MSC-Africa


	CELEBRATIONS

100 Years Presence of MSC Sisters in USA 2008

On August 11, 1908 the first eight Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus stepped off the Steamer Grosser Kurfuerst and onto American soil. These pioneering Sisters: Angela, Antonia, Ferdinande, Edeltrudis, Anna, Salesia, Flavia and Susanna embraced the words of our Founder Father Linckens, MSC: “This is now your country, your homeland. Its people must become your people; its language, your language; its customs, your customs. Look ahead!”
Father Linckens and Mother Franziska responded to an urgent request from Father J.C. Vitt, a relative of Brother Aloysius Bley, one of the Baining Martyrs. He asked for Sisters to teach in the parish schools among the rapidly growing number of Catholic immigrants in the state of Pennsylvania. “Seize the opportunity” he said. “Do not be afraid of the initial difficulties. You will never regret it.”
Shortly after their arrival, the Sisters were winning the hearts of the people, gathering their students, and opening two parish schools in Slatington and Lansford in spite of an unfamiliar language and culture. In 1909, twelve more Sisters joined the pioneers and began four new schools. Sister Electa came to serve as the first superior in America, residing in Lansford, the first motherhouse of the new foundation. Father Linckens arrived on the feast of the Sacred Heart in 1909 to conduct the annual retreat for the Sisters. In 1910, Mother Franziska visited the American foundation for the first time in the company of Father Linckens and four more missionaries. That year, two American women were received as postulants. In 1911 several Sisters moved to Reading to prepare and staff Saint Michael Sanatorium for religious afflicted with tuberculosis. Most religious preferred however to remain in their own convents. The building became and remains an ideal location for the motherhouse of the growing American foundation. What a wonderful beginning to our century of life and mission in the United States and now, Mexico! Much has happened over the years. We have seen both growth and diminishment, the continuation of the traditional ministries and the embrace of newer ones. Now, 100 years later, we give thanks and we look to the future. We will commence a centennial year of events and renewal with a Mass of Thanksgiving on August 10, 2008 and conclude the year on August 16, 2009 with a public Eucharistic celebration and dinner. We invite our Sisters, friends, and benefactors to journey with us through our centennial year in a spirit of gratitude and hope. “For this Heart you are in the midst of the world.” (Letter of Fr. Linckens to the Sisters in Allentown, November 5, 1913)
80 Years Presence of MSC Sisters in AUSTRALIA 2008

It was Thursday 3 May, 1928. Mother Liboria arrived in Coogee, Sydney to begin the Australian foundation that would later become our Australian Province. She was 38 years old.
Her ‘yes’ and that of those who followed after her enabled the mission in Papua New Guinea to be supported. This she did by first establishing a hospital, Mena House, then later other hospitals. Sisters were involved in care of the sick, the elderly, education and the many and varied works that accompanied these. By the end of World War II a few Australian-born Sisters were able to join the mission in New Guinea.
Challenged by Vatican II to re-examine our way of life and adapt to the needs of the times we expanded our areas of ministry to working with Aboriginal people, Aids patients, in disability support, alongside people with mental illness, refugees, migrants, in music, retreats and seminars, ecumenism, as Pastoral Associates, Hospital Chaplains, in media. A few more Sisters live out their mission in developing countries and we continue to offer what we can from our home base, continually enabling, supporting, offering hospitality.
A number of factors including government regulations and aging of the Sisters lead us to relinquish all of our institutions. Now eighty years since our beginning, we are grateful for the past. It has inspired us and lead us on. Now we begin a new chapter. We are enthusiastic about living our Charism. As Mother Liboria did we listen and we hope we have the courage, like her, to say ‘yes’... to whatever God calls us in our lives and in our ever changing, developing world.


80 Years Presence of MSC Sisters in Namibia 2007
This year our sisters in the Namibian Province are celebrating 80 years of MSC Presence in Namibia. During the Administration of Mother Electa, 6 Sisters were sent for mission to Africa. They left Germany on April 13, 1927 and arrived in Lüderitz on May 9, 1927. This was the beginning of our foundation in Namibia, which at that time was called South West Africa.
We are grateful to these first pioneer sisters, for their courage, dedication, missionary availability, and love, for the Namibian people and Church. These eight decades hold a treasured history for the sisters in Namibia and also for the Congregation as a whole. Filled with gratitude for the blessings of the past, the MSC Sisters in Namibia now courageously move on into the future continuing to fulfil the mission of making God’s love known in the land of Africa.