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MSC Centennial in Ireland - 2009

Launch of Celebrations

January 6th 2009



Feast of the Epiphany - Launching a year of celebration

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Fr. Pat Courtney, MSC Provincial
2009 marks the centenary of the arrival of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Ireland and the establishment of their first house at Western Road in Cork. Throughout the year a series of celebrations have been organised to mark the occasion, and the launch of these took place at a large gathering of MSCs with friends and supporters in Sacred Heart Church, Western Road on 6 January. They were welcomed by Fr. Pat Courtney, Irish Provincial.


The guest speakers were Mr. Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament and Fr. Michael Curran, msc who served for two terms of Superior General of MSC in Rome. Bishop John Buckley also spoke and imparted his blessing to the large gathering of friends and supporters who attended the event.



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Mr Pat Cox delivering his address
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Fr. Michael Curran, msc
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Bishop John Buckley addressing the gathering

Reaching in to reach out

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The attentive congregation
In his wide ranging and thought-provoking address Pat Cox paid tribute to all the young men who over the years volunteered to follow the spiritual call and to reach out through missionary work. “The missionaries through their personal fortitude and spiritual calling, through their dedicated service, their compassionate engagement, and their selflessness and sense of duty they have honoured their vocations, their Church, their families, and our country. On this Nollaig na mban it is right to recall the contribution of family and in particular of mothers and grandmothers who through the generations in Ireland were the repositories of a strong, simple but sturdy faith whose transmission was the bedrock upon which so much achievement stands” he said.

Speaking of the mission of the Church he suggested that "It is an invitation in terms of nurturing values to reach the person within the better to reach out to the wider world. It highlights personal and not just economic growth and development... This is not a search for a new faith but it is a plea for a renewed interpretation and application of the one which we have inherited, one that tries to understand and embrace the forces shaping our times rather than standing aloof from them, one that tries to address the demons of the age by whispering to our good angels within, one that leads me to conclude that, like the charism of the MSC whose Irish centenary we celebrate here this evening, invites its adherents, as Father Pat Courtney explained to me, to ‘live your spirituality wherever you are’."


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Creating space for faith

Fr. Michael Curran also gave a wide ranging address in which he said that “the Church needs to remain a powerful force for good. Our people, including our children and young people, need to have opportunities to experience something of the goodness of God, the joy of the faith and the attractiveness of the call of Jesus to be his disciples. We have to create spaces for faith, for religion and for love in our homes and in our communities; we need to rediscover and recreate the symbols, the signs and the language of faith, so as to be able to relate to God and to engage with one another in the pursuit of religion and all that it inspires in terms of human development and the pursuit of happiness founded on truth, love, freedom, and our relationship with God”.



Waterford and Omagh Peace Choir

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The Waterford-Omah Peace Choir
Choral entertainment was provided by the Waterford and Omagh Peace Choir making their first appearance in Cork. This cross community choir embraces the various Christian traditions north and south in Ireland. With a wide-ranging repertoire of gospel, folk and even some uplifting pop they were received enthusiastically by MSC supporters and friends.

Fr. Joe McGee, Deputy Provincial and chairman of the MSC Centenary Committee said that “their youthful dedication to singing and to the promotion of peace and charity made them a very fitting choice for the launch of our centenary celebrations as we remember with gratitude those Missionaries of the Sacred Heart who departed from Sacred Heart Church since 1909 to such far flung places as Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia; later to South Africa and Venezuela; and more recently to establish a mission in Russia”


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L-R: Mr Pat Cox, Bishop Buckley, Fr Pat Courtney MSC and Fr Michael Curran MSC
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