RIP, Joseph Heggelin MSC

Sad news from Issoudun

Ad Vitam Aeternam...

A few days ago, we received news that Fr Joseph Heggelin MSC,had contracted covid-19.

P. P. Jozef Hegglin, MSC passed away tonight in Nitra, Slovakia.

Born in 1946 in Lucerne. He studied philosophy in Freiburg and theology in Strasbourg, where he graduated from ThLic. He was ordained a priest in 1972 and worked in Switzerland, France, Kiribati and Slovakia.

Tribute from Robati MSC, Kiribati

He studied spiritual accompaniment for a year at ISL Institute Chicago. He has completed several courses and training in ignatian spirituality and psychology in Nebraska and Philadelphia, USA, Paris and Munich. For the past 15 years, he has been conducting spiritual exercises and various programs in the ′′ House of the Heart of Jesus ′′ in Nitra.

We entrust our brother to God's mercy.

About 13 years ago, Joe Heggelin produced a video about the new foundation in Slovakia, in 2014 he wrote to us – it is a memoir of his life and ministry.

Thanks for sending me regularly the Australian MSC Province News! I appreciate, that I am not forgotten in Australia! During my time in the Pacific Union I was for 15 years very much connected with your Province, that is why I enjoy reading its “News” and hearing from and about old acquaintances!

It might be up to me to tell you and those, who remember me, a bit about my life and work. After leaving Oceania in 1993, I was six years leader of the French Province, spent a sabbatical in Chicago and have been working since the year 2000 in Nitra. The MSCs came to Slovakia in 1994 and opened four years later a spiritual center in Lukov Dvor, two kilometers outside of Nitra. It is a very beautiful, house surrounded by a big park. We can take in some 30 people at a time.

Since 2002 four OLSH sisters from Kiribati look after the “House of the Sacred Heart” as it is called. Together with a team (Pavol, our superior, three psychologists-psychotherapists and three sisters of the Congregatia Jesu) I give courses and retreats. Several times a year we offer a 6 day "Life's Healing Journey", individual retreats, a “home made” weeklong program about self-esteem as well as weekends with various topics such as “Nonviolent Communication" etc.

We consider teaching the language of the heart - of the human heart and of the divine heart – as our mission. Jesus' heart is open to all who come to him, especially to those, who search for love, for understanding, for healing. And many people come to Lukov Dvor with wounded hearts. For the last 10 years I have been working with women, who were as children sexually abused. I am very grateful to your MSC Mission Office which has supported this apostolate financially.

Besides accompanying quite a few people in spiritual direction I got involved in still another ministry: last year the bishop asked me to become the diocesan exorcist. He knew, that I had some experiences in this area while in Kiribati. Thanks to the Australian Annals I heard about a famous Spanish exorcist, Jose Fortea, who gave a couple of talks in Sydney. I got in touch with him. In some way he has become my mentor!

Chevalier College, RE and the Eucharist, John Mulrooney MSC

Many of our students arrive at Chev without any experience of religious ritual or church involvement

and so we slowly introduce them to our ways of doing things.

At the beginning of the year, we take the Year 7 students through the experience of Eucharist

step by step explaining the purposes and significance of the ritual.

New book on Paul Stenhouse, Kensington launch, author, Wanda Skowronska

On February 27, 2021, MSC Superior, Fr Steve Dives welcomed around 70 friends to the launch of a biography entitled Paul Stenhouse MSC : A Life of Rare Wisdom, Compassion and Inspiration (2021) by Wanda Skowronska. MSC Provincial Fr Chris McPhee  read a message for the occasion from a former student of Father Stenhouse, Julian Leow, Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur who said that Fr Stenhouse had inspired him to become a priest.

Professor James Franklin launched the book saying Fr Stenhouse had a unique style of being a conservative Cultural Warrior. He added that the book expressed many sides of an "intellectual who delighted in conversation on almost anything", adding, "I remember in one conversation we moved from the alphabeticity of Ugaritic to the survival of the Lollards." 

Wanda, centre, with Paul's cousin Tricia Kavanagh

The author remarked in her speech that the scholarly nature of Fr Stenhouse co-existed with compassion for others, a little recognised poetic nature, and a gift for unmasking the illusions of the age.  She recounted stories of his journeys to China, the Ukraine, Armenia and Lebanon - and how his friends from the Caribbean had miraculously drawn him, previously uninterested in sport, to become interested in cricket.  

Chinese flautist, Chai Chang-Ning, flautist who played in films The Last Emperor and Mao's Last Dancer played the flute during the launch. Chai had met Fr Stenhouse by 'chance' and was converted by this priest whom he called 'The messenger of the living God' and played gentle melodies for him as he was dying in November 2019.  

Also present were friends from Malaysian, Armenian, Guyanan, Lebanese, Singaporean, Vietnamese and Lebanese backgrounds who will never forget the many kindnesses of their friend and many of whose stories are recounted in the recently published book. 

International Women's Day, March 8th, Chevalier Family

Acknowledging the day and its challenges, a focus on some of the women in Australia and in the Trigeneralate, Rome.

Margaret O’Loughlin

Lay MSC, Melbourne, invitee to MSC General Chapter 1999

Alison McKenzie

Secretary General, Lay MSC

Rachel Davies

Principal, Daramalan College

Michelle Vass

Director, Retreat House, St Mary’s Towers, Douglas Park  

Pauline Compton OLSH, Retreat House, Douglas Park

Anne McAtomney

Director, Chevalier Institute

Bridget Hawthorne

PA to Chris McPhee

Meta Jackman, Anne-Marie Snelling, Professional Standards and Safeguarding, Treand House

Marian England, Narita Perrotta, MSC Parish Committee

Anne Gardiner, OLSH

Bathurst Island, Senior Citizen of the Year 2017

Robyn Reynolds, OLSH

Heart of Life, YTU Staff

Mary Drum, MSC

Provincial Superior

Philippa Murphy, OLSH

Provincial Superior

Marife Mendoza, Philippines.

OLSH Superior General, Trigeneralate meetings

Barbara Winkler, USA

MSC Superior General, Trigeneralate meetings

First Friday in Lent - re-imagining 'reparation'

We hope that many of us have come across Sister Gerardine Doherty OLSH and her important article on what reparation could mean in our 21st century world.

Here are some reminders.

We used the word ‘reparation’ in a sense of penance and mortification. How can it be understood more challengingly now?

Jules Chevalier was intensely aware of the “evils of his time” and he urgently desired to restore to those wounded by such “evils” their rightful dignity, the truth of their personal value and worth.  He longed to “repair” the “image of God” where he saw it had been damaged, mutilated, de-reverenced. 

To live reparation today, I believe, is an invitation to imagine the world and one’s place in it as quite different from the existing order.  To live reparation has something to do with grieving over what has already been lost and the possibilities that have never actually been realized.   To live reparation is to feel in one’s own heart the enormous tension contained in the paradoxical truth, “Redemption is complete but not yet finished.”

I believe that the quality of our reparation would be considerably enriched if we constantly made the effort to examine, not only from the economical, ecological, and political viewpoints but also from the theological stance, the grassroots of the evils of our day.  This I think would empower us to act with greater creativity, effectiveness, and awareness of the real anxieties and urgent needs in today’s world.

Downlands MSC Pilgrimage2021

Each year Downlands College Leaders have spent the weekend on pilgrimage in Sydney and Douglas Park, furthering their understanding of the MSC mission and the role they have been called to play as leaders of our school.

At Kensington

At Treand House

Vice-Captain Max Corfield sits in the chair of MSC Provincial Fr Chris McPhee.

At St Mary's Towers

At the Ashram

Annual gathering of MSC ordained in the last decade.

Last week, under the guidance of Frank Dineen, there was a gathering for MSC’s who have been ordained within the past 11 years. They gathered at St Mary’s Towers, Douglas Park.

Two speakers facilitated sessions on ‘transition’ as many are dealing with this issue. The facilitators were Br Darren Burge fms and Eileen Glass of L’Arche.

It was a week of open and honest sharing and acknowledges the importance of ongoing formation.

Chris McPhee joined us for the last evening.

Those participating:

Patrick Mara,  Wurrumiyanga/ Bathurst Island, 2021, ACU Aboriginal Studies

Tru Nguyen, Blackburn, 2021, full time Siloam, Spiritual Directors’ program.

Krish Mathavan, PP, Moonah

Kimi Vunivesilevu, PP, Kippax

Khoi Nguyen, Blackburn, 2021, part-time Siloam program.

Thang Nhu Nguyen, Vocations Director, Coogee

Peter Anthony, from India, Randwick parish

Michael Nithin, from Indida, Kippax parish

Partholomai Paniyadimai, from India, Nightcliff parish

Doan Nguyen Danh, from Vietnam, 2020 Wurrumiyanga, 2021 full-time Siloam program

Peter Hendriks, Deputy Provincial, Treand House

Ordinarily, the young ordained come from Vietnam, not this year – covid situation.

Photos thanks to Peter Hendriks

Some significant March days for the Chevalier Family, 2021

March 19th, Feast of St Joseph, MSC model and patron, in the year proclaimed by Pope Francis as the Year of St Joseph

March 25th has many entries, a significant day. It includes the foundation of the Handmaids of the Lord in 1918 by Archbishop Alain de Boismenu MSC.

MSC Sister have quite a number of significant March days, including the foundation and some mission outreaches.

The item of March 17^th is a reminder of the attacks on religious by the Nazis.

And some saints who have not appeared here before. March 5^th and 10^th.

5 March, 1877
During a stay in Rome, Father Chevalier met Don Daniel Comboni, founder of the Combonian Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus  and pro-Vicar of the mission of Central Africa, who had consecrated his large Vicariate to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on 8 December, 1875.

9 March, 1906
The first Superior General of the MSC Sisters is elected. She is Sister M. Franziska Fleige.

10 March, 1865
The 'Pious Union', a movement centred on devotion to the Sacred Heart and founded by Blessed Louise Thérèse de Montaignac de Chauvance (1820-1885), becomes a Third Order of the MSC Congregation. It is a Third Order for women without vows and is associated with the MSC Congrégation until March, 1874.

12 March, 1965
The first two German MSC Sisters leave Hiltrup, Germany, to establish a foundation in Korea. They arrive on the 24 March, 1965 and the next day, 25 March, 1965, is the Foundation Day of the Korean Mission of the MSC Sisters.
As of December 31, 2011, there are 193 professed members in the Korean Province
as well as enthusiastically committed lay members.

15 March, 1824
Jules Chevalier is born in Richelieu, France. The following day he is baptized in the parish church, "Notre Dame", at Richelieu.

17 March, 1935

MSC Sisters and a Third Reich injustice story:

Mother M. Electa, Superior General of the MSC Sisters, and the Procurator General, Sr. M. Gerberga are arrested by the Gestapo in Hiltrup. They are falsely accused of trafficking foreign currencies by Joseph Goebbels, Minister of the Propaganda of the German Third Reich. Mother M. Electa will be released from prison one year later, on the 18 March, 1936.

17 March, 1943
Three FDNSC, three MSC from Manus, PNG, eight MSC from New Ireland, PNG,
together with 39 SVD missionaries and Holy Spirit Sisters, are killed at sea between Kavieng and Rabaul, PNG, during the Japanese war in the Pacific.

18 March, 1900
Father Alain de Boismenu is ordained Bishop in Montmartre, Paris.

20 March, 1886
Father Hubert Linckens, MSC, who becomes historical founder of the MSC Sisters,
is ordained at s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

25 March, 1859
Construction commences on the Basilica in Issoudun.

25 March, 1882
Marie Louise Hartzer enters the FDNSC Congregation in Issoudun after a lengthy period of discernment.
The once thriving new community established in 1874, by 1882 does not show signs of growth, in fact, quite the opposite!
However, Marie Louise is very much attracted by the charism of Jules Chevalier so she decides to enter the small community.
She becomes the First Superior General.

25 March, 1901
First Profession ceremony of 10 MSC Sisters in Hiltrup.

25 March, 1918
Foundation of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Lord in Papua New Guinea by Monsignor Alain de Boismenu.

25 March, 1977
Foundation Day of the Indian Mission of the MSC Sisters.

28 March, 1937
Father Heinrich Kellner, MSC, from the North German Province dies in captivity in China.

Acknowledging Michael Sims MSC, 85

Michael is from Melbourne, born March 1^st 1936 (just avoiding a leap year birthday).  Before entering the Apostolic School in 1956, he completed 2 year's Accountancy Course with Royal Exchange Assurance, Melbourne, and in 1955  -  three months National Service Training – Puckapunyal.

It is not everyone who has a 21^st birthday in the Novitiate. Michael made his profession on February 26^th 1958.  He did his seminary studies at Croydon except for 1960 with the opening of Canberra Monastery.  He was ordained on July 25^th 1964.

After a year at Daramalan and time as Socius at Douglas Park, Michael’s ministry has been principally missionary, some years in the Northern Territory, many more years in Eastern Papua, including on the remote Rossell Island.

In recent years, and still, he has been chaplain to St Joseph’s Home, Northcote in Melbourne, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. (Where the photos were taken.)

Michael and friend visiting Northcote,

Heart of Life Centre, at our new location, Kildara, Malvern.

Our courses began this month at the new location for the Heart of Life Centre. We are leasing from the Brigidine Sisters for the next five years at their centre, Kildara, Malvern, adjacent to St Joseph’s parish church, a Vincentian parish.

Real life and Zoom lectures

Here are some photos of the interiors, much more spacious than at previous locations, conference rooms, common room, library, rooms available for offices and for spiritual direction.

Seminar rooms

The second week had a covid hiccup when Victoria went quickly into 5 days of strict lockdown.  However, the outbreak has been contained and there have been almost no local infections since. We had to go to Zoom.  However, last Monday back to normal.

Staff area

Our numbers are much higher than in recent years, 9 in the fulltime Siloam, Spiritual Direction program (including 2 MSC, Tru and Danh, who spent 2020 on Bathurst Island), 11 in the part-time Siloam program (including Khoi MSC).  Several of the part-timers are on-line (from Sydney, Broken Bay, Adelaide).

Meeting area

In recent years there have been several priests from Asia. With covid, we have no international students (we were to have two MSC from Indonesia and one from the Philippines – next year, we hope).  This has meant a considerable increase of applications from Australia.

Library