Missionaries of the Sacred

We are a missionary Church, and the principle of solidarity challenges us to be global citizens, to see other people and nations as our neighbors.

It was in this spirit that the first Missionaries of the Sacred Heart from the MSC USA Province arrived in Colombia in 1967. They set about establishing a barrio (or neigh­borhood) in a poor, working class section of Bogota that came to be called “Ciudad Kennedy” (Ken­nedy City). There they created the parish of Santa Margarita María de Alacoque, where MSC still serve today. As the community grew, they took on responsibility for other parishes, serv­ing, for instance, rural communities and coffee farmers in a parish on the outskirts of Bo­gota (in Cumaca – Ti­bacuy), and serving both rural and urban com­munities struggling with poverty and violence in Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón parish in Jamundí (in the valley).

Today, besides parish ministry in Santa Margarita María, the MSC community also serves in several different dioces­es around Holy Week and Christmas, when there is a strong need for missions to reach out to people living in remote communi­ties. MSC help people in these com­munities prepare both for Christmas or Easter as well as to receive the sacraments. Some com­munities may only be visited by a priest once or twice a year, and so in addition to help­ing celebrate the most important celebrations in the Catholic Church, the priest also performs all the marriages and baptisms.

Another ministry that we have dedicated ourselves to is formation. Today we have two seminaries, one for Theol­ogy where we have eight students who have taken temporary vows as members of the MSC community, and one for Philosophy, where we have nine seminarians. In addition to the missions at Holy Week and Christmas, our seminar­ians also have many opportunities to start helping to spread the love of the Sacred Heart. They are involved in pastoral work at Santa Margarita María Parish, where they work in catechesis and in the different par­ish groups. Some also teach cateche­sis at a foundation called Vida Nueva (New Life), where they work with the children of former prostitutes. Others work in a nursing home in the center of Bogota in collaboration with the Sisters of St. Pedro Claver.

We are focusing strongly on forma­tion today because we hope that the MSC community in Colombia will con­tinue to grow and one day be able to become independent from the moth­er province of the United States. We also have a farm on the outskirts of Bogota, where we hope to construct a center for spirituality which would serve to help heal the many wounds that the Colombian people have been experiencing throughout their history.

In all the ministries that we carry out and in all the situations we face, we strive to fulfill the motto that our Founder gave us: may the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere. We try to bring this love to life so that the world may look to the Lord and let itself be transformed by His love.