The preparations to celebrate the 100th Jubilee Year of the Foundation of our Institute of the Missionary Catechists of the Sacred Heart in 2022, especially in Europe, were disrupted first by the health crisis related to covid-19. Successive lockdowns and uncertainty during the two years of the pandemic have forced us to a minimum program. Our 100th Anniversary Feast is also somewhat overshadowed by the preparation of the MCS-C General Chapter of June-July 2022. The year 2022, the very year of the Centenary festivities, is now marked by another crisis,
that of the war in Ukraine, which broke out on February 24, 2022, with all its direct or distant consequences that affect and reverberate throughout the world… Celebrating the past and projecting oneself into the future in this context is not so easy, yet it is essential, especially since the example of our Founders traces the paths of possible hope in similar situations of extreme insecurity. In 1914, the Munet Sisters left Lyon and joined the Croix Rouge for the care of the war wounded in Menton; Father Jean-Marie Chabert, who had narrowly escaped death in Egypt during a revolt at Z agazig, put himself at the service of the war wounded. Alice Munet and Father Chabert were decorated with epidemic medals for their dedication during this period 1914-1918 … They have shown us how even these moments of crisis are times of significant progress.
As the Saint Curé d’Ars said to Pauline Jaricot, beatified in Lyon on May 22, 2022: “My sister, God has allowed this great trial and your faith has accepted it. Wait for heaven to understand the drawings of our Master, always so good despite his apparent rigors. Up there he will tell us his why, and then of course we will say to him with all our heart: thank you. These two Lyonnais have had aninfluence on the future generation of young Christian missionary disciples from Lyon or not, and among them, Alice and Marie-Thérèse Munet, Foundresses of the Missionary Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart. All wanted to repair the France by the new missionary zeal, after the trial of the Revolution which made God desert from the public space…
Today, neighboring Poland is facing the unprecedented massive reception, of 3.5 million people left mainly in large cities such as Warsaw, Krakow … The structure of the population at once has changed, Ukrainians are visible almost everywhere, their language is very present in the streets, in shops, in public transport (TGV, metro, bus), etc…
The SMA Fathers opened the doors of the SMA Missionary and Spiritual Animation Center in Borzęcin Duży. The community of the MCS-C Sisters created in Poland in 2020, in Borzęcin Mały, in the midst of the covid-19 crisis, is also present to help Ukrainian refugees, victims of the war that broke out 100 years later, so unexpectedly in Europe.
Sr. Elżbieta Szmidt provides catechesis in two schools, in Borzecin and Koczargi. In the first, classes of Ukrainian students were set up with a dedicated teacher. On the other hand, in Koczargi, children of different levels, after their assessments, were divided into the already existing classes, mixed with Polish students. Not all of them automatically enroll in catechesis, but some who are in classes with Sr Elżbieta, integrate very well: they know how to write, they understand Polish but without being able to speak it… Between the children, there is a beautiful collaboration, they occasionally translate some more difficult words or they make very calmly small quick drawings to arrive at the faster understanding of sentences and messages …
The collection of cloths and money is often organized in these two schools. The needs are treated individually as for the purchase of a pair of shoes with a precise size 38 … Ukrainians are looking for work, a good number are settling down to last.
I write these few lines in Lyon, but my memories of these first days of this war remain very vivid … she surprised me in Poland.
On February 12th I flew to Varsovie to stay with my sick father. A week after my arrival, in the early morning of February 24, I learned of the declaration of war on Ukraine by the Russian Federation. A real shock, a shock… no one believed it, this first time was a real mental nightmare, a bad dream… which became reality over the hours and days… of which we remain necessarily marked. My hometown is a real powder keg in case of attacks… in my region there are several NATO military bases, located only 6 km and 30 km away. This is one of the reasons why relatively few fleeing Ukrainians have been able to be accommodated in north-eastern Poland. My parish started just with 80 people, mostly orphaned children, from orphanages evacuated from Ukrainian soil. Others wanted to stay in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border in the southeast, hoping for the possible quick return especially to Kiev…
Some parcels sent to the Sisters by our Polish benefactors, originally intended for our missions in Africa, were taken urgently to help people who kept pouring in from the ruthlessly bombed Ukraine. In Warsaw, on public transport, I personally met many women with children, baby strollers. Polish buses displayed two flags in solidarity with Ukraine.
The SMA fathers, at that time, were waiting for the arrival of the second wave of people for their home. The Charitable Centre of Lay Volunteers “Solidarity” attached to the Polish SMA, immediately became very actively involved with fathers for this reception of war refugees (initially with 40 people, later more than 90).” Thishelp came through the equipment, the organization of reception, the very search for possible State subsidies and donations from individuals, but also the spiritual, psychological accompaniment and the indispensable moral support, also more spiritual mothers with children of all ages. The youngest children are a few months old, born in December 2021. Many are teenagers, some elderly people, grandparents of these children and young people, as well as two pregnant women. In the large dining room of the SMA Missionary and Spiritual Center, transformed into a “boarding school”, the map of Ukraine was displayed so that each of these people could pin on his hometown and his family home. Our neighbours to the east, so brutally attacked by Russia, come from all over Ukraine.
The SMA Center had to adapt to the new reality courageously and very gradually: it was necessary to put washing machines in addition, to buy two additional fridges and dishwashers, to install a dedicated kitchen area with cupboards for equipment, to circumvent the hygiene standards in force for conventional reception centers. In the twin rooms, it was necessary to installchildren’s mattresses and baby cribs. The staff (cooks, cleaning technician, accountant, receptionists, etc.) of the Centre collaborates in a remarkable way for the good management of everyday life.
For several weeks, a Spanish volunteer doctor has been at the service of the people welcomed. The psychological service has been set up and the courses for learning the Polish language for easier and faster integration of these people in Poland. We do not know how long they will stay in Poland: transport is free, access to the labour market as well, the 18-month residence permits provided by the Polish Government very present in the management of this humanitarian crisis.
Sr. Iwona Kucharska works in the secretariat of the Provincial House SMA and regularly meets the families welcomed, sometimes it is possible to have more contact and exchange… the joy during children’s games can be heard… In general, these people are very grateful for all this help, but deep down they are thinking about returning home.
Sr. Iwona has already been confronted during his training in Warsaw with Ukrainian students, whose number has been increasing since 2014 with the annexation of Crimea by Russia. At the time the world, concerned about the migration crisis, did not see the problem existing in this corner of Europe, nor did it foresee a new possible Russian aggression 8 years later. At the time, many Ukrainians emigrated to Poland and Germany… many Ukrainian students and workers present since these years in Poland, constitute an immeasurable help to the reception of their compatriots victims of the recent open conflict with Russia.
We continue in this spirit, and we hope for the return of better days. We feel on the right side of history, as we did 100 years ago, our two young Founders. They courageously found their strength to advance boldly into the future, where God was waiting for them: “Throughout the war, we cared for the wounded blacks and attached ourselves to them to the point that we would like to continue to occupy ourselves in Africa… “, Alice and Marie-Thérèse Munet.
The difficult times that humanity is going through also have this luminous side of a promise of peace, of friendship between peoples and cultures. As our Founders have understood, the1st World War has created the possibility of advancing in humanity, so be it for this time of suffering experienced by many families separated and dispersed throughout Europe and the world. Let us also think of the innocent victims of all the other conflicts and injustices, so little or not publicized throughout the world, especially in Africa.
May our humanity rediscover its true values and compass in the Risen Christ, the Living Word, the only one capable of negotiating within the human heart, the peace that lasts.
s. Krystyna Walada, mcs-c
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