Sep 29, 2021
Welcome to the Winter 2021 edition of the MSC Message!
• Read a special seasonal greeting from Fr Michael O’Connell MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Join us as we congratulate Br Giacomo Gelardi on his Perpetual Profession to the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
• Catch up on the latest news from the mission fields, including the erection of the new MSC Province of the Pacific Islands and an update from our MSC brothers in Ecuador.
• Read more about the latest updates from our global COVID-19 relief ministry, with reports from Vietnam, Fiji, and our OLSH Sisters in the Philippines.
• Fr Alan Neville MSC writes from South Sudan, where he is currently ministering with the Loreto team in Rumbek.
• Read all about the beatification of the martyrs of El Quiché, including three MSC priests and seven lay catechists who were killed for their faith in Guatemala between 1980 and 1991.
Read the MSC Message Winter 2021
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Sep 15, 2021
Sr Ruth S. Yburan FDNSC, Regional Leader of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, writes from Manila in gratitude for funding provided by the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to our OLSH Sisters in the Philippines, in support of their ongoing COVID-19 relief ministry. In regions where many families had already been living a hand-to-mouth existence, the pandemic has made simple survival a priority, and OLSH Sisters in the Philippines are working to provide even the most basic necessities to as many vulnerable communities as possible.
Some of the ways in which the OLSH Sisters have helped local communities thus far include:
- Running a community pantry in Surigao, where families are encouraged to take only what they need. In this way, more families can have access to the food they need and the OLSH Sisters can help as many people as possible.
- The distribution of rice to construction workers in Manila, where lockdowns have meant work has been stopped, and so has pay.
- A livelihood programme for families in Lapu Lapu. This programme caters especially to women whose husbands lost their jobs because of lockdowns, teaching them practical skills they need to earn money to contribute to their family living expenses.
- The provision of care packages to trisikad (Philippine pedicab) drivers in Cordova, who would have earned approximately 150 – 300 Philippine pesos (the equivalent of €2 – €5) per day prior to the pandemic.
- A six-day training course took place at the end of July for an indigenous Filipino group called the Badjao. Their training was free of charge, while MSC donations paid for their meals, which needed to be provided as they can no longer go fishing (which is also their main source of income). The skills taught included measuring, cutting, and machine work/sewing, providing those in attendance with useful practical skills that may bring in a much-needed wage. Those on the training course are leaders of their respective tribes, and were very grateful for the opportunity.
“This pandemic has opened the minds and hearts of our people to work together as a community and help each other in whatever way we can.”
Dear Fr Michael and our generous donors,
In many different parts of our world and especially here in the Philippines, people are just in need of basic necessities as the end of this pandemic is nowhere near in sight. A lot of families we minister to have suffered much as their loved ones got so sick and even died.
Nevertheless, this pandemic has also opened the minds and hearts of our people to work together as a community and help each other in whatever way we can. Last April, May and even up to this time, community pantries are mushrooming and made a huge difference in the lives of our people suffering from COVID-19.
Your generous donation of €5,000 through Sr Jenny Christie and our sisters at the generalate, made a big impact in the lives of our poor people whose lives are becoming even more helpless with on-going lockdowns brought about by the detection of new COVID variants. Thank you very much, dear Fr Michael, and the generous donors who enabled you to help us reach out to those most in need. You are helping us reach more people whose daily lives can be made a bit easier with your generosity.
On behalf of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart here in the Philippines, I would like to thank you for enabling us to distribute assistance to more or less 150 families from Visayas and Mindanao, and here in Manila, who came alternately due to COVID restrictions. Your donations also helped our indigenous people with their meals during a six-day skills training offered by the non-government organizations.
Rest assured of our prayers that God will continue to bless you and protect you from all harm so that you can continue to help others in need.
Much gratitude,
Sr Ruth FDNSC
Sep 7, 2021
At the beginning of 2021, our mission friends and benefactors blessed us with wonderful support for our 2021 MSC World Projects Appeal, which featured global outreach projects run by our Sacred Heart Sisters of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
These projects included several OLSH outreach programmes in Brazil, from nutritional and educational provisions for a care centre for vulnerable children, to helping a children’s choir with new equipment, to providing essential liturgical items for the celebration of Mass in remote communities, to teaching local women practical skills such as sewing, empowering them and enabling them to earn money for themselves and provide desperately needed support for their families.
“We can put our hands and our lives at the service of our charism and mission.”
Sr Marisa writes from São Paulo, in gratitude for the support received from our mission friends here in the Irish Province. “We express our joy in knowing that our charism and mission are alive in the world,” she says. “The MSC Mission Office in Ireland, through your generosity to finance the missionary and pastoral projects of our Province, has provided us with excellent opportunities to make the Heart of Jesus known and loved in the different situations of vulnerability experienced by a portion of the Brazilian population.”
She continues, “Through the unity of our congregations and with the financial assistance provided by the MSC Mission Office of Ireland, through your donors, we can put our hands and our lives at the service of the same charism and mission and to continue the dream of Fr. Chevalier, allowing God’s love and goodness to reach the farthest places in the world.”
“We reaffirm our gratitude and prayers to you, your staff and your donors and pray that they will receive in blessings and graces for what you have given us by financing our missionary action in the Church of Brazil.”
“With joy and gratitude I come to thank all of you for your generosity.”
Sr Janete also writes from Campinas, from the Madre Anastácia childcare centre. Part of the ministry the Sisters at the facility offer is to collect food donations and redistribute them to those in need. They had been receiving a small subsidy in order to be able to pay the cost of the driver who carried out these deliveries, but since that funding stopped, the Sisters had been extremely worried about how they would be able to continue.
“With joy and gratitude I come to thank all of you for your generosity,” says Sr Janete. “This funding means that it will be possible to keep our employee, Alexsandre, who plays the very important role of driver at our care centre, Madre Anastácia.”
“The driver at our daycare transports donations of clothes, foods, and furniture that we receive to donate to needy families in our region. With your help, we will be able to continue our work. The Sisters here are always very grateful for all your help and generosity. God bless you all!”
Aug 31, 2021
At the beginning of 2021, our mission friends and benefactors blessed us with wonderful support for our 2021 MSC World Projects Appeal, which featured global outreach projects run by our Sacred Heart Sisters of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
These projects included support for the victims of Typhoon Vamco (locally known as Typhoon Ulysses) in the Philippines. The most powerful typhoon to hit the country in seven years, it caused untold damage and left in its wake loss of life, severe flooding and damage amounting to millions of euro. A community of 25 OLSH Sisters have been ministering to badly affected families in two very poor areas of Manila, and Sr Ruth S. Yburan FDNSC, Regional Leader of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, writes to thank our mission friends in the Irish Province for their compassion and support.
“Even prior to the typhoon, the people here had very difficult lives.”
“You cannot imagine my joy, relief, and excitement when I was informed that €21,000 had been donated towards assisting the victims of Typhoon Ulysses,” writes Sr Ruth. “Last year, we received €10,000 from the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and we used it for the most needed things: at that time, food, clean water, and the basics of life. At the same time, we were able to meet each family and learn their situation and their needs.”
“COVID has interrupted our mission to the people, but we are in a position now to re-start this privileged work. The very generous donation, which we appreciate very much, arrived at the perfect time. Sr Leda and I visit San Mateo and Montalban ones or two days per week. On each trip, Sr Leda and I go to visit a family and see the state of their house. Even prior to the typhoon, the people here had very difficult lives, and many lived in homes made of timber, corrugated iron, strong cardboard, plastic, newspaper. There is no running water at all.”
“Upon meeting the family and speaking with them, we work out together what they need to re-establish themselves. This could be lumber, nails, iron, etc. We go with the family to the local hardware stand, where we like to do our business to support the owner in his little trade store. Once the necessary materials are located and the price paid, with the generosity of MSC Mission Office, Cork, the family takes home the needed materials and can work on their ‘new’ house.”
“Both we, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, and the people of San Mateo and Montalban express our deep gratitude for the hope you give us. We remember you daily in prayer. Thank you for allowing us to continue helping those who suffer.”
Aug 5, 2021
We were delighted to received recent communication from our OLSH Sisters in South Sudan, where a project funded by generous donations from our mission friends here in the Irish Province will see a new vegetable garden, with its own solar-powered irrigation system, established in Aluakluak, Mapuordit.
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart recently marked 25 years of service in South Sudan, where they have been involved in everything from education and nursing to general pastoral work. The region of Mapuordit is currently home to a small community of OLSH Sisters who minister to the needs of families in the area, facilitating the care and education of over 700 children at nursery and primary level.
Since 2020, the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been helping our OLSH family in South Sudan, by raising funds to build gardens around the OLSH schools in Mapuordit, which will help to provide a stable and sustainable source of food and water to families in the region who have very little. Further fundraising took place in 2021 as part of our annual MSC World Projects Appeal, with a wonderfully generous response from our mission friends here in the Irish Province.
The Sisters grow vegetables such as sweet potatoes and green vegetables for consumption by local families, using the natural resources available to provide a much-needed food source. The land in the region is extremely fertile, but with six months of regular rain and a six-month dry season, the gardens need a simple irrigation system, made up of bores which are drilled and fitted with a pump, a tank, and a watering system, to allow them to be used on a year-round basis.
These gardens are used to grow a variety of vegetables, and, when cultivated to their full potential, will be hugely beneficial in the long-term provision of nutritious food supplies to local families, who are up against a daily struggle to afford to feed their children. The gardens are an investment which will provide years upon years of profit to local communities, from being a source of nutritious food to providing local students who tend to the crops with the physical and mental benefits of gardening.
A place to grow in Aluakluak
The current project aims to provide a fully solar-powered irrigation system for a garden that will assist in supplementing a food supply for at least 30 families in the region of Mapuordit, especially during the six-month dry season in the area.
The initial plans placed the project in the Jur area of South Sudan, with preliminary meetings taking place at state level, at regional level, and at a local level, with the local Jur chiefs involved in the decision-making process as a location was chosen. However, project supervisor Sr Rita Grunke FDNSC reports that an “intense disunity” and “instability” among the Jur chiefs meant that it was “impossible to proceed” in the proposed location at this time.
The decision was then made for the project to go ahead in Aluakluak, an extremely active area of the parish where “a strong, dedicated women’s group” had been applying for funding for a development such as this one for several years. Here, the garden will be located between the primary school, which currently has approximately 560 students enrolled, and the nursery, which last year catered to 160 registered students. Both the primary school and nursery are run by the parish at a very high standard, with older Primary 8 students having won places at the Loreto Girls’ Secondary School and the De La Salle Boys’ School, both located in Rumbek.
Families of the primary and nursery students in Aluakluak will all benefit greatly from the project; the students themselves will have vegetables to supplement their school meals, and parents will be able to take away vegetables for evening meals for their families.
“A community willing to help itself.”
In February of this year, a well was installed to provide a source of water for the garden in Aluakluak. “Things move slowly in the region,” explains Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Office for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. “All of the materials have to be brought in from elsewhere, and then the workmen have to be available” – and naturally, COVID restrictions and lockdowns have made progress even more challenging in recent times.
Despite the challenges, the local community has been working together to ensure progress moves as efficiently as possible, where 25 ladies from the area each dug four holes for the metal fence posts.
Project supervisor Sr Rita Grunke FDNSC expresses her “deep gratitude and blessings abundant” for the €25,000 funding sent by our MSC Missions Office here in the Irish Province, as without irrigation, crops cannot be grown, and local people will be unable to become more self-sufficient and develop their own food security.
“Deep gratitude for your generous involvement in this project,” writes Sr Rita. “Be assured it will serve very needy families, as well as a community that is willing to help itself.”
“Thank you for keeping Mapuordit alive.”
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