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Consider how you too can be a part of “Helping the Needy and Abandoned Around the World”
Through the kindness of our benefactors, we have been able to follow Christ’s footsteps into some of the world’s most desolate and forgotten places ; to Reynosa, Mexico, where Fr. Gerry Shanley, ss.cc., works tirelessly to not only bring the Good News but also the essentials of food, clothing and shelter to scores of impoverished people; to India where Fr. Bill Petrie, ss.cc., began and now Fr. Subal Nayak, ss.cc., continues the Damien Social Development Institute (DSDI) to bring compassion and dignity to those afflicted with leprosy and HIV/AIDS and their families; to our vocation programs and House of Study in India and the Philippines where so many young men and women have chosen to become the hope and future of Sacred Hearts Missions. Our Visions are Far Reaching Our Efforts are Tireless Our Needs are Great! Please Become a Part of Our Mission.
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visit the
Bahamas Islands and meet with our SS.CC. members, Fathers Michael
Kelly, Martin Gomes and Patrick Fanning. Our focus was on one of
what is called “The Family Islands,” with our particular discussion
centering on Long Island, a fifty minute flight from Nassau. We
asked ourselves: By having an SS.CC. priest ministering to the
population of some 4,000, can we bring the witness of Christ by
breaking the cycle of generational poverty? If people continue to
be poor from one generation to the next, we must question what can
be done to bring about change. No one wants to see grandparents,
their children, their grandchildren remain caught up in poverty,
having to rely on welfare, with only the hope of receiving minimal
education. 
Center
as children. Both were Hansen’s Disease patients who had been
cured. They received primary education and then were given
on-the-job training to become leprosy paramedical workers with
skills in physiotherapy. What a joy it was to see them grow up and,
on their special day, be married together. Would you believe they
are grandparents today? And their children and grandchildren are
spared any sickness, are educated and live amongst the middle-class
in society. Wherever the Church is present, that cycle of
witnessing to Christ by reaching out to meet the needs of the poor
Hearts Missions to go to Long Island, Bahamas, we would
hope to form a C-I-M – Community in Mission - which would
include several sisters, brothers and one or two priests. Their
living and working together will bear witness to God’s Love as
they reach out in small educational, medical or rehabilitation
programs. To be able to teach computer skills to the young;
to have a reading room where resources are available for
self-education; to sponsor tutorial programs for those who
would like to pursue on-line college correspondence course;
A
true lifetime of commitment can be no better exemplified than by
one of our dearest Sacred Hearts Missions benefactors,
Constance Collinge, who celebrates her 100th birthday on
October 17th. A longtime friend to Father Gabriel, “Connie”,
who attends daily Mass, has volunteered weekly for the last ten
years at a local food pantry and says simply, “I do it because I
want to feed the hungry.” She is a tremendous inspiration to us
all, a great witness to faith and a wonderful example of how
even one person can truly help to bring change to the life of
others.
