Vincentians

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Midyear Meeting Update
Midyear Meeting Update 1200 1200 SVDP USA

Out of an abundance of caution for everyone’s health, our 2021 Midyear Business Meeting, March 3 – 6 will be a virtual program. Registration opening soon! This year’s agenda will include a Spiritual Retreat, Workshops, Board of Directors and Business Meetings, Disaster Services Training, as well as a special event presentation and Virtual Vendor Showcase.

The annual Midyear Meeting is a Governance and training event designed for National Council Members (the Presidents of the Diocesan Council or “top” District Council per Diocese), Executive Directors and other current or prospective Council leaders. However the Midyear, especially a virtual one, is open to all interested Vincentians! Check out the agenda when available and attend the sessions and workshops where you have interest.

Voting at the National Business Meeting, to be held virtually on Saturday March 6 from 10 AM – 12:30 PM Central is restricted to National Council Members, but again anyone may attend the Zoom call.

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01-14-21 Letter From Our Servant Leaders
01-14-21 Letter From Our Servant Leaders 500 500 SVDP USA

We do not need (or even want!) to be reminded of the unusual year we have faced in 2020: A pandemic, economic crisis, and societal turmoil from racial injustices. Yet amidst it all, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has offered a steady hand to our most vulnerable neighbors, providing food, rent assistance, utility payments, the list goes on and on. Thankfully, in the worst of time, the Society shines. With nearly 100,000 Vincentians in the United States alone, we are ready and willing to step in.

Among those we are serving, our sisters and brothers returning home from incarceration are facing many barriers and obstacles, often without family or resources to fall back on. Up to one third of our Home Visit contacts have a formerly incarcerated individual in their household. Sadly, years of systemic racism have profoundly impacted the struggles, evidenced in the disproportionate numbers of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples bearing the brunt of inequities in the criminal justice system. Addressing this myriad of concerns through the Society calls us as Vincentians to form a “network of Reentry,” to borrow a phrase from Frédéric Ozanam: “I would like to embrace the whole world in a network of charity.”

St. Vincent de Paul has already responded with the typical creativity that we are known for. Immersion and Back2Work were designed to work in tandem to address the special needs of those returning from incarceration, “returning citizens.” Utilizing the strength of our many Conferences, our community partnerships, ability to access resources, we walk with each neighbor on their journey home. Right now, we have these programs in four different Councils across the country.

Now, in a hopefully “post-COVID-19” world, we are challenged to be even better organized and consistent in our approach. A “network of Reentry” has already been conceived in the National Reentry Task Force (NRTF). We have an opportunity to grow our Task Force to form a new vision, to provide invigorated and integrated services to returning citizens everywhere. By providing mentoring, job training, education, advocacy, restorative justice and more, we can help bring healing to our sisters and brothers and communities.

Please take a moment to prayerfully discern: Are you being called to this Reentry ministry? Consider how you can help us in this shared mission. Who in your Council or Region is already serving the formerly incarcerated? Who has a passion for restorative justice? Can you help us bring a new vision to the National Reentry Task Force?

As the Society of St. Vincent de Paul we are uniquely qualified, indeed gifted, to help meet the many challenges our returning citizens are facing. Together, we can begin to participate in the building up of the Kingdom of God within our truly Vincentian charism, embracing a “network of Reentry.”

In Christ’s faith,

Marian Lamoureux

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01-15-21 News Roundup
01-15-21 News Roundup 1200 1200 SVDP USA

Vincentians across the country and around the world continue to serve their communities in the midst of the pandemic. Click the stories below to learn more about their work to help neighbors in need.

International

Ireland: Car draw raises €260,000 for SVP
New Zealand: Give it a Go: Helping out with the Vinnies’ goodwill efforts

National

Baton Rouge, LA: St. Vincent de Paul accepting clients as temps drop, in need of donations 
Cincinnati, OH: SVdP Cincinnati Ozanam Center for Service Learning to Host MLK Day 2021 for area High Schoolers
Medford, OR: St. Vincent volunteer receives community award
New Orleans, LA: SVdP New Orleans Hosting Systemic Change Symposium
Omaha, NE: Catholic social teaching on community: We were meant to live, grow and flourish together

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Middlecamp Appointed International Territorial Vice President
Middlecamp Appointed International Territorial Vice President 600 685 SVDP USA

SVdP National Council President Ralph Middlecamp has been appointed as the new International Vice President for Solidarity and Special Projects to the Council General International of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

In his new role, Middlecamp will oversee the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s international efforts in the following areas:

  • Twinning, a program connecting Conferences and Councils in developed countries with Conferences and Councils in areas lacking the means to conduct their works of charity.
  • CIAD (the Commission for International Aid and Development), which provides financial assistance to member national Councils who have had a disaster and are providing relief to the victims. CIAD also prioritizes and funds projects submitted by member countries for financial support via resources from member countries with the means to provide assistance.
  • Special Projects.

Says Middlecamp of the honor, “The programs that our Society operates in the United States have been recognized by our international leadership as models of effective service to people living in poverty. I will be privileged to work with our members throughout the world to bring support to their efforts to relieve suffering in their communities.”

“The Society globally shares its resources among its more than 150 national Councils to get help where it is most needed for disasters and development projects,” says USA National Council CEO Dave Barringer. “Ralph has long been a global citizen in his concern and actions on behalf of the poor. He is a great choice to oversee these cost-effective and efficiently-delivered efforts.”

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Contemplation – Behold, I Make All Things New
Contemplation – Behold, I Make All Things New 940 788 SVDP USA

Vincentians serve in hope! Not merely the hope of a paid light bill, but the hope of Christ’s promise, the hope of new life, and the hope of a church that “is ever renewing itself…” [Ozanam in Baunard, 20]

The neighbors we serve often lack hope – any kind of hope. Burdened with material needs, with worries for their children and for their future, it is difficult to offer eternal hope when, as Mahatma Ghandi once explained, “To them God can only appear as bread and butter.”

In our empathy for the neighbor, it can be all too easy for us at times to feel overwhelmed, burned out; to share the neighbor’s despair rather than the Savior’s hope. Our neighbor’s continuing struggles weigh us down, and we allow ourselves to forget the great power of love over even the greatest forms of deprivation.

Whatever resources our Conference has, however great or small, we offer freely and generously. And when we offer food to the neighbor who can only see God as bread, remember that Christ offers Himself to us as bread. All of the material assistance we give is foremost a sign of Christ’s love. In that love, we welcome the neighbor into communion with us, and with the God who sent us.

It is for love alone that we continue, through home visits, through special works, and through systemic change programs, to walk with people out of poverty. It is for love alone that we can say, “this relationship does not end when we pay the bill this week. You matter.”

There is never a need to be frustrated, or to wonder why the land will never lack for needy persons. As St. Vincent taught, it is through our humble devotion to God and our charity toward the neighbor that they might see the beauty and holiness of our faith. [CCD VIII:208] The needs we seek to alleviate may be of this earth, but the hope we bring is not.

We gather on our home visits in His name, and He, as He promised, is there. He is there in the suffering of the neighbor, and He is there also in the prayer and in the hope that we offer, wiping away all tears, saying “Behold, I make all things new.”

Contemplate

How can I better share hope?

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