Mar 13, 2018
Yesterday, Monday 12th March 2018, the first two MSC arrived to commence the Congregation’s new mission in Mozambique.
Fr Angelo and Fr Eduardo from the Sao Paulo Province arrived with their provincial, Fr Edivaldo and the Superior General, Fr Absalon to be greeted and received by the Bishop and pastoral workers of the Diocese of Pemba where we will establish the mission in a very poor part of the country with no church infrastructure or functioning pastoral ministry. This project has been several years in the planning and we congratulate the Sao Paulo Province for its missionary courage in taking on this new mission.
Ametur Ubique Terrarum Cor Iesu Sacratissimum – May the most Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere.
Jan 29, 2018
Our dear friend, Sr Orla Treacy, and the Loreto Sisters are celebrating 10 years of incredible, yet extremely challenging work in the Loreto Schools, Rumbek.
In February 2006, Sr Orla Treacy stepped off a plane in Sudan ready to set up a girls’ boarding school in a remote region in the south of the country. She had been told the project was already under way and had reassured her parents she would be home in Ireland by the end of the year. However, the 33-year-old nun arrived at the site outside the town of Rumbek only to find an empty field with no buildings.
“We were told not to worry, that everything would be ready by Easter. It took two years for the building to reach the point where we could actually start, and then we discovered we were also supposed to open a primary school and clinic for the local community.”
Sr Treacy also faced the challenge of convincing local families to send their daughters to a secondary school in a country where only a third of girls enrol in primary school. Of these, just 7 per cent finish their primary education and only 2 per cent make it into secondary education. Less than 1 per cent actually graduate. More than half of girls in South Sudan are married before the age of 18, and 17 per cent before they turn 15.
“If you live in a culture where marriage is more popular than school, it’s very hard to change that mentality. The girl is married for a dowry of cows so she’s considered a wealth to the family. She’s also the property of the extended family, not just the mother and father.”
Sr Orla Treacy
Sign an agreement
The Loreto sisters decided fathers would sign an agreement with the school promising to allow their daughters to complete their education. However, extended family members such as uncles would often turn up at the gates demanding their teenage niece be released for marriage. “We have been threatened at gunpoint, we have been insulted, all number of problems because she is a woman and should be sacrificed for the sake of the greater good. Technically it’s a boarding school but I call it a women’s refuge because you’re constantly trying to protect these girls from forced marriage.”
When Sr Treacy first decided to become a nun, she never imagined she would end up the principal of a school in a war-torn state in east Africa. In fact, when she first told friends and siblings about her decision to enter the church, they told her she was crazy.
“I thought I was crazy too. I realised it wasn’t fashionable or popular to become a nun at that time. I talked to one of my brothers and he told me to travel the world and then see how I felt.”
Sr Treacy put the decision on hold and studied to become a religion teacher at the Mater Dei Institute. During the summer after her final year in college, she worked in Calcutta. “That was a real changing point for me. There was a lot of hunger and poverty in Calcutta in the early ’90s and that really struck me. I had accepted a job to teach religion with the Presentation Brothers in Cork City and worked there for two years but by the age of 23 I realised that life wasn’t for me and I joined the Loreto sisters.”
Loreto School Rumbek – Class of 2017
New mission
It was only when Sr Treacy returned to Calcutta eight years later that she began to consider working overseas. She discovered the Irish Loreto sisters were setting up a new mission in Sudan following the country’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. It was believed the agreement would bring peace and stability following decades of conflict. “There was a sense that great things were happening in south Sudan. And so three of us set out there in February 2008.”
Ten years later Sr Treacy is still running the Rumbek secondary boarding school, the primary school and the local clinic. The past decade has not been easy.
In 2011 South Sudan gained independence from Sudan. However, in 2013 civil war broke out in the new country, with some 200,000 people forced to flee their homes and more than two million displaced.
Hunger continues to be a huge problem in this country of 12 million people.
“When we started the primary school we used to not feed the kids, but we’ve found over the past two years there’s a great hunger, so now we feed everybody. We also need to provide healthcare because many of them can’t afford medicine or access to good treatment.”
As it celebrates its 10th anniversary, the school is struggling more than ever financially. However, Sr Treacy remains hopeful for the school’s future and the education of girls in the Rumbek area. “I work with people who live very much on the margins: life and death, hunger and despair. Every day they live on the edge. And yet in that you can still glimpse love and hope every day.”
After more than two decades as a nun, Sr Treacy is also confident she made the right decision by joining the Loreto sisters. “In life you’re always wondering what if or what might have been. Being a nun is not always perfect and there are moments when I wonder what the hell did I do? But I don’t think any relationship is perfect and I have certainly found a peacefulness in myself. I don’t worry about the future too much and I’m very happy in the role I’ve chosen.”
The MSC are very proud supporters of the amazing work carried out daily by Sr Orla and the Loreto Sisters in South Sudan. If you would like to offer financial support to the Loreto Schools Rumbek you can do so by clicking the box below.
PLEASE HELP US TO SAVE LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Jan 17, 2018
Reflection: Change of heart and believe in the Gospel
Gospel (Mark 1:14-20). Repent, and believe the Good News.
There is material for personal reflection and dialogue with any period in history in this Gospel reading. Jesus’ call in the Gospel to repent, for a change of heart, and belief in the Gospel, is addressed to individuals and society in any age of history. The repentance spoken of in the Gospel reading means a change of heart and a change in one’s ways, and is practically the same as belief in the Gospel. That call was valid for every person and society of Jesus’ day, and later, and is still valid in our own day. All Jesus’ disciples, from Simon (Peter), Andrew and others onwards had to make that change of mind and direction. For the first disciples and the Jewish community of Jesus’ day it would have meant a change from what was central to their lives directed by their tradition and the law of Moses to the Gospel and its values. The same principle held when the Gospel message was preached beyond Judaism, to Greek and Roman culture. There, too, it was a call to a change of focus and ways to the Gospel and its message, to the new community of believers created by the Gospel.
For us and the Church today the call still holds, but it is not always easy to determine what change of mind, of mindset, of direction, is indicated by Jesus’ original call. It will, however, always mean putting Jesus’ call and Gospel values first and turning aside from everything contrary to them. Today’s first reading from the prophet Jonah provides material for reflection. Jonah was a grumbler, getting angry about many things, including God’s mercy for the detested city Nineveh. God’s reply to him, which serves as an ending to the entire book, is very telling. God says: “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also so many animals?”
In our own day the Church is trying to find ways in which to enter into dialogue with contemporary life and culture, and how it should change its mind and ways so as to make the abiding love and mercy of God (made so clear to the grumbling Jonah) better known to the modern mind, while at the same time remaining true to the Gospel message. Pope Francis is particularly interested in all this. We can all reflect on these truths and pray to God that any dialogue will have a positive outcome.
Jan 6, 2018
Sr Orla was in contact with us this new year to update us on the ongoing struggles facing the Loreto School Rumbek and their local community in South Sudan.
December was a violent month in Maker Kuei (Mah-kher Kew-way). What started as cattle raids became overt attacks with both sides committing immense acts of aggression. Over a period of just 5 days, 173 people died, over 200 were wounded and 1800 were displaced. The main fighting area was just 8 km from where the Loreto School Rumbek is located and many of the community’s young men were involved in the fighting. During this crisis, the Loreto School and its faculty was able to keep the spirit of the holiday and welcomed around 60 families (about 350 women and children) into the compound for protection.
“It is during these times, and especially during the Christmas season that we reflect on the year and give thanks for all that we have.”
The Loreto Sisters were able to provide essential meals to these displaced families, medical support to both families and wounded, and to provide a secure area for these families seeking shelter from the violence. Thankfully, with the help of the local Chief and assurances from the military for security, the situation stabilized and the community celebrated a peaceful Christmas.
PLEASE HELP US TO SAVE LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
To read more about Sr Orla Treacy and the Loreto Schools Rumbek, click here.
Visit the Loreto Schools Rumbek’s new website.
Nov 28, 2017
On Saturday night, 25th November, we gathered at the Sacred Heart Church to celebrate our annual Light up a Memory Mass. ?️
We were joined on the night by friends and family both locally and around the world who joined us via our Live Stream service.
The Light Up a Memory Mass was a beautiful celebration of the lives of our dearly departed, as we joined together to pray by candlelight in an evening of reflection and remembrance.
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