Jan 29, 2026
This year, our MSC Missions Office on the Western Road, Cork, marks 60 years in operation. Together, we’re celebrating 60 years of prayer, of fundraising (in countless creative shapes and forms!), of local and global outreach, of friendship, of unity, of faith, of hope, and of love. Many of the mission friends that support us today are carrying on the long-standing tradition of their parents and grandparents, and we are so blessed and privileged to benefit from generations of this friendship and support, with our sincere and heartfelt gratitude.
The MSC Missions Office on the Western Road, Cork, celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2026.
In the spirit of our anniversary year, we will take a look back through the archives over the coming months, and explore just some of our missionary work and local activities throughout the years.
We begin in the Spring of 1981, when the MSC Message featured a piece on our Venezuelan mission, which had begun 13 years previously. Fr John Jennings MSC was among the team out there at the time, and now, over 40 years later, he continues to live with the people of Maracaibo and Caracas, accompanied by Fr Tom Jordan and Fr Tom O’Brien in his daily ministry.
Article from the MSC Message newsletter, Spring 1981
Our Spring 1981 newsletter also provided recipes for scrambled eggs and homemade pizza – an interesting precursor to today’s vigilance around the necessity of fresh foods over processed!
Finally, a familiar face pops up in an edition of the MSC Message covering the events of 1982/1983… Our very own Fr John Fitzgerald, current director of the MSC Missions Office, is pictured taking a break for tea. It’s nice to see that some things don’t change!
The MSC Missions Office is not a stand-alone entity, but rather a real and living part of our extended Sacred Heart family – a family that includes our missionaries all over the world, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, lay workers and volunteers, and the mission friends and benefactors that make it all possible. It is quite simple – without your support, we could not do what we do, and for that, we are so truly grateful.
Nov 27, 2025
On Saturday, November 22nd, a team of MSCs and volunteers visited Nuestra Señora del Carmen Church, in the parish of La Santa Cruz in Propatria, Venezuela, to distribute care packages to hungry families.
With local communities facing on-going struggles with social and political unrest, poverty is a real and pressing issue in these barrios, urban neighbourhoods where families have very little income and often live in extremely overcrowded and uncomfortable conditions. Many families don’t know where their next meal is coming from, or how they are going to feed their children, and these care packages are a lifeline to them.
Bro Deiby Fuenmayor sent us some photographs of last weekend’s food drive, writing that it was completed “with the support of people of goodwill”, with thanks for their “cheerful hearts”. These pictures show more effectively than any words can describe the extremely difficult living conditions in the uphill region of Propatria, Caracas, where homes are the most basic shelters and accessibility is enormously challenging, especially for the elderly or infirm.
Irish MSCs Fr Tom O’Brien, Fr John Jennings, and Fr Tom Jordan continue in their ministry on the Venezuelan mission, working together with local communities across Maracaibo and Caracas to provide spiritual guidance and practical aid, including essential food and medical care, to those in great need. The social and political situation in Venezuela continues to be volatile, and it is the country’s people that suffer the effects of this with lack of employment opportunities, insufficient income, and a huge shortage of adequate food and medical care. We keep our MSC brothers, and the communities they serve, in our prayers as they continue to share God’s love in these regions of real and pressing need.
If you are able to help our ongoing ministry in Venezuela, please click here.
Feb 11, 2025
MSCs making a difference in Venezuela
From the provision of essential food and medical care to vital educational facilities, MSCs in Venezuela are working to improve the quality of life for vulnerable people living in areas of extreme hardship. Maracaibo and Caracas are just two of the regions that have benefitted greatly from the generosity of our mission friends in the Irish Province.
MSCs in Venezuela are dedicated to making positive changes in the barrios (urban neighbourhoods where the populations are very poor), where families are living in severely overcrowded conditions in tiny homes often located high in the hills. Poverty is rife and living conditions are extremely difficult. There are often seven or eight people to a family, living in “matchbox houses”. Many elderly people are living alone, in precarious positions up hills and mountains where it is very difficult to bring essential provisions and medical equipment. In Maracaibo, MSCs are running soup kitchens that can feed anything up to 200 families at each serving – and there is always a demand for more. People are making their homes using the most basic materials, and are taking what jobs they can find, but work is scarce. The jobs that are available pay very poorly, with even professional people such as teachers earning very little and having to work two jobs in order to simply survive. Many are resorting to desperate measures in order to feed their children, and so a daily meal received from one of our soup kitchens can make all the difference.
CAN YOU HELP US TO FEED HUNGRY FAMILIES IN VENEZUELA?
Working together in hope and friendship
Irish MSCs Fr Tom O’Brien, Fr John Jennings, and Fr Tom Jordan minister across Maracaibo and Caracas, working with local communities to provide spiritual support to those in need, and bring food to nourish the sick and housebound. In addition to our MSC soup kitchens, centres have been set up to facilitate support systems such as Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and to accommodate doctors, dentists, and psychologists to get local people the care they need. A school in Maracaibo, run by our OLSH Sisters, also helps more than 500 local children. Still, there is a great and urgent need for more. “There’s always something, always something more to do and something more to get,” says Fr Tom O’Brien.
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY IN VENEZUELA
Thank you from Sr Nancy
Sr Nancy Contreras writes from Venezuela, where donations from our mission friends here in the Irish Province have been making a crucial difference to people suffering with the difficulties of extreme social and political unrest. The parish of Antímano is located in the hills of Caracas, with a population of approximately 168,422. Sr Nancy and her team have been able to help local families with school support, plus care packages of food and essential medication administered by a professional medical team. Many of these families are living with illness, disability, elderly and infirm relatives, and in conditions of severe overcrowding.
“We want to reduce the hunger, pain, and anguish that we see our brothers and sisters living in. We have the opportunity to enter their homes and see their reality more closely, some suffering with the effects of ongoing sicknesses such as diabetes and hypertension. We appreciate all your support and understanding on this shared mission in the Parish of Antímano.”
~ Sr Nancy Contreras
CAN YOU HELP VULNERABLE FAMILIES IN VENEZUELA?
Sep 22, 2022
Warmest congratulations to our MSCs Fr John Jennings, Fr Charles J. Sweeney, and Fr Diarmuid O’Murchu, who each celebrated their Golden Jubilee this summer.
Golden Jubilarians (L-R): Fr John Jennings MSC, Fr Charles Sweeney MSC, and Fr Diarmuid O’Murchu MSC
On August 23rd, each of the three MSCs celebrated 50 years since their ordination, with their Sacred Heart brothers on the Western Road, Cork. A beautiful Jubilee Mass was followed by a special celebratory lunch, attended by MSCs from across the southern communities.
Fr John is originally from Cork City, and has spent much of his missionary life ministering in Caracas, in Venezuela. Fr Charles, from Ardara in Co. Donegal, is currently based in Galway, where he is dedicated to pastoral ministry in Salthill. Fr Diarmuid, originally from Inchigeela in Co. Cork, is now based in Dublin, and is well renowned as an author and social psychologist.
Golden Jubilarians celebrate with their MSC brothers on the Western Road, Cork.
Director of the MSC Missions Office, Fr John Fitzgerald, joined the Jubilarians on the day, offering his congratulations and good wishes:
“These are three MSCs who were ordained on the same day; they have completely different sets of gifts, they have travelled different roads in their ministries, they have each served very different groups of people, and yet, they still share one ambition in life – that the love of God will be known and experienced throughout the world.”
“At the Jubilee Mass, the benefactors and friends who supported the education and subsequent ministries of our three MSCs were remembered and prayed for in a very real way,” continued Fr John.
Our prayers and blessings echo Fr John’s as he says: “I wish our Jubilarians well, I wish them good health, and I pray that they will continue to serve their call for many years to come.”
The old and the new, together in harmony: MSC Jubilarians celebrating 50 years, with Br Giacomo Gelardi MSC (far right), who is preparing for his ordination to the priesthood in November,
A true commemoration of fellowship and unity, the Jubilee celebrations were a wonderful opportunity to recall the challenges and triumphs of the years gone by, and to look ahead to a future filled with hope, promise, and enduring love. We join Fr John in congratulating the Jubilarians, with every blessing on 50 years of dedication and care in their ministry, and with every good wish for enduring health and happiness as their individual and shared journeys continue.
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Feb 3, 2022
The beginning of 2022 has brought great joy for the MSC community in the Venezuelan Region, with Miguel Ibarra MSC renewing his vows on Saturday, January 29th, and Yordy Blanco MSC making his First Profession on Wednesday, February 2nd.
Vow renewal of Miguel Ibarra MSC
Miguel Ibarra MSC, a member of the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in the Missionary Community of Venezuela, made his First Profession in February 2021 and renewed his temporary vows in Caracas on January 29th, 2022. Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the celebration was a small, private one, attended by some family members, but nonetheless special for it. A beautiful Mass was celebrated by Fr Tom O’Brien MSC and Fr John Jennings MSC, while Miguel’s vows were received by Fr Yonys Mendoza MSC.
After spending some time at home with his family, Miguel is due to return shortly to São Paulo, Brazil, to continue his theology studies in the MSC Scholasticate.
First Profession of Yordy Blanco MSC
Miguel will soon be joined at the MSC Scholasticate in São Paulo by Yordy Blanco, a fellow member of the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in the Missionary Community of Venezuela, who took his First Profession vows in Brazil on Wednesday, February 2nd (the Feast of the Presentation and the 2022 World Day of Consecrated Life). Yordy completed his noviciate year in Itajubá in Brazil, and made his First Profession alongside his fellow novices, Diego Zambrano, Guicherme Bernal, Mateus Borodiak, Pedro Henrique, and Valmir Silva. These six young men are members of the Provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Sao Paulo, the Section of Ecuador, and the Missionary Community of Venezuela. The Mass was presided by Fr Humberto Henriques MSC, Assistant General, and the vows were received by the Provincials of the three Brazilian Provinces. (If you would like to watch the full First Profession ceremony, please click here.)
“We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Yordy and wish him and all his fellow novices a beautiful celebration,” wrote Irish Provincial Leader Fr Carl Tranter MSC, ahead of the profession ceremony. “May their lives as MSCs be filled with joy and fulfilment. Congratulations also to the MSC community in Venezuela as they welcome Yordy to their small but powerful group of missionaries.”
“I extend our special thanks to the São Paulo Province for welcoming Yordy into their common Brazilian Noviciate,” continued Fr Carl, “and especially to Fr Getulio Saggin MSC, Novice Master, for his kind, gentle and close accompaniment of the novices throughout the year.”
We add our prayers to Fr Carl’s as we wish both Yordy and Miguel every blessing for the next step of their missionary journeys ahead.
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