28 Mar 2024
Warmest congratulations to our MSC brothers in India,
on the establishment of the new MSC Indian Province!
Previously the Indian Union, Saturday, March 16th saw the official erection of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart India as a formal Province. Fr Darwin Thateus MSC, who has been the Indian Union Superior since 2019, will continue to act as Provincial Leader until December of this year.
(Image: https://www.misacor.org.au/item/30164-india-the-new-msc-province with image credit to Fr Tijo.)
Celebrations on the day also included a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of MSC founder Fr Jules Chevalier, the Ordination to the Diaconate of three MSCs, and the official opening and blessing of the Chevalier Academy, a primary and secondary school at Bellandur Gate in Bangalor.
Celebrations at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, Bellandur Gate, Bangalore, on Saturday, march 16th 2024. (Image via https://www.misacor.org.au/item/30164-india-the-new-msc-province, with credit to Fr Tijo.)
Fr Mike Miller MSC (General Secretary, Rome), congratulations Fr Darwin Thateus MSC, Provincial Leader of the newly erected Indian Province. (Image via https://www.misacor.org.au/item/30164-india-the-new-msc-province, with credit to Fr Tijo.)
The official opening and blessing of the Chevalier Academy in Bangalore. (Image via https://www.misacor.org.au/item/30164-india-the-new-msc-province.)
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been active in their ministry in India for over 30 years, from training enthusiastic new MSCs to tending to those living in often unimaginable poverty in urban and rural shantytowns. Our MSC brothers have ministered to vulnerable communities living in the slums of Bangalore, have worked to educate thousands of local children at the Chevalier Academy in Dindigul, have helped survivors of severe flooding in Kerala, and maintain a dedicated formation house for new MSCs at Hridhayala, or the Temple of the Heart, in Mysore.
The Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart has an enduring relationship with our MSC brothers in India, with our mission friends and benefactors here providing immeasurable support throughout the years, from helping to MSC pre-novitiates on their missionary journey, to funding dedicated presbyteries in disadvantaged parishes, to facilitating desperately needed emergency aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart also helped MSCs in Coimbatore to raise funds to set up the Chevalier Centre for Change, a day-care centre for the elderly with the aim of “changing the lives of those who have little hope”.
MSC COVID-19 ministry in India.
MSC COVID-19 ministry in India.
MSC COVID-19 ministry in India.
Meanwhile, this year, our mission friends here in the Irish Province have been helping MSCs in Therkukalidaikuruchi Village, in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, to raise funds to establish a new environmentally sustainable agricultural programme that will preserve and encourage the local ecosystem, while also providing opportunities for employment in the rural population.
We continue to support and encourage our MSC brothers on our shared missionary journey, and we keep the communities of the newly erected Indian Province in our prayers as they look to a hopeful future. May God bless them all as they embark on this new chapter in our united mission of making the love of the Sacred Heart known all over the world.
Selected images via misacor.org.au, with credit to Fr Tijo.
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