Everywhere: The International Community in Issoudun


Thursday December 26, 2024

Birthplace of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

The Mother House, a place of remembrance and mission for the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, is located in Issoudun (Archdiocese of Bourges) in the department of Indre in the heart of France. This is where the Congregation began. Since its foundation on 8 December 1854, Issoudun has been a point of reference for all the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart worldwide. At the Mother House, each community member can follow in the footsteps of Father Jules Chevalier (Founder) and his first companions and draw on the essence of his charism. The Mother House is a place of silence, a haven of peace that nourishes the quest for God of the faithful, pilgrims and tourists, with its magnificent basilica and luminous chapel, its crypt and its beautiful pilgrimage park… it is here that some confreres from the province like to come for a break or a rest to ‘recharge their batteries’. In addition to the provincial superior, six confreres live here daily, forming what is known as the ‘Motherhouse International Community’.

Issoudun MSC

The international community came into effect in September 2017 with a Community Project adapted to the new situation. This latest mission community was born out of a request from the France/Switzerland Province to the 2011 General Chapter (Madrid): ‘We need you so that Issoudun lives at the heart of the Congregation’. The 2011 Chapter accepted this request. Under the direction of the General Administration, the entire MSC Congregation now assumes responsibility for the mission carried out in Issoudun. After a period of reflection on the scope of the project by the General Administration and the Province, the General Conference of September 2014 (Guatemala) established that there would be a single missionary community that would take charge of the entire pastoral reality in Issoudun.

Father Abzalon, Superior General, is the major superior of the community. He appoints the community members for a fixed term of six years (renewable). He may delegate some of his responsibilities to the Provincial Superior (Father Daniel), who is legally responsible to the French State for all the MSC living within the province.

Issoudun: A place of mission and international experience
The Issoudun community is a reflection of the Congregation in its missionary, international and intergenerational character. In 2024, the motherhouse community will have six members divided into two teams: Shrine/Basilica Team: Sebastian RAYAPPAN from India (rector), Jean Noël Bassirou FAYE from Senegal (vice-rector), Raymond LIEVRE (France), Gérard BLATTMANN (Switzerland). Parish team: Sumner GENESTE from Haiti (parish priest), Martin ANTONY SAMY (vicar). MSC, in our daily community life, we learn to welcome each other in our diversity of culture and language and to be enriched by our differences. Attentive to discovering God’s will through daily realities, we seek in fraternal communion the responses to bring to the calls of Christ and the Church in the living tradition of our Little Society.

Among the issues/challenges facing our international community, we can cite the following: real inculturation in the French ecclesial landscape, which is experiencing strong secularisation. This requires a great deal of creativity to create something new while respecting this Marian and missionary place.

Issoudun: A place where the MSC charism is lived out and a source of the spirituality of the Heart
Our Community seeks to draw ever more deeply on the inspirational source of our Congregation so that we can grow together as brothers and bear witness to a God of love in today’s world. The community’s field of action includes the pastoral care of the parish of St Vincent in Champagne Berrichonne and the mission and ministry at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

The Shrine Team… The Shrine is open all year round. It welcomes pilgrims, who come in small numbers during the winter and large numbers from Easter to October, individually or in groups. An annual theme allows the rich spirituality of the Sacred Heart to unfold, as Father Chevalier was fond of saying: ‘Devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is the natural complement of devotion to the Sacred Heart’. The team is on hand to welcome visitors throughout the week and offers spiritual activities, conferences and spiritual weekends. The pastoral challenge facing the Shrine of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Issoudun undoubtedly has several faces. Still, it is a multi-faceted challenge: welcoming, listening and accompanying. Welcoming humanity in all its diversity, poverty and riches, welcoming as Christ welcomes: in truth and charity. As an MSC, it seems to me that the Shrine of Issoudun is a privileged place to make this clear to the people who come here. Our geographical location means we are at the crossroads of relations between east and west, north and south of France. Many pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela pass through Issoudun, on the route jacquaire. Welcome, listen to and accompany the people who come here in truth and charity. Issoudun is a privileged place to experience this. It’s important that pilgrims who cross the threshold of the shrine or basilica feel they are treated like family. They should feel at home, expected, loved and looked upon with eyes of mercy. Through the Shrine Team, the community also welcomes members of the Chevalier Family who wish to come to Issoudun for a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Father Jules Chevalier, or to take time out to pray and reflect.

The team in charge of the parish. The parish of Saint Vincent in Champagne Berrichonne is a rural mission whose heart and soul is the town of Issoudun. However, we must know that the population has massively dropped from religious practice. There is a considerable evangelisation challenge in this central part of the diocese. It’s a significant challenge, made all the more difficult by the lack of desire and low expectations of many of our contemporaries, especially when preparing for the sacraments (marriage and baptism in particular). They expect a ‘service’ from priests rather than help in their Christian life journey. Our MSC elders in Europe, who have more experience, invite us to be attentive to everything that lifts us, even if it seems derisory. Even in the problematic practice of faith or the clumsiness of requests, there are waiting stones that we must learn to detect. In France, the number of young and adult catechumens increases every year. In a recent letter from the bishops to the Catholics of France, they invite us to be creative and daring in our mission, recognising the positive contribution of priests from elsewhere with the richness of a different culture.

Issoudun MSC

The confreres on mission in the parish are helped by the Shrine Team to celebrate Masses at weekends, given the size of the pastoral territory (44 parishes). A more global challenge is that of a sort of ‘renewal in continuity’, to use the words of Benedict XVI. This concerns several areas of the parish and customs that are sometimes different from our places of origin. We must be careful not to revolutionise everything while simultaneously bringing in the richness of our countries’ experience. It’s a question of setting up a creative ‘fraternity’. We must not forget that our Constitutions speak of ‘mission in fraternity’. (CS MSC ch. 3, art. 2)

The two Teams would like to be artisans of unity, communion and comfort through genuine listening, a ‘favourable a priori’ for all who knock on our door. We are aware of the tremendous spiritual thirst and sometimes the emptiness of knowledge of the faith. We are convinced that our spirituality of the heart responds to many of the expectations of our contemporaries. In our ministry and prayer life, it is undeniably a precious asset. It gives us greater strength in our pastoral work. And it is a stimulus for our sanctification. Knowing that we are supported by community prayer can be very comforting when the crosses of ministry seem too heavy. The awareness of having received a common heritage makes daily life lighter.

Issoudun: A place of insertion in the Province and the local Church
We maintain healthy and open relations with the Province of France/Switzerland, participating in the province’s life and keeping the Provincial informed as much as possible of our plans, missionary projects and pastoral activities. Through the parish priest and the rector, we maintain a healthy and constructive relationship with Mgr Jérôme Beau, the Archbishop of Bourges. The community participates actively and fully in the life of the archdiocesan presbyterate and relevant diocesan meetings and events.

Jean Noël Bassirou FAYE, MSC