e-Gazette

Dear Vincentian Friends,

Last week I was able to experience the reality of Blessed Frédéric Ozanam’s vision of a network of charity embracing the world. For six days I attended the International General Assembly of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Rome with about 100 other presidents of national councils. Our business meetings were translated into five languages, but at the meals and in the hallways, we were on our own to share our common Vincentian interests and concerns. Like all meetings of the Society, our network of charity was also a network of friendship and shared spirituality.

We were in Rome to attend to the business of the Society at the international level. The first and most important duty we had was to elect the next President General of the Council General. Three very qualified candidates had been nominated. After the Assembly affirmed the Election Board’s procedures, each national president came forward to submit their ballot. Juan Manuel Buergo Gómez was elected as the 17th President General, succeeding Renato Lima de Oliveira. Juan Manuel’s installation will take place in Paris this September – on the feast of Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.

Juan Manuel is the current national president of Spain and will be an excellent servant leader. I have known him for seven years and count him as a good Vincentian friend. We shared similar elected terms as national council presidents and have served on several international committees together. We both have a strong interest in the historical roots of our Society and the promotion of the canonization of Blessed Frédéric.

The Assembly business also included making seven revisions to Part Two of Rule, which governs the Society’s international structure. Most of us don’t need to pay much attention to these statutes, but they are very important to the international organization, and in many cases they need to take French law into consideration. Good governance is very important, and our documents related to governance – as with every other aspect of our Society – need periodic review.

As Interim Chair of the Statutes Commission, I presided during the Assembly over an afternoon Commission session that included several hours of debate and discussion – with simultaneous translation into five languages.  The most significant changes coming out of that session were raising the upper age limit for the President General at time of election from 65 to 75 and changing the meeting of the General Assembly from once every six years to once every three years. There were several other recommendations that lacked consensus and were deferred for future investigation.

Like our National Assembly, the International General Assembly featured workshops on familiar topics – but with a global slant. We had sessions on spirituality, training, governance, safeguarding, youth involvement, twinning, and disaster funding. It was interesting to see that our network of charity has similar concerns in every part of the globe. Our daily agenda also included keynote addresses and celebrations of the Eucharist, including one in St. Peter’s. Of course, there were the meals with lots of pasta, wine and good conversation.

If you have taken part in our annual National Assembly or in a regional meeting, this international meeting probably sounds fairly familiar. Workshops, business meetings, prayer, food and friendship strengthen our Society and our ability to serve our neighbors in need. I attended many regional meetings during the past few months, and at every one of them I sensed the joy of Vincentians gathering again after several years of isolation. These gatherings renew our enthusiasm for our vocation and give us new ideas for better performing the work we do.

You don’t need to go to Rome to experience our network of charity. You can join us in St. Louis this September and attend great workshops, see a new national president installed and make Vincentian friends from all across the United States. Check out the invitation in this e-Gazette. Maybe the most noticeable difference will be that pasta will not be served at every meal.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
SVdP National President

At some point we lamented the loss of our local Sears, Montgomery Ward, at least one major family-owned downtown department store, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Tandy Leather, Burger Chef, Lums, Howard Johnson’s, K Mart, Toys R Us, and currently Bed Bath & Beyond and Party City. Add to these national players the restaurant we loved and some small neighborhood retailers.

We hold these as beloved establishments. However, when asked about them we often say something like “I loved the Sears store. My mom used to take us there as children” or some such memory that shows that we didn’t go there much, or at least not recently. We remember with our hearts, but we keep them alive (or not) with our feet.

The list includes many establishments that once thrived and were regarded as leaders in their category and in sales. They had devoted followers and popular offerings. So, what happened and what can we as Vincentians learn from this?

In most cases, they did not keep up with customer needs and demands. Maybe their fashion offerings went stale. Perhaps they didn’t provide enough value for their prices. It could have been a culture of bad hours, rude employees, dirty shops, or complicated checkout lines.  We fall in love slowly, but out of love quickly, with consumer brands. Two or three bad experiences and we change our spending habits.  Even established champions like Sears, which once dominated both catalogue and store retailing, succumbed to new competition and better ways for customers to shop.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a national retailer with our more than 400 stores, but the lessons to be considered here go beyond retailing. How often do we review what we offer – all of our service “products” – to see if they meet the needs of those we serve?  Do we keep up with what people in need really require, or do we do things the way we have always done them because it is easy? Some examples:

• Do we operate food pantries on weekday mornings while many of those we serve are working and can’t get to us at that time?
• Do we have Conference meetings at times/days that are inconvenient to those younger adults who we claim we want to join us?
• Are our service applications complicated, and required to be filled out each and every time someone comes back to us for help? (Remember how we hate being asked for our phone and email every time at some stores?)
• Do we still provide services that are offered nearby by government or other nonprofits (and sometimes better), but don’t offer other unavailable but urgently needed services, because “we don’t do that”?

A full Conference and Council review of what we do and how we do it, once annually, keeps us fresh and relevant in the eyes of our members and those we serve. Just because we are old doesn’t mean we are set in our ways. This applies to many of us individually, but also collectively as the Society!

Please do not take this suggestion for review as an invitation to no longer do Home Visits! Yes, even “signature offerings” should be held to a process review. Yes, it may be more efficient, or more convenient, for Vincentians and the person in need to replace the Home Visit with a service counter setting, or by phone or online such as was required during the pandemic. We never conduct Home Visits for these reasons. We do them in respect of those being served, and this never gets outdated. In fact, in these days of so many impersonal connections, they should be treasured!

Just as we adapted and changed when it was suddenly necessary in the pandemic, we likewise should continue to adapt to new transportation, financial, communications, and other technologies, new systemic change solution offerings, and in whatever other ways, new or existing, that improve our mission to “build a more just world through personal relationships with and service to people in need.” Likewise, if we can improve Society working conditions for employees, Vincentian and other volunteers, within the law and our means, we should be watchful for these opportunities.

While we have served in the United States since before the Civil War, we continue to seek holiness and relevance through change and innovation to improve relationships among our friends in need, and to serve in ways that give them assurance that the Society cares, listens, and does its very best to help them.  Christ’s love is never outdated. Our Gospel values are eternal.  May we never have a going out of business sale, and may we never be just a fond memory of the past. Instead, let’s keep looking ahead to a bright tomorrow in our communities!

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer

Sitting in the warm sunshine, I recently attended a college graduation and was struck by the behaviors of the students’ friends and family members all around me. Many were yelling loudly at their favorite graduate’s name, taking many photos, and otherwise celebrating like this event was a major milestone. Which, for some, it definitely was because they were watching the first from their family ever to graduate from college. For others, like parents, it meant the end of college tuition payments! For many, however, they know or will soon understand that college is just one step in a lifetime of learning.

Ironically, this particular graduation was on Ascension weekend. Families celebrated with great fervor the going forth of their young ones to greater adventures, perhaps to return one day. Yet the ascension up to Heaven of Christ, with His promises to finish works on our behalf and then someday to return to us, does not get the fanfare it deserves. Perhaps the annual celebration of this event for hundreds of years has dulled us to its critical importance within our faith and our future.

As Vincentians, we know that college is important, but that our devotion and learning of our faith is a lifelong pathway. Every answer we receive begs new and deeper questions. Yet we continue our faith journey in the hope of attaining the Sainthood promised to us.

Imagine that each of those newly-minted graduates had been formed in our faith and Vincentian charism. Now they prepare to serve, some in our neighborhoods and many others in distant communities, with the zeal of youth and at least a basic understanding of what it means to be a serving Vincentian. Wouldn’t that be a graduation worth celebrating!

In founder Frédéric Ozanam’s day, members of the original Conference first split their growing membership into multiple Paris Conferences, and then members naturally drifted away to other communities. They brought our charism with them to form new Conferences with new members, and thus the Society very quickly grew nationally and even internationally. For example, the Society reached the United States in 1845, only 12 years since the first Conference meeting in Paris, and in a time of far less publicity, transportation and certainly the viral, social media than we have today. A powerful idea, combined with positive word of mouth is, in this case, evangelical. Imagine what it could be like today if current grads likewise went off to the rest of their lives away from their college communities to join, or start, Society Conferences wherever they landed.

We don’t need to imagine it. We can make it happen.

This requires two caring, thoughtful Society communities of action. The first forms and nurtures college campus, Neumann Center, or nearby parish young adult Conferences. The process at this end builds in a high turnover of students and Conference leadership terms, and requires frequent Ozanam Orientations and other basic formation and service opportunities. The second community, which is all of us, receives graduates into their existing parish Conferences and actively assists young adults to form new Conferences. Yes, this process can be messy and requires both patience and resources, not the least of which is community connections to get started.

Just as Christ sent out His disciples to faraway lands to spread the Word, we have an opportunity to nurture young adults as they travel from childhood homes and places of learning into their new career and family communities. The habits learned at a young age, not the least of which are faith and service, need our nurturing and mentorship or they risk being replaced by whatever is available – and not always good – habits.

At graduations nationwide, the grandparents especially understand that the day is a milestone worth celebrating but just one step in a lifetime of learning. What can we do, for both our kids and others’ children, to help them continue on their path of faith formation and service? What would Frederic do? What would Christ do?

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

Dear Vincentian Friends,

In last week’s Servant Leader column, Dave reflected on Vincentian service and poverty statistics with an encouragement to invest in systemic change efforts to complement our direct aid. Let me continue that theme with some related thoughts.

Our Society has taken steps in recent years to provide material that can help develop our understanding of what those we help are experiencing. The work of Donna Beagle has been a very good introduction to poverty in the United States. To go deeper into the complexity of the problem, I recommend Matthew Desmond’s new book, “Poverty, by America.” As in his previous best-selling book, “Evicted,” Desmond provides a well-researched analysis of the complexities of poverty in our country today. You may find fault with some of his conclusions, but you will recognize the people and situations he observes.

In last week’s column, Dave pointed out that “It seems we can’t end poverty by spending more on it.” Matthew Desmond agrees with this observation. Desmond’s analysis is: “We can’t just spend our way out of this. Over the past fifty years, we’ve tried that – doubling antipoverty aid per capita – and the poverty line hasn’t meaningfully budged. A big reason why is that we insist on supporting policies that accommodate poverty, not ones that disrupt it.”*

Desmond reviews almost every aspect of the factors that create poverty, and he refutes many myths about the causes of today’s poverty. He does not lay blame on liberals or conservatives. What he concludes is that most of our efforts, though costly, do not really “disrupt” poverty but actually “accommodate” it – to the benefit of many of us.

What about our Society’s systemic-change efforts? These programs go beyond charitable aid to lessen the suffering. We mentor our neighbors to help them out of their situation and find jobs, housing, education, and healthcare. But, do our efforts really change systems, or do they just help our neighbors in need navigate the status quo and therefore “accommodate” the systems that create their poverty?

Desmond lays out the challenges in each of these areas in great detail with real life stories. We also have these stories. If we want real systemic change, it will require that we share those stories and advocate for changes that will “disrupt” how these systems operate to the detriment of the poor. Let’s increase our efforts to be voices for the poor.

Frederic Ozanam seldom, if ever, talked about poverty as an abstract condition. He talked about misery and injustice. Poverty, as we use the term today, is often reduced to an inoffensive statistical measurement. Ozanam wrote about our charity relieving misery, and he believed that it was the place of justice to change the systems that caused the misery he witnessed. (This is the same language Frederic’s contemporary Victor Hugo used in his famous novel “Les Misérables.”)

Matthew Desmond’s conclusion is that we still have people suffering in poverty because many people, including many of us, benefit from the system. That is the origin of the book’s title, “Poverty, by America.” It may be an uncomfortable conclusion, but it’s one worthy of our attention. I don’t find most of his suggested solutions very satisfying. They are broad in scope and not likely to gain traction. Matthew Desmond has once again created a work, however, that challenges us to take a fresh look at the problem of poverty. He does this by drawing on insights both from personal relationships with those experiencing misery and from research on the causes of poverty in America today. That is a combination of scholarship and experience that would have met with Blessed Frederic Ozanam’s approval. That’s because, like Frederic, Matthew Desmond has climbed the stairs, sat by the bed, and listened to the people experiencing misery.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

*(“Poverty, by America” — p. 137)