Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - On December 8, 1854, the day Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in France Father Jules Chevalier (1824-1907) founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart MSC who this year will celebrate 150 years at the service of the Gospel.
Since he was a seminarian, Father Chevalier, at the time a young assistant priest just appointed to a parish at Issoudun diocese of Bourges (France), had dreamed of founding a missionary congregation to tell people about God’s merciful love so as to remedy for the evils of the day. He was certain that the human and divine heart of Christ is the fullest manifestation of God’s love for mankind. This principle was the root of his own spiritual life and the spiritual life of the congregation he founded.
Filled with deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Father Chevalier shared with Father Maugenest, a former seminary companion at the time assistant priest like himself, his desire to start a missionary institute. Although the proposal met with firm opposition from superiors the two priests were not discouraged and with confidence they prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary to illuminate their path and help them in the undertaking. December 8 1854 is the date which is recognised as the founding date of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), of which Father Chevalier and Father Maugenest were the first members.
In later years other institutes were opened, the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (1874), the Congregation of Secular Priests of the Sacred Heart, the Third order of the Sacred Heart, called later Secular Fraternity of the Sacred Heart MSC or lay Missionaries MSC. In 1900 Father Linckens, MSC, founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Hiltrup. All the members of these different institutes live the same charisma and are animated by the same spirituality.
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were still few in number, with scarce material means when in 1881 the then prefect of Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Simeoni, entrusted the Founder with the evangelisation of Melanesia and Micronesia in Oceania. This first commitment marked the beginning of the development of the congregation opening it to evangelising non Christians and the beginning of close collaboration with Propaganda Fide, today the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. The difficult mission in what were then apostolic Vicariates of Melanesia and Micronesia, cost the lives of many missionaries but it bore fruit: many local Churches were planted and today are flourishing thanks to the dedication of the MSC in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
In 1903 the first MSC reached Indonesia, where they worked to evangelise west Papua and the Moluccas Islands. In 1904 they landed in northern Australia, then the Philippines, China, Japan, India and Korea. Missionaries of the Sacred Heart worked for many years in Africa, sharing the suffering of those peoples. In 1924 they were entrusted with the apostolic prefecture of Tshuapa (today in Democratic Congo), then they went to South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon. In America the first MSC missionaries arrived in 1873 and spread from Canada to Latin America: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru.
According to the most recent statistics today there are 2.041 Sacred Heart Missionaries in 228 communities all over the world: 23 bishops, 1.440 priests 301 students, 277 Brothers. In 150 years of missionary activity the Institute has had 68 bishops, and it has planted 27 local Churches in Oceania, Africa, Asia and Latin America. MSC members have also been founders of at least 21 religious congregations.
After the opening of celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of its foundation in the different Provinces on the solemnity of the Epiphany, last January6, the next important date will be the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this year 18 June and on December 8 the MSC Jubilee Year will close with a promise of renewed a commitment at the service of announcing the Gospel. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/2/2004; Righe 47; Parole 613)
