Members of the International Council of the Laity of the Chevalier Family

The International Council of the Laity of the Chevalier Family was elected in 2017 at the 3rd Assembly of Laity in Sao’ Paulo, Brazil. Fr Hans Kwakman is our Spiritual Companion and is a member of the Council. Since the Assembly we have invited Peter Cheong to join us. The three Professed branches of the family have each offered a member from their General Councils to accompany us and we refer to those people as our Trigeneralate members. In addition, the work of the elected Council is enabled and supported by many people who offer technical expertise, who translate and take Minutes and we include them in this introduction.

General Secretary: Alison McKenzie – Australia

I have been involved with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart  and have been a member of the Laity of the Chevalier Family  for most of my adult life. I taught for 27 years in an MSC College and was the Director of the Chevalier Institute, a formation institute for lay people for 10 years. I have qualifications in Education, Counselling and Theology.  I gather for  Eucharist with the FDNSC sisters. I am recently retired and alongside my commitment to the Lay movement I work with a Prison Ministry team and I am a committed mother and grandmother. At home, I  enjoy caring for creation by growing food and raising chickens and bees.

Deputy to the General Secretary: Doris Machado – Brazil

I have been a Layperson of the Chevalier Family since 2003 and participated in two International Assemblies as a representative of Brazil: in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic and in São Paulo, in Brazil.  As a Lay  member of the Chevalier Family I was the National Coordinator of the Laity of the Chevalier Family for 10 years and participated  in several missions in Brazil. In 2012 in Ecuador and in 2019, together with my husband, Ranulfo, who is also a Layperson of the Chevalier Family, I lived for 11 months in the MSC mission in Mozambique.

I am married and the mother of Tiago and Felipe and have always worked professionally in the area of ​​Education. I am currently the Director of a Public School in the interior of Brazil.

International Council Member: Rita Cleuren – Belgium

I am unmarried, the second of seven children, and my family is the foundation of my life.  Our parents taught us to pay warm attention to those who were not seen. I recognised the ‘family feeling’ whenever I have encountered members of the Chevalier Family.

I have qualifications in Social Work and from 1970 to 1980 worked in a National Playground Association and from 1980 to 2013 in a Social Service in Brussels.

Since 1970, I have been working as a volunteer in DISOP, a recognised Belgian NGO that supports projects of the Belgian MSC in Brazil. In 1989 I became a member of the Belgian Council of Laity and member of the MSC commission ‘Justice, Peace and Wholeness of Creation’ and in 1999 a member of the International and European Lay Council, succeeding  Louis Joly as Secretary General in 2007. In 2017 this international task was  passed on to the new International Council.

I believe that Father Jules Chevalier saw the laity as an indispensable link in his life's work and I see him as a prophet and a revolutionary, whose vision has much to offer the wider institutional church.

International Council Member: Peter Cheong – Korea

I was born into a devout Catholic family and participated in the Catholic Student Action (Pax Romana) while at university and have been involved in Church ministry activities for over 30 years.

I was received into the Lay Association in 2009 and was able to participate in a Lay weekend in Issoudun, France in 2010 and in the Chevalier Family Congress in Mindanao, Philippines in 2013.

I also participated in the International meeting Laity of the Chevalier Family in Brazil in 2017.

I am the president of Seoul LMSC also National coordinator for Korea.

Spiritual Companion - Fr Hans Kwakman MSC

After being ordained a priest (1963) and completing my theological studies, I lectured theology and other subjects for 25 years at the High School of Theology, in which the MSC Congregation in Indonesia participates.  Then for 7 years I took part in the administration of the Indonesian province as Provincial Superior. After a 2-year study in the field of Spirituality and Spiritual Direction in USA, I served for 15 years as a staff member of the Cor Novum Team in Issoudun, committed to deepening and spreading a Spirituality of the Heart within the Chevalier Family and beyond. Since 2015, I have been involved as a Spiritual Companion in the International Council of the lay movement within the Chevalier Family.  Currently, I live as a retired member of the Dutch MSC Province in Tilburg, the Netherlands. My interest continues to be in deepening and spreading a Spirituality of the Heart, including through monthly contributions to the Online Course on Spirituality of the Heart for the benefit of the Chevalier Family and other people interested. 

Trigeneralate

Sr Deborah Reho msc – MSC Sisters, Sutri, Itally originally from USA.

I have been an MSC Sister for 36 years. I am an adminstrator/teacher by profession and have been involved in schools through the U.S. and Papua New Guinea. For the past 11 years I was the Provincial Treasurer and Provincial Councilor for the U.S. province. I am now serving on our General Council since November 2022. I am happy to be the MSC Sister liaison for the International Laity of the Chevalier Family.

Fr Laurentius Paulus Pitoy MSC

I am originally from Indonesia, and I am a religious priest of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC).  I graduated in Liturgy from St Anselm Pontifical Institute in Rome and have dedicated myself for many years in formation ministry for the diocesan and religious priests. I am currently residing in Rome as one of the MSC General Council since 2017.  A part of the service in the Generalate is the liaison for the Laity of the Chevalier Family and  since 2018 I have been involved with the International Laity of the Chevalier Family.

Sr Fabilene Santos Castro FDNSC

I am Sr Fabilene Santos Castro; my name means - Fabilene : relic, companionship; Santos : sacred; Castro : Castle, fortified.

My parents are Joana Maria Santos Castro and Benedito Castro. I have five brothers and two sisters. I am the eighth child. I grew up in a simple, quiet and poor family environment, based on good Christian principles and human values. My parents always made sure that we had a good school education.

I love religious life and my congregation. I try to be attentive to the needs of the sisters and maintain a good relationship with them . I have an open heart for the mission and I have lived with the most vulnerable and the poor. During the time I was in Maranhão, Apicum-Açu and São Paulo, Eldorado, I had the grace to live with and encounter many people who shared their lives, pains, wounds and miseries with me.

Our community developed some social projects to meet the needs of many families; we distributed many basic baskets, clothes, food, toys. We brought joy to many hearts. This gave me immense joy.

I am very grateful to be part of this new Generalate team that is at the service of the Congregation and I thank God who led me here. I ardently desire to learn new languages and at this time, I am learning English.

Minutes Secretary: Hannie Jansen - The Netherlands

I am Hannie Jansen and I live in The Hague, Netherlands.
My contacts with MSC started in 1995 when Fr. Leo Bergen MSC took me to the first international meeting in Issoudun. When I asked him: ‘why me?’,  he answered: ‘because it is good for you’. He was right. My active involvement started around 2000. Currently, I am a member of the European Committee and the coordinator for the Dutch laity.

Together with Sr. Lies I am in charge of one of the lay groups. I also translate at international meetings and record the Minutes for the International Council meetings.

Translators

Maria-Olimpia Kose - Germany: Translation during Zoom and face-to-face meetings

My name is Maria-Olimpia Klose. I was born in Barcelona (Spain) and grew up in Berlin. Since 1993 I  have lived in Bochum ( in the west of Germany). I am married and have three grown up children. I work at day care in a primary school and am involved in volunteer work with the elderly.

While searching for a spiritual community, I was led to our group in Duisburg and I have been a member of the Chevalier Family for over eight years.

The openness, friendliness and acceptance with which I was welcomed into the group touched me and the orientation to live life from and to the Heart of Jesus met with a long-desired resonance in my own heart. I am also very enthusiastic about our International Community in worldwide connection on the way of the Heart.

I am the German representative in the European Committee and gladly support the International Committee with some translation.

Therese Poulton - Australia: French Translation

I was introduced to the Spirituality of the Heart and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on arrival in Australia in 1958 by attending OLSH College at Kensington and residing in Mascot where the OLSH Sisters were very much part of the Parish of St Therese. In 1979 Sisters Frances and Patricia Walsh introduced me to the Associates of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. An interesting fact is that Father Hartzer MSC (son of Marie Louise Hartzer) was brought back to Sydney from Thursday Island in 1885 for the opening of the new Parish of Botany (at the time Mascot was part of that Parish). The Parish remained under the MSC’s until 1907.

I attended both International Meetings of Laity of the Chevalier Family in the Dominican Republic in 2007 and Brazil in 2017 and was also invited to participate in the last COR NOVUM Formation training held in Issoudun France in 2015. 

Currently, I am a part of the OLSH Associates Leadership Team and the National Council of the Chevalier Family of the Laity. 

Ana San Martin: English and Spanish Translation

I have been a member of the Madrid lay group for the past 25 years. I  succeeded Angeles Fondevila as the Spanish representative on the International and European Lay Council.  I translated all the information that came from those meetings for distribution to the Spanish laity and, more recently, I have acted as the translator for the International Lay Council since 2017.

Regional Coordinators

Chris McDermott

I was born in 1958 in an Australian town called Goulburn in the state of NSW – about 3hrs south of Sydney.

When I left school I trained to be a teacher of Mathematics, whilst also exploring my faith position, having been raised in an Anglican family.

I commenced my teaching career in state owned schools in some of the poorer areas of Sydney and Wollongong.

My faith journey led me to Catholic schools – still in the poorer areas, and after working in these schools I eventually decided I wanted to join the Catholic Church.

My journey after that saw me leading three different Catholic schools as Principal across a 24 year period, with the last school being Chevalier College – a school owned and conducted by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and where I spent 15 wonderful years.

It was here I found and became committed to the way of being catholic that was shown by Fr Jules Chevalier and those who followed him.

I was fortunate to be invited to join the Australian National Council of the Laity of the Chevalier Family and as I move into retirement from the role of Principal, I look forward to working with others in the international arena, as well as nationally, in Australia. I am hopeful that my small contribution remains true to the words of Fr Jules when he wrote “it is by the Heart we are Something”.

Olguita Garci'a Ocampo

I was born in Moyobamba, the land of the orchid, located in the Peruvian Amazon, two hours away from Lima by aeroplane.

I was formed in Christian values by my parents Antonio and María Olivia; at home there was always the image of the Sacred Heart with whom I felt identified from a very young age, I belonged to the group of the parish San Juan Masías, close to my home.

I studied psychology at a university in the capital, where I met Néstor Jesús, my husband with whom I have been in love for 32 years and married for 22 years. Together we share the same passion for promoting mental health; he from the public administration and I from the school promoted by the MSC sisters as well as in the care of patients in private practice. It is in this school that I came to know the charism and spirituality of the Chevalier Family, to which I have been committed since 2015, when the MSC sisters invited a group of people from the school, which allowed me to rediscover my childhood values and principles, strengthening my vocation to serve and help those most in need.

I began as a committed laywoman forming a new community called Corazón de Jesús in a district of Lima. Later I was elected as Coordinator of the National Council and now I am the Coordinator of the Americas. My commitment is to make the heart of God known wherever I am and to be loved everywhere.