Everywhere: Celebration of the Centenary of the MSC Mission in the Congo: 1924-2024

An opportunity to say our yes to the Lord again, to express our gratitude and recognition for the wonders of his love towards our Congregation.

‘My conviction is that our Society is destined in the designs of divine Providence for great things and that it has a great future, but on the condition that it will not be half-religious, but completely and without reserve.’ (Jules Chevalier, 1887).

The year 2024 will go down in the annals of our Congregation as the year of the celebration of the first centenary of the presence and mission of the MSC on African soil. It was, in fact, in 1924 that the first group of three Belgian MSC missionaries (Édouard Van Goethem, Louis Vertenten and E. Van Kinderen) arrived in the Congo, in the region of Équateur, specifically in Bokote, then in Boende and Bamanya, following the Trappist fathers (who had been in Bamanya since May 1895). Since then, the MSC District of the Congo has seen Belgian, German, Austrian, Swiss, Congolese, Cameroonian, Senegalese, Burkinabe and many other missionaries of the Sacred Heart working for evangelisation, the training of indigenous missionaries, education and the social development of the Congolese people, often in precarious living and working conditions.

The celebration of a centenary is a kairos (καιρός), a unique and historic event. It is a time for thanksgiving and rejoicing, evaluation, and looking to the future. We threw ourselves into this dynamic from the opening (7 April 2024 in Bamanya) to the closing (8 December 2024 in Kinshasa). Several activities have punctuated this great historic event. Aware that ‘the 2nd centenary will certainly not be ours’, we have spared no effort to make these celebrations beautiful and grandiose.

As Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, ‘… We live in brotherly communion, our faith in the merciful love of the Lord; at the same time, we are sent into the world to proclaim the Good News of the love and tenderness of God our Saviour and to bear witness to it with our whole lives (CS, n°4). This conviction, which drove our valiant European elders to leave their countries to come and evangelise in the Congo, continues to motivate the new generation of African missionaries. The work of our MSC pioneers has borne much fruit in the Congo and in Africa in general, in terms of faith, education, social work and training for the religious life. To mention only the MSC District of the Congo, at the centenary celebration, there were nearly 55 MSC with perpetual vows (brothers and priests) from the two Congos. This missionary fruitfulness is an eloquent sign that God is at work among us in our time.

To borrow the words of His Excellency Mgr Toussaint ILUKU, MSC, during his homily at the closing mass of the centenary, we can affirm that this time of grace has allowed us to revisit the journey of our missionary commitment in Congolese soil. By celebrating this first centenary, we have celebrated the dynamism of our Missionary Society. With gratitude, we recalled the past, renewed our passion for living the mission in communion with the present of history, and revived our hope for the future. It was an opportunity to say our yes to the Lord again, to express our gratitude and recognition for the wonders of his love for our Congregation. One hundred years is no small thing in the life of a person or a society. It is a time of maturity, through the shadows and the light, the joys and the sorrows. The Lord is there, as he was at the very beginning of this mission.

Let us remember that this period has made us aware of our District’s place within the Union d’Afrique Francophone (UAF): it is the first MSC mission in Africa, the oldest of all the other African missions. That is why, addressing the MSC present at the mass celebration closing the centenary activities, Mgr Toussaint ILUKU, MSC, said: ‘Dear confreres, being the eldest is an honour and at the same time a burden. Honour, Onus. The District of Congo welcomed the first Sacred Heart missionaries to French-speaking Africa, and it gave the Congregation the first African MSC from the French-speaking world, the first African MSC religious superior, the first African MSC bishop, and the first African MSC General Assistant. It is a great responsibility at the heart of the UAF to set a good example of solidarity and an elder in a family. And this, both as a Congregation and individually. Live your vocation as an MSC and be responsible and proud of your identity.

Similarly, during our retreat in preparation for the centenary closing festivities, we meditated on Pope Francis’ encyclical Delexit nos (October 2024). The preacher invited us to return ‘to the sources of our vocation: the Sacred Heart of Jesus’. We are called to become more human, to embody the profound values of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our daily lives. This invitation is not limited to a simple call to external humanity but to an inner transformation that pushes us to live with greater compassion, gentleness and availability for our brothers and sisters. Becoming more human also means growing in humility and in the ability to listen, to understand the sufferings of others and to respond to spiritual and material needs with a merciful heart. In this journey, our missionary vocation finds its whole meaning because by becoming more human, we also become faithful witnesses of the love of Christ in the world.

At the end of the retreat, we became fully aware that our religious family’s sustainability depends on each of us’ testimony. The reputation of the MSC is not a responsibility that falls to others; it belongs to all of us, particularly to each of us. As members of this Congregation, we are the first witnesses of our faith and values. Thus, every gesture, every word, every action contributes to shaping the image of our vocation and our commitment to the world. Through the coherence between our faith and our actions, we will be able to honour our mission and leave an authentic and positive imprint for future generations. In the next centenary, future generations will be entitled to assess the impact of our actions. From now on, we will be the actors in the second century of the MSC mission in the Congo.

Ultimately, looking back at our past and present has enabled us to look to the future with hope. Yes, we are now ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. Despite the ups and downs of the mission, often linked to our human vulnerability, one keyword guides our path: HOPE. As African MSC, we must cultivate the hope of building and picking ourselves up after our failures, doubts, and fears. We must maintain the hope of saying to each other, following our Founder, the Servant of God Jules Chevalier: ‘When God wants a work, obstacles are means for him’.

So, even in the face of the challenges that arise, we believe that hope is the driving force that enables us to move forward, to persevere, and to believe that each difficulty overcome becomes an opportunity to grow. Hope is a divine gift that nourishes our faith and illuminates our actions, enabling us to continue to walk in the mission with confidence, united in our commitment to the glory of God and the good of mankind.

Didier Mbela Bongoy, MSC