Jul 21, 2022
Soon after arriving in South Sudan in November 2020 for my current appointment, I received a WhatsApp message from Fr Abzalón, the Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, wishing me the best with the new mission and saying that he would like to visit one day. In the height of the pandemic, travelling anywhere seemed unlikely, and the possibility of coming to Rumbek would test even the most credulous of believers.
Less than two years later, though, I was in Juba to welcome him early on a Wednesday morning. When I first arrived in 2017 on a research trip, the airport was a simple tent, with no chairs that worked, and a length of runway. Now we have graduated to a building with one carousel, a sort of Central African Knock International Airport if you will. After a brief prayer to St Jude, he successfully negotiated the labyrinthine entry visa process, and we were off.
Challenges and resilience
Part of the Superior General’s mission was to see what was happening in Diocese of Rumbek and to explore if there was a need for a greater MSC presence. To that end, we spent our first day meeting with the head of religious missionaries in the country and then the coordinator of the Jesuit Refugee Service (both coincidentally Irish) to get the lay of the land and a sense of the reality of the people. That evening, we had dinner with Christian Carlassare, the newly ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek. He returned to the country just last March to be ordained, following an attempt on his life in 2021. Over cremated nyama choma (a speciality of grilled meat), the Bishop told him of the many challenges the Diocese faced, but also about the resilience of the people who persevered through a long fight for Independence and the Civil War of 2013.
Before sunrise, we were back to the airport for our flight to Lakes State. The closest approximation to the domestic departures experience is if you imagine the chaos in Dublin Airport earlier this year, then squeeze it all into one-tenth of the space, occasionally switch off the power, raise the temperature about 20C, and then you’re about half-way there. However, our guardian angels were working time and a half, and by 8:10am we had arrived in Rumbek and were heading to Loreto, which would be Fr Abzalón’s base for the week.
Exploring Loreto and beyond
Fr Abzalón had the opportunity to explore the Loreto compound, beginning with the Mary Ward Primary Health Care Clinic. In addition to looking after all the students and staff, it has responsibility for nine local villages encompassing 27,000 people. Most come for vaccinations, nutritional support, and especially malaria treatment. In the primary school, there are 1,400 day pupils, with a further 340 boarding girls in the secondary school. We are coming to the end of the first semester, so everyone was intent on their revision for exams. That afternoon he came to the Catholic University of South Sudan, Rumbek, where I work as principal. There, he met the young men and women who are training to be the teachers and the business people of the future.
It’s hard to believe in recent years that to drive into the east of Rumbek would mean that you were taking your life in your hands. It would be highway robbery, except there was no highway and if you got away with just being robbed you would be doing well. With the arrival of the new governor last year there have been far fewer problems. On Friday, we joined the final-year students and some of the staff to be part in a peace walk to the Parish of the Good Shepherd in Thonaduiel. We started off like good pilgrims at dawn and arrived eight hours later and 45km away, finishing with a short time of prayer. It was a witness for the villages we walked through of the country that could be built together if peace were to flourish.
South Sudan celebrated its Independence on the 9th of July 2011, and every year since then it has been a day for processions, speeches, and sports in Freedom Square. They have an understandable sense of pride over the establishment of their nation, but are conscious too of the outstanding issues that remain, most notably peace building, the rights of women, and the first elections that are due to take place next year. The Loreto students were out in force for the day and their marching was featured on national TV, to the great excitement of all the girls.
Pioneering work
The next few days allowed Fr Abzalón the chance to visit some of the local villages in Maker Kuei, where we are based. People live in simple conditions with a quiet dignity and have a genuine warmth for visitors. He took a cooking class to learn how to make combo (a type of stew containing vegetables, peanuts, and meat) over a charcoal fire. He also attended some of my CRE classes in the secondary school and shared what life is like in Guatemala, his home country. It was a special blessing to have him celebrate our Sunday Mass for the students outdoors under the shade of the neem trees.
As his week came to a close, Fr Abzalón still had a lot to see. On Tuesday, we went to visit the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Mapourdit. The Daughters are the trailblazers of the Chevalier Family in South Sudan. They have been here for over twenty-five years and they endured many hardships before the country won Independence. Today, they continue their pioneering work in education and healthcare under the most challenging of conditions.
Thursday came around quicker than anticipated and Fr Abzalón headed back to Juba to get a COVID test and an onward flight to Rome. Looking back on his experiences he wrote to us that same week:
“The mission … is a wonderful and prophetic project of education and integral promotion, especially of young women. The community there struggle day by day to build and transform this challenging and complex, but at the same time, beautiful reality. The Chevalier Family is present in South Sudan.”
– Fr Abzalón Alvarado Tovar MSC
Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
Ben Nhialic areer kek a yin,
Fr Alan
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Jul 14, 2022
We were delighted to receive a letter from Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), alerting us to the latest news from our Sisters in the Sacred Heart in Burkina Faso.
A landlocked region of West Africa, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, with very limited natural resources and extremely harsh living conditions for many vulnerable families and communities. The Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart are active in their ministry here, including the running of the Jules Chevalier School in Zagtouli, where over 500 children receive a nutritious meal alongside a vital education every day, and the heading up of a Centre for Girls in Untandeni, where young women and children – down to a little baby girl who had been abandoned under a tree near the community – receive schooling and loving care in a safe, secure place to live.
This summer, our OLSH Sisters have facilitated the sinking of a well in the Pouléba region, where the Sisters are in the process of founding a community, with plans to open a small dispensary to assist the local people. This well will be an invaluable resource for families in the extended area, where many people have to travel long distances in uncomfortable conditions simply to carry water to their homes.
Please join us in praying for our OLSH Sisters and the communities they serve, as they continue their great work in Burkina Faso and around the world.
Please click below to see a video clip of the well being sunk in Pouléba.
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SACRED HEART FAMILY
Jun 9, 2022
Sincere thanks to all who took part in our recent fundraising event for the children of the Holy Family Care Centre, a care facility run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, with the support of the MSC, in Ofcolaco, South Africa. The fundraising event took place at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork, across the last weekend of May, and raised a running total of €5,200 for the Holy Family community, with donations still coming in.
The plant and cake sale took place during the weekend Masses, where local treats such as home-made brown bread and fresh free-range eggs were also on sale. Teas and coffees were available for all to enjoy while they browsed, while John and Richie kept the atmosphere light and lively with marvellous music on the accordion and mandolin.
A group of five alpacas took a star turn over the weekend, as Pat and Nora Casey from Macroom were kind enough to bring them along to take part in our fundraiser. “A few of alpacas were due a grooming session,” reported Fr John Fitzgerald, our MSC Missions Office Director. “Luckily, Fr John Finn was at hand with his farming skills to shape their fringes and add to their overall good looks.”
Founded in 2002, the Holy Family Care Centre in South Africa has been run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart with the support of the MSC for 20 years, under the leadership of Sr Sally Duigan FDNSC. The Holy Family Care Centre is an invaluable facility for young children who are very ill and who, in many cases, have been orphaned or abandoned. These children are primarily HIV positive and are in need of specialised care. With the resources to accommodate 70 children, the Centre’s facilities are stretched to full capacity and beyond on a daily basis; Sr Sally admits that the team at the Centre does its best never to turn a child away, and the Sisters there sometimes find themselves with 80 children in their care.
“The reasons for admission to the Holy Family Centre vary, but many children have been abandoned, sexually abused, physically abused, orphaned, or made vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS,” says Sr Sally. “Some come from horrific backgrounds and arrive here very ill, malnourished, frightened, lacking social skills, and generally very bewildered.”
The Holy Family Care Centre is, above all, a place of family, unity, and love. “We love these children unconditionally,” says Sr Sally. “It doesn’t take long for them to feel at home and to change once they feel loved and cared for.”
A sanctuary for children in need, the team at the Holy Family Care Centre care for the children on a 24/7 basis, and the Centre feels more like a home to one big happy family. The availability of funding is an ongoing concern, as the Centre relies on donations and the generosity of MSC mission friends and the local community for the upkeep of buildings and equipment, and to be able to continue doing the work that they do – “[giving] our children love, security, and care, in the hope they will thrive,” in the words of Sr Sally.
“Since our parishioners here in Cork cannot visit Holy Family, or help them directly, the plant and cake sale is a wonderful way of supporting Sr Sally and her team in keeping the Centre going, without having to worry about the immediate future,” said Fr John. “In addition, it was great fun for all involved!”
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT THE HOLY FAMILY COMMUNITY
May 18, 2022
Welcome to the Summer 2022 edition of the MSC Message!
• Read a special greeting from Fr John Fitzgerald MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Find out more about the visit of our MSC Superior General, Fr Absalón Alvarado MSC, to the Irish Province.
• Catch up on the latest news from the mission fields, including updates from our MSC brothers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, and our OLSH Sisters in Brazil and Papua New Guinea.
• Read more about the latest updates from our global COVID-19 relief ministry, with a report from the Pacific Islands.
• Discover the ways in which our MSC community in the Philippines is helping survivors of Typhoon Odette.
• Fr Alan Neville MSC writes from South Sudan, where he is currently ministering with the Loreto team in Rumbek.
• Read all about recent celebrations in the Venezuelan Region, where two members of the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have marked milestone steps on their missionary journeys.
Read the Summer 2022 edition of the MSC Message
*
Mar 31, 2022
We were delighted to receive a recent update from the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Brazil, where a second-hand clothing store is run by the Sisters at the Social Centre in Alfenas.
All money raised from sales in the store is used to buy food for the poor. Volunteers help to prepare the food supplies for poor families in the area, and each month, the OLSH Sisters distribute 65 food parcels to local families in real need of help and support.
The Sisters are in the process of renovating the space in order to make it more practical, and also to promote a more appealing shopping experience with the aim of raising much-needed funds. New areas have been added to display the clothes and shoes for sale, and the Sisters continue in their work to feed and care for hungry families in the Alfenas region.
Our 2022 World Projects Appeal is continuing to raise funds for outreach programmes such as this one, run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Brazil and beyond. “Your generous donors are remembered in prayer all over the world, with deepest gratitude,” writes Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
Please keep our Sacred Heart Sisters in Alfenas, and across the world, in your prayers as they continue to share the message of God’s love, whenever and wherever it is needed most, despite the challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
PLEASE SUPPORT OLSH OUTREACH AROUND THE WORLD
