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?
Aug 1, 2019
Two of our MSCs from the Irish Province returned to Venezuela in July, to minister to struggling families and communities who are currently trapped in the midst of the country’s extreme social, economic, political, and humanitarian crisis.
Fr Christy Coleman MSC
Fr Christy Coleman MSC ministered in Venezuela many years ago, before moving to Texas in the USA as a pastor and prison chaplain. He also acted as MSC Superior in the US Province for a time, and most recently returned home to Ireland to minister as a hospital chaplain. Throughout his travels, Fr Christy kept in close contact with the Venezuelan mission, and was a great support to our MSCs there, particularly the community at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School in Maracaibo.
As Fr Vincent Screene, the current Regional Leader of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Venezuela, unfortunately has to return home for medical reasons, Fr Christy will be taking his place in on the Venezuelan mission. Here, he will work with members of the regional team to guide, motivate, and encourage MSCs ministering in parishes across the country as they provide life-saving aid and spiritual support in regions of extreme poverty and hardship.
Fr Tom Jordan MSC
Fr Tom Jordan MSC also spent some time in Texas following his ordination in 1966, before taking his place on the Venezuelan mission amongst the communities and parishes he has grown to love. Fr Tom’s generosity of spirit has been legendary in Venezuela; as Fr Vincent Screene said, “Wherever there is a need, Tom is there”.
Fr Tom returned to Ireland due to ill health last year, and during his time at home, he was vocal about the ongoing struggles of the Venezuelan people. Chai Brady of The Irish Catholic recently reported on Fr Tom’s response to Clare Daly TD, who spoke out about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, downplaying its severity. Brady writes, “According to the Sunday Times Clare Daly TD said in a YouTube video that ‘even in the difficult days the poorest people get a box of basic food essentials every month’. She said although citizens have to register to receive the package there are no political strings attached, which Fr Jordan disputed.”
As reported by The Irish Catholic, Fr Tom has deemed these claims “absolutely” false. “He [Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro] gives out a little food maybe once a month and only to the ones who recognise him as the boss,” he said. “For somebody like that to come back to Ireland and say there’s no shortage in Venezuela, it’s very irritating.”
“It’s got worse, more people are getting out of it – those who can – and the electricity situation makes it worse. If your refrigerator goes in a climate like that you have no food, it’s wasted,” Fr Tom continues. “Then the escalation of prices to high heaven, and the income is virtually useless to buy food because the incomes hasn’t increased worth a damn.”
Fr Tom has now returned to Venezuela following his recovery, and we wish both him and Fr Christy all the very best as they bring their invaluable ministry to the Venezuelan mission once again.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN VENEZUELA
Find out more about our missionary outreach in Venezuela
Read Fr Michael’s diary from his 2019 visit to Venezuela
