 50 years of ministry in South Africa. This wonderful photo shows Fr Michael O’Brien MSC celebrating Mass under the African sun.
Ministering under the African sun. An outdoor Mass on a hillside in the Northern Province, with Fr. Michael O’Brien, MSC. The building of churches was an ongoing necessity but many celebrations took place under trees and in school rooms and private houses until churches were built. Such scenes were part and parcel of the life of the Church and in which the MSCs played a part over the past 50 years.
Winter 2003: My Faith is stronger than my Fears
Sometimes my cross is hard to bear
for there is darkness everywhere,
And troubles pile around my door
like autumn leaves forever more.
The morning light seems far away,
like I am stuck in yesterday,
My heart is beating like a drum –
I try to pray, but words won’t come.
But then the sun begins to rise
and hope is born within my eyes,
A rainbow forms among my tears
My faith is stronger than my fears.