Leadership

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2-10-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
2-10-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1119 630 SVDP USA

From FAMVIN:

We are pleased to announce that this year’s Circular Letter, written by the President General International, has been published. The work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, still marked by the pandemic, has not been hindered; instead, it has become a real challenge, as it was for the founders of the Conferences, who endured similar situations in their times.

The President General states that “inequality and deprivation have increased, among nations and within them” and that “God expects much of us, the members, now more than ever, as the consequences of the pandemic, as well as so many tragic deaths, are disastrous for the whole mankind.”

In this regard, Renato Lima elaborates on the myriad of initiatives undertaken by the Council General International in these times, which is clear evidence that we can keep on serving in hope, despite all the hardships, and reach out to the most vulnerable.

The President General also addresses the importance of education to alleviate poverty, the care and respect of the environment, the Vincentian behavior, and the good practices in the management of charitable works and at the Councils.

Furthermore, the President General makes some recommendations for members: Observing the SSVP’s Rule, body and soul; working in harmony with the precepts of the Church; and always being charitable towards our companions on this Vincentian path, so that Conferences may truly be a “place of holiness”.

Like in previous Circular Letters written by our dear President, he kindly requests each and every Vincentian to nurture the “moral duty to care for the Vincentian Family, as a priority in our strategy” wherever Conferences are present and take care, with the same zeal, of younger Vincentian members, while giving unlimited support, organizing projects and programs especially for them, seeking creative ways for training them, investing in their future and opening up more spaces for them to take decisions within the SSVP at a national level.

Moreover, upcoming presidential elections at the Council General are therein addressed, and ideal conditions thereof are put forward by Renato Lima. The candidate, among other attributes, should lead a Vincentian life, be charismatic and kind, have managerial skills, and speak several languages.

Finally, it is worth highlighting the commitment made by the President General and his team, who are working hard so that the Church can declare Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam,  our main founder, a saint, and the initiatives launched by this Presidency to make the history and origins of our institution known, like the themed years dedicated to each of the co-founders of the SSVP (2022 is devoted to Le Taillandier).

In his final message, the President General stresses that, with God’s help, the Society has expanded and grown throughout its history, always with a defined goal: “the holiness of its members and standing beside those who suffer on a path of charity”.

The Circular Letter is recommended reading during meetings at the Conferences and Councils. Due to its length, it should be read out piecemeal for deeper reflection.

Click on this link to read the President General’s full Circular Letter.

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1-27-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
1-27-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1368 1387 SVDP USA

A priest was speaking to an audience of people devoted to helping the poor. “The poor don’t need to have you be their voice,” he said, “They have their own voices.”

This point is certainly debated, and the Society has a group named Voice of the Poor for a reason. While people in poverty indeed have their own voices, what they often lack is the access to places and people where those voices may be heard. The Society, from its Conferences and Councils, can be this access.

Speaking of voices, a truism is that Money Talks. If this is true, perhaps it is time we take stock of the various forms of “money” we may use as the Society to make good things happen.

If your Council has employees, then you are defined as either a small or large employer in your area. While you may not pay property taxes, your staff has economic impact through their wages, payroll taxes, maybe sales taxes, and spending choices. If you have more than 100 employees, you may very well be a major non-government employer in your town. Do others see you this way? Do you act like it when on the public stage?

Even if you have no staff, your Council (and many Conferences) are economic players locally. For example, collectively your Vincentians may be one of the largest customers at the utility companies. Do you use this leverage to get discounts, more favorable terms for the people we serve, or “a seat at the table” as a board member or advisory board voice to the companies and/or the oversight Commissions?

Anytime your Conference makes a purchase decision, some companies benefit and others don’t – that’s the power of the purse. Review how much you spend annually in rent, utilities, food and other supports, and think about how these expenses might give you an enhanced voice for the neighbors in need. This is a voice that others may already provide you, but more often than not, you need to demand it yourself. They think of individual transactions, while you may find strength and benefit in viewing these transactions as a total expense through one payor – the Society.

As friends, we complain about bad customer service to one another, and once in a while we even say something nice about a company or vendor who made our life a little easier. Whether it is done around a restaurant table or through the internet, this is now called “influencer behavior” that can make or break a company. By steering family and friends to, or away from, those who interact with the Society, we help those we serve through economic pressure that can change corporate behavior and responses. We may already do this, but it deserves to be intentional.

A friend of mine who leads a local nonprofit once related that at a weekly Rotary Club meeting, he realized that he was the largest employer present and oversaw one of the largest budgets. Yet many thought of his organization as “that nice little organization that helps people.” He became determined not to throw his weight around, but to remind his friends and the local government of his organization’s size, strength and most importantly, local impact. Changing perspectives improved the way he and his organization were treated.

We Vincentians often exhibit humility, and serve with little or no recognition. Yet collectively our dollars already make a local economic and caring difference. Let’s take this a bit further. Explore how our economic strength can bring the issues and solutions affecting the less fortunate to the table. You may be surprised to look at your Council’s annual report and see just how much money you devote to serving your neighbors. From fundraising dollars to events to store sales, and not even counting the value of volunteer hours, it is often formidable.

If Money Talks, we may have a bigger voice than we realize. How can we use it more effectively to help our neighbors? How can we use our spending power to introduce their voices, alone or collectively, where they need to be heard?

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1-6-2022
A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1-6-2022 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

Happy New Year! The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus, who is depicted as having two faces; one looks forward and the other backward. This matches what we often do when we transition from one year to the next. What was your Vincentian experience like last year, and what are you looking forward to this year?

As the year ended, news sources were filled with stories looking back at celebrities who had died, the year’s top news stories, the most-popular music and movies, and a host of other categories of happenings to be remembered. Looking back at 2021 as a Vincentian, I find some highlights in an otherwise difficult year.

During 2021 we moved into and dedicated our new National Council office in St. Louis. We had two “Invitation for Renewal” retreats and a very successful National Assembly in Houston. Our Society has also been blessed with hundreds of new servant leaders who stepped into office to lead our Conferences and Councils this October. We were blessed by their being ready to put their talents to the service of our members and the people we serve. I hope your Councils and Conferences were blessed with a few memorable 2021 highlights that have kept you serving in hope.

Certainly, there were many disappointments and losses in 2021. Events were canceled, and friends were missed. You probably experienced the death of family members and friends, including some fine Vincentians, during the past 12 months. The Society lost some beloved pillars this year; among them were Joe Mueller and Paul Collins. Let’s remember them all in prayer and keep moving forward, building on the strength and fortitude that are our Society’s legacy.

The other face of January looks forward. What will we make of this year ahead? Let’s keep hope alive by trusting in the providence of God. As we embrace our strategic plans or form a few goals for ourselves, I ask you to consider:

  • How can we help each other be better friends and Vincentians?
  • How can we make our organization function better?
  • How can our Society better serve Christ in the person of our neighbor?
  • How can the people we serve help us to be better followers of Christ?

These are the questions I that I shared in my inaugural speech four years ago. They are still my focus as I look to another year as your servant leader. Together, we can create that better Society of St Vincent de Paul toward which we all aspire.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
SVdP National President

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A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1-13-2022
A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1-13-2022 1363 1363 SVDP USA

The holidays are mostly behind us. We stare into our refrigerators now, looking for leftovers while they last. The cakes and cookies were the first to go, followed by anything we could put into a sandwich. Now we are left with items requiring a bit more creativity.

Behold, the humble can of cranberry sauce.

It sits in the pantry awaiting another holiday meal. We heard there was a national shortage of this stuff heading into the holidays, so we bought an extra can just because, and Heaven forbid it wouldn’t be on the table with the ham or turkey this year. Now we are into January, the meats are gone, and the can sits there, staring back at us. What to do? (Stick with me here, I really do have a point to this column.)

We could simply eat it with another meal, even though it might not feel quite right. I like to use it as a spread on a turkey sandwich. Some people create fruity spreads with it. A quick internet search will give you, believe it or not, at least 65 uses! I couldn’t read it all without laughing, so I’m not even sure that all of these uses are food related. Paint tinting? Edible finger-paint? Fragrant glue? The possibilities seem endless.

If we can do so much with a commodity food, imagine what we can accomplish with several Vincentian hearts in our Conference meeting as we discuss how to help someone in need. These neighbors may not be “leftovers” but “left behinds” by others.

It may be easy to do what we have always done, help in the same small way, and move on to the next family that needs our help. Or we can look with fresh eyes and hearts at alternatives. Some may be emergency assistance gifts while other might be systemic change solutions for the longer term. Some might solve today’s problem while others look to the root causes of this person’s poverty and present situation. Some answers may be comfortable, while others will require new thinking, new resources and new partnerships.

If we approach people with the same tools, we might miss some great possibilities. If the only tool you have is a can opener, every problem becomes a can! If instead we consciously add to our Conference and personal toolbox, we are prepared when a different problem needing our help comes along.

In this New Year, let’s resolve to approach our neighbors in need not as society’s leftovers but as treasures of potential, awaiting our innovation, discernment and most of all, love, to create newly imagined lives of purpose and value.

Christ did something amazing with just a few fish and loaves of bread. What can we do for our neighbors with our Conference’s love and so many blessings? Let’s think on it, pray on it together, and then think some more. Isn’t this what we would want Christ to do for us?

Yours in Service,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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January is Poverty Awareness Month
January is Poverty Awareness Month 940 788 SVDP USA

According to Poverty USA, more than 38 million people in the United States currently live in poverty.

The month of January is dedicated to bringing awareness to this crucial issue that is at the forefront of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s mission. January is Poverty Awareness Month.

Who Lives in Poverty?

Individuals and families that earn less than the Federal Government’s poverty threshold are considered to be living in poverty. There are two main classifications of poverty:

  • Absolute Poverty: When a household income is below the poverty threshold making it impossible for the individual or family to meet their basic needs including food, housing, safe drinking water, education, healthcare, etc. For those living in absolute poverty, their situation remains unchanged no matter the economic state of where they live.
  • Relative Poverty: The condition in which people are deprived of the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average of standard living in their community. Those that fall in this category have money, but not enough to “keep up with the Joneses.” This type of poverty can change with economic growth in the country. This category, while it may not seem as extreme as absolute poverty, can still be permanent.

Poverty can also be broken into two groups called “Generational Poverty” and “Situational Poverty.”

  • Generational Poverty: A family that has lived in poverty for at least two generations. Those experiencing generational poverty often deal with hopelessness, tend to focus on survival over planning, have different values and patterns than those who have not grown up in poverty.
  • Situational Poverty: A individual or family’s income and support is decreased due to a specific change – job loss, divorce, death, etc. Those coping with situational poverty tend to remain hopeful, considering it a temporary setback.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Poverty in the U.S.

In the years leading up to 2020, poverty had gradually been declining in the United States. In 2019, the poverty rate was at 10.5%, the lowest since 1959. Then, COVID hit.

According to Human Rights Watch, since the start of the pandemic, 74.7 million people have lost work, forcing them to dip into savings, depleting individual reserves.

Census Bureau data shows how households with different incomes are coping with the pandemic and that low-income households are disproportionally struggling for their social and economic needs to be met. Among households with incomes below $35,000, 47% of adults report being behind on housing payments, and 25% say they struggle to put food on the table.

While stimulus checks, and tax credits have offered a little help over the past two years, the problem persists.

SVdP Is Here to Help

Our mission is: “A network of friends, inspired by Gospel values, growing in holiness and building a more just world through personal relationships with and service to people in need.”

Vincentians around the world have dedicated themselves to offering our suffering brothers and sisters a hand up in their time of need. Through a combination of spiritual and material aid, we seek to help those suffering from poverty. While we do assist with food and rental assistance – the things you picture those living in poverty to be most desperate for – SVdP’s goal is to help make a “systemic change.”

Systemic Change is a key facet of the Society’s work to end poverty. It goes beyond addressing immediate needs and instead, partners with the poor to identify the root causes of their poverty and remove the barriers that keep people impoverished.

“The money or assistance in-kind that we give to those who are poor will not last long. We must aspire to a more complete and longer lasting benefit: study their abilities … and help them get work to help them out of their difficulties.” – Blessed Rosalie Rendu

To learn more about how SVdP helps those living in poverty, click to visit our website.

Resources for Poverty Awareness Month

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12-23-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
12-23-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

I wish each of you a blessed Christmas and pray that you may experience the joy of the season.

The Manual of the National Council of the United States tells us, “Central to an understanding of Vincentian spirituality is the Mystery of the Incarnation, the mystery and grace that God became human. Vincentians expect God in the unexpected: in unexpected people, times, ways and places. God wears a human face. When we see Jesus in others and try to be Jesus for others, the Mystery of the Incarnation comes alive for us.”

I invite you to ponder this profound way of understanding the Incarnation. Let it influence how you understand this joyful season and give meaning to how you live your Vincentian vocation.

As you encounter family, friends, coworkers and our neighbors in need this Christmas season and beyond, I hope you will be blessed with the grace to experience in them the presence of God among us.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

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12-16-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
12-16-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1363 1363 SVDP USA

As we wrap up the calendar year, Vincentians are focused on the usual food pantries, plus food and gift distributions over the holiday period. I imagine that half a million turkeys alone will be distributed by our members this month. No, we won’t capture this data in the annual reports!

While some of the charity mechanics remain as they have in the past, we have several pandemic-required innovations in place that differ according to your state, county, or city. These make us pause and think as well of how different almost everything was in 2021, and ask what next year will hold for us as Americans, Catholics, and Vincentians.

When we evaluate, most of us think first of all the negatives. We lost family and friends to COVID. The resulting economy is uncertain right now. The Church has its own crises. Religious freedoms, and some of the Catholic causes we care so much about, are under attack in both the legislative and public forums. That’s not the entire list, and you probably have a few items to add from your own experiences.

In our work for the nation’s families in need, we feel the pain when the prices of automobile gasoline, home heating, and food rise due to inflation, supply chain issues, and other rationales. Most of us see the costs of our grocery bill rise, complain a bit and then go on with our day. For someone in poverty, that increase is a sharper pain that affects their sustainability. A dollar more a gallon for gas over the past year is an unstated, regressive tax on the poor. General inflation hurts everyone’s ability to get ahead, but it hurts poor families more severely.

All of this points us as Vincentians back to the long term promise of systemic change. We can pay rent bills just as we hand out turkeys for Christmas. The rent is due again next month, and the family will be hungry again when the last bowl of turkey soup is eaten. The poverty not-so-merry-go-round continues, and it takes extra effort to get off – for the poor and for us servants to them, too.

Many of our Society Conferences and Councils had a good financial year in 2021. This gives us a stronger opportunity to re-think our activities and strategies for the year ahead. If we develop financial literacy education, trade skills job training and placement, alternatives to predatory lending, and our other systemic change tools, the people we serve won’t need to be dependent next year on holiday handouts. They will be better able to provide for themselves, creating a better holiday for all of us. Really, wouldn’t that be the best possible Thanksgiving and Christmas, to know that more families don’t need the Society of St. Vincent de Paul or the local government to provide for them?

In January we start new diets, new exercise programs, and other new annual goals for ourselves. Let’s take time in our first Conference meetings to take just as hard a look at ourselves as Vincentians, our programs, finances, and most importantly our goals for the people we served this holiday season. Yes, the outside world will have its challenges as it does in every year. What can we do differently to make life better than it is right now for those we just served over the holidays? More of the same, or perhaps some completely different actions?

Holiday charity is good and Vincentian. Reducing the need for it is so Vincentian too, isn’t it?

May you have a blessed Christmas Season and an inspired New Year!

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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11-24-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leader
11-24-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leader 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

Last week I had the privilege of being with Vincentian leaders from all over the United States to attend the Invitation for Renewal leadership-formation program in St. Louis. One of the perennial highlights of this retreat-based program is a film called “Celebrate What’s Right with the World.” Focusing on what’s right and celebrating it presupposes an attitude of gratitude that Vincentians should live throughout the year, not just on this week’s Thanksgiving holiday.

In recent months and years, we have been surrounded by events and media coverage that reinforce what is not right with the world. Certainly, we need to recognize what needs to be changed in our world, in our country, in our Church and even in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The most effective way to create useful change, however, is to appreciate and build upon the many positive parts of everything that surrounds us.

Building upon assets is what we do with our neighbors in need who participate in our programs of mentoring or serving as allies to neighbors coping with poverty. Let’s take our own advice and appreciate the many blessings and gifts we enjoy in an admittedly broken world. Even our service to those who are poor is performed from a position of gratitude. The beginning of our Rule details the Vincentian wisdom about “Our Personal Encounters With the Poor;” it tells us that “Vincentians never forget the many blessings they receive from those they visit.”

I find that I best immerse myself in a mindset of gratitude when I do it in prayer. I create a “rosary of thankfulness” by creating five decades in which I name people, places or things for which I am grateful. If you try this, think of your community, church, workplace, family, conference, friends, favorite places or events. As I do, you can try praying “thank you Lord” for ten things in the categories you create.

You may be surprised how easy it is to find 50 things for which you are genuinely thankful – people, places, and events that have been a blessing or gift and have made you the person you are today. Conversely, I expect most people would find it difficult to identify 50 such things to complain about with similar conviction. We all have pain, sorrow and hurts, but with God’s providence even in these we find the seeds of new possibilities.

Simple expressions of thanks to those around us will make our families, churches, workplaces and communities better places to be. We also owe God our thankfulness. It is why the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass almost always begins, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, creator of the world and source of all life.”

I hope you and your family have a blessed Advent as we prepare for the joy of Christmas.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National President

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11-18-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
11-18-2021 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

Last week, with the help of our national office staff, I filed our National Council Annual Report with the Council General International in Paris. Yes, I have to file an annual report, just as our Councils and Conferences are required to do. I know we all like to complain about these reports, but — collected from every Conference and Council across the world – they paint the picture of the worldwide network of charity envisioned by Blessed Frederic Ozanam. It is important for us to make the effort to document and share our activity.

I have heard some say these reports should not be something their Conference needs to do. They say they just want to help people. From the very beginning of our Society, however, the founders saw the value of sharing this information. Emmanuel Bailly had our first written report presented to the pastor of St. Étienne in Paris at a meeting on Friday, June 27, 1834. You can read it online here.

Bailly, our Society’s first President, wanted to inform Fr. Faudet of the work of the Conference and receive his support. Pastors and bishops still like to receive our reports, and we still need their support.

As our Society spread, the unity of the members was maintained by regular correspondence and detailed reports. Only four years after our founding, in a letter dated March 1, 1837, the Society’s Secretary General, Francois Lallier, reminded members to provide reports. He wrote, “We hope to hear from you before those meetings, the dates whereof are fixed by our Rule. By informing us of the amounts you have received and disbursed, of the increase in the numbers of your members and in that of the poor you have visited you will often show the power of your charity to us who are weak; but we shall rejoice at it, for amongst brothers success increases mutual love and esteem.”

You can read a report Frederic Ozanam provided from Lyon to Emmanuel Bailly in a letter dated July 19, 1838. It is #180 in the collection of Ozanam’s letters. This report details the number of members and the new members added for the conferences in Lyon. Frederic’s report provided the amount spent on meat and bread and the number of families visited. In the library at our international office, there are two very large bookcases containing the bulletins of the Council General meetings and reports going back to these earliest days. In one 1847 report, I found the very first listing of information from the United States — simple amounts for income and expense. In that same report, however, each conference in France and many across Europe provided detailed descriptions of their membership, a financial report and a description of their works.

The submission of the annual report is required by Statute 23 of Part 3 of the Rule. It is not an option for Conferences or Councils to ignore this requirement if they want to be part of the Society. Please make the job of our leadership easier. Members can help by submitting their hours of service and mileage in a timely manner. To finish their own reports, Councils need to have all Conferences cooperate by completing theirs first, and all Conferences and Councils need to have completed their reports before the National Council can produce its final report.

I am grateful to all the presidents and secretaries who compile their reports in a timely manner. This information has many uses. Our bishops, pastors, donors, and community supporters deserve to have timely information about who we are and what services we provide. The information is also important to our internal committees that promote our efforts to grow and revitalize our membership and services.

At a national assembly of ours several years ago, a speaker from the Vatican communications office addressed us. He complimented us on the way in which our service humbly follows the Gospel admonition, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” He then reminded us, however, that the Gospel also instructs us to not put our light under a bushel.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National President

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