Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides)- The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart MSC are marking 83 years of service in Democratic Congo. “These have been eighty three years of fruitful service ” according to the local Catholic news agency DIA in Kinshasa, where the MSC has opened many infrastructures to provide healthcare and technical training for the local people, but above all spiritual assistance.
The first MSC missionaries arrived in 1924, in the diocese Bokungu Ikela, Equator Province where they opened dispensaries and career training centres. Later they did the same in Mbandaka and Boende.
Today the diocese of Bokungu-Ikela has been able to take over many of these initiatives and in this diocese the MSC only run the Mondombe Mission where they co-ordinate activity in parishes and schools. In the capital Kinshasa the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have three communities: Limete, Rhigini and Kimwenza. In Kinshasa, the MSC missionaries have also recently opened CAENTIC Centre for Information technology and Communications.
The Sacred Heart Missionaries are present in 53 countries including 6 in Africa: DR Congo, Cameroon, Rwanda, Namibia, South Africa and Senegal. In 2004 the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Congregation's foundation (see Fides 18 June 2004). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 12/7/2007 righe 27 parole 305)
