Congress to commemorate centenary of Founder's death

Father Jules Chevalier, founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, died on 21 Oct. 1907 at Issoudun, near Bourges, in central France. To commemorate this centenary a three-week Chevalier Congress was held at Issoudun from 30 Sept. to 22 Oct. in the “Centre International Jules Chevalier”, beside the Basilica built by Fr. Chevalier.

There were over 60 participants, from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (who also look to Fr. Chevalier as their founder), the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (founded by Fr. Hubert Linckens, msc, in the spirit of Fr. Chevalier), and the Lay Members of the Chevalier Family. It was an image of the world-wide Church in miniature, with participants from Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America, Central and South America.

Congress to commemorate centenary of Founder's death

Father Jules Chevalier, founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, died on 21 Oct. 1907 at Issoudun, near Bourges, in central France. To commemorate this centenary a three-week Chevalier Congress was held at Issoudun from 30 Sept. to 22 Oct. in the “Centre International Jules Chevalier”, beside the Basilica built by Fr. Chevalier. There were over 60 participants, from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (who also look to Fr. Chevalier as their founder), the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (founded by Fr. Hubert Linckens, msc, in the spirit of Fr. Chevalier), and the Lay Members of the Chevalier Family. It was an image of the world-wide Church in miniature, with participants from Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America, Central and South America.

The first week focussed on the figure of Jules Chevalier himself. Various speakers presented details of his biography and an outline of his spiritual and theological development. At the end of the week the participants made a pilgrimage to Chevalier’s place of birth in the small town of Richelieu situated in the Touraine region west of Issoudun.

The Congress in session

During the second week there were presentations on Mother Marie-Louise Hartzer co-foundress of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and on Fr. Hubert Linckens, msc who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Germany (where French religious congregations were not allowed to establish communities at the turn of the 20th century). The Marian title, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, which Fr. Chevalier did much to spread, was the subject of an innovative presentation. The Spirituality of the Heart was discussed by the Congress at length, and the week concluded with several impressive presentations by Lay Members of the Chevalier Family from Belgium, the Congo, and Indonesia, in which the present-day growth of the lay members was a hopeful sign for all.

The focus of the final week was on the living of Fr. Chevalier’s Spirituality of the Heart of Christ in all the variety of today’s world: in dialogue with Islam in Indonesia and with the many needs of Latin America, in the context of women’s struggle for dignity and respect in various cultures, in the context of today’s multicultural Europe (the new Cordate Community in Birmingham, UK), in the new world of the media (film, TV, internet).

One of the sessions being chaired by Fr. Nick Harnan, msc (Ireland) - second from left.

The celebration of the actual anniversary day began with a Prayer Vigil in the Basilica on the evening of Sat. 20 Oct., attended by many parishioners of Issoudun together with the participants of the Congress, who were joined by the General Superiors of the MSC’s (Fr. Mark McDonald, msc from the USA) and of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Sr. Mary Fyfe FDNSC from Australia). Then on Sunday 21 October a solemn concelebration took place in the Parish Church of Issoudun, where Fr. Chevalier had been Parish Priest for several decades. The chief celebrant was the Archbishop of Tours, the diocese in which Jules Chevalier was born. In his homily the Archbishop expressed the hope that the Cause for the Beatification of Fr. Chevalier (already introduced at a diocesan level) would make good progress in the years to come. A festive meal, to which all the congregation in the Parish Church were invited, concluded the celebration and the Congress.

All the participants

As most of the participants left Issoudun on the following day, the general feeling was that the Congress had given to all a strong sense of the world-wide attraction of Fr. Chevalier’s spirituality as it is being lived and adapted in many different cultures today.

Read more about the many grace-filled moments of the Congress in the attached pdf document here.