Servant Leader

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10-27-2022 A Letter from Our Servant Leaders
10-27-2022 A Letter from Our Servant Leaders 1080 1080 SVDP USA

We often take modern conveniences for granted. How life has changed from just a century ago in the United States with air travel, television, the microwave oven, the computer, and the Internet. Some of it has even been good!

Let’s look back further to 400 years and to Paris, France. We see none of the items above. Heck, we don’t even see indoor plumbing, penicillin, or widespread literacy. Heating and cooling meant opening and closing a window and starting a wood or charcoal fire and cutting blocks of ice. This is the world of Vincent de Paul (before he was a Saint) and it makes his works all the more remarkable.

Imagine now if Vincent had a cellphone.

In his day, Vincent ran several businesses, raised funds, recruited volunteers constantly, and otherwise organized like the dickens the numbers, the meals, the fuel, the people, and the buildings to feed the hungry and serve God’s neediest across Paris and rural France. Distances were “longer” then because you either walked them or, if you were fortunate, you had a horse or carriage to carry you at a whopping five miles an hour. If Vincent needed someone, he either sent a runner or had to go get them; he couldn’t send them a text or pick up the phone. Leave a message? Ha! Maybe a note on the door or with a neighbor, and even that with hopes that the recipient knew how to read!

Saint Vincent gives us so many examples in which to lead our Vincentian lives. He used the resources of his time to do the best he could with what God gave him. No excuses, just the use of the blessings he had to do all he could to serve. How did he recruit others to help? He rang the church bell, went door to door, preached in the pulpit and met people where they lived and worked to ask for their time and resources to help their neighbors. He delegated, encouraged, and then organized the laity (the Ladies) the religious (the Daughters) and the clergy (the Congregation of the Mission). He then provided the structures (the Rule) and prayed. A lot.

As Vincent’s organizational descendants we have many more tools at our disposal, including relatively more discretionary time and money, than most of the Parisians of Vincent’s day. We have communications and transportation technology that make the loads lighter and the distances shorter between our volunteers and people we serve. We have only modern-world problems!

This month as we consider our Fall activities and start of our alumni gatherings, church festivals, and holidays, please think of St. Vincent for a moment. How would he utilize these days of friends getting together to recruit – in pairs, face to face? How would he organize an evening of Vincentians in a Conference meeting, each with the modern-day miracle of a cellphone and a roster of inactive members, to hold an old-fashioned phone-a-thon to make some calls to invite them back, celebrating with each “new-found” friend? How would he inspire a Conference President or young adult to give a brief Invitation to Serve address at Mass, followed in the school hall or elsewhere nearby by other Conference members welcoming prospective members into our ranks? As his example inspired a young Frederic Ozanam and his friends nearly 200 years ago in Paris, how can that same zeal demonstrated by Vincent inspire us today here in our community?

Technologies change over time. Yet history reminds us that many of the needs of our world are timeless and universal. Fortunately, so too are our Church’s eternal examples of the Saints, none so more than our Society’s patron, St. Vincent de Paul.  Let us learn from, and live by, the examples with which he has graced us.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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10-20-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
10-20-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Any parent knows that time is elastic. The days can be long, but the years fly by quickly. The moments in emergency rooms are like eternity, and the joyous celebrations of graduations, birthday parties, and weddings go by so quickly. Such is life for all of us.

Our daily lives are also so full of work, family, and personal obligations as well that it is easy to forget about events that take place more than a few miles away from our routines. If it isn’t a part of our life today, then out of sight, out of mind.

It’s only been a few weeks, but the hurricane and affiliated storms and surges in Florida and the Carolinas are largely out of the news cycles except in the immediate areas. While local residents in Missouri, Kentucky, California, Texas, and elsewhere are still reeling from major disasters this past year, many of us have moved on.

Yet while both time and distance can hamper our personal ability to remember and to respond to tragedy, God provides nonetheless through the collective care and organization of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  We are blessed to be a part of this long-term approach to provide for the victims of disasters through the Society’s Disaster Services Corporation, our international Society, and through the cooperation of our National Council and local Councils and Conferences throughout the United States.

When you donate to the annual Disaster Relief Campaign, currently underway, you provide funds that will be available to help all year for both large and small disasters, many of which never make it into the news. Local Conferences and Councils can apply to the USA National Council for disaster grants to help their neighbors, while preserving their traditional funds for the usual Home Visit needs.

The Disaster Services Corporation (DSC), a subsidiary of our National Council and recipient of some of the campaign’s funds, provides disaster preparedness and response skills training for Vincentians nationwide. As a member of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (NVOAD), DSC also responds to major disasters nationwide to provide for long-term disaster relief and is in place weeks and even months after a disaster to help neighbors rebuild their lives. Your contributions help pay for the infrastructure costs that often are not reimbursed by FEMA and other federal or other grant funds for DSC’s work, and which are needed between the specific disasters when things quiet down just a little, but the work goes on.

Your contributions to the Disaster Relief Campaign help internationally, too. When a major disaster such as a typhoon, earthquake, or fire strikes another country, especially in a poor nation, the Society’s International Council is asked for assistance from the local National Council. An established international fund helps year-round when needed instead of trying to raise funds when the disasters hit.

All in all, then, this single annual appeal recognizes our human nature to tend not to keep track of events, even major ones, that are far away, and after weeks or months go by. Our Vincentian hearts care even if our minds sometimes forget. This appeal helps us to plan ahead for the inevitable disasters, and to have funds ready to help our fellow Vincentians to serve our neighbors.

Your giving today says that just as Vincentians know that God is always with us, our beloved Society is with us as well, in good times and in bad times, ready to help. Just reach out, we are standing by, prepared with financial resources to help your local Vincentians in support of your neighbors in need to rebuild their lives after major disruptions, even if it takes weeks or months. We will continue to be the Face of Christ along with you, and we have prepared for this moment to help you just as the Lord has always been at your side.

If your community has not been hit by floods, fire, earthquakes, major storms or other disasters, say a prayer of thanksgiving. By the grace of God, it wasn’t your turn. Please help others whose turn has come, or whose turn may be next, by giving on your own and with your Conference and Council to the Disaster Relief Campaign.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

P.S. – Please send appeal gifts to the National Council SVDPUSA to “Disaster Relief Campaign.” Please DO NOT include the names of states, countries or individual disasters. If you would like to give online, click here.

Thank you!

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10-13-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
10-13-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

Looking at the history of our Society, it is clear that the providence of God has given us the leadership we have needed at every point along our path so far. This month President Renato Lima de Oliveira declared the International Year of Jules Gossin, to honor the second President General of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Gossin succeeded Emanuel Bailly and served as president from 1844 to 1847. Except for Bailly, our founders were young college students. Yet, when they selected his replacement, they looked to a man who was actually five years older than Bailly. The Society needed Gossin’s stable guidance for a few more years before it turned leadership over to a 28-year-old Adolphe Baudon, who would become our third and longest-serving President General.

We are in the process of electing our next national President. What is the leadership that we need next? You are each invited to participate in that discernment process through prayer and review of the material available on each of our two final candidates. Before you vote in your Conference meetings, I urge you to view the videos of the speeches John Berry and Brian Burgess gave at our recent National Assembly. You may even want to watch their speeches as part of a Conference meeting, and you should read their written platforms. We have two very qualified candidates; so please take the time to make an informed choice. We trust that in God’s providence we will be blessed with the leadership we need for the future.

Let me return to Jules Gossin and share a little about his contributions to our Society that are still relevant today. His presidency was a key bridge between our Society’s founding and its becoming a stable worldwide institution. Several years earlier, Gossin had founded another organization of Catholic lay people, the St. Regis Society, which was dedicated to regularizing the marriages of the poor. From the development of that group, he undoubtedly learned many lessons that were applicable to the challenges our Society faced as it grew.

Gossin’s most important contribution was the maintenance of a central governing structure that aggregated new conferences and required adherence to the Rule. Our first United States Conference in St. Louis was welcomed by Gossin with a letter dated May 25, 1845. The letter informed the Conference that its application for aggregation had been enthusiastically approved at the February 2 meeting of the General Council. The letter encouraged the Conference members in their work and their hopes for continued expansion in the United States. Today, some Conferences would prefer to act independently from the structures provided, but that would not be in keeping with the model passed on to us.

Even more interesting to me is that in the next letter from Gossin to the U.S. Conference members, he insists that they submit an annual report. At this time of the year, I hear complaints about having to file our annual reports. Some say that this is onerous and should not be required in our organization. Don’t look to history to validate your opinion. Gossin wrote to the new Conference in St. Louis on Nov. 16, 1846, “Dear Sir and Brothers, We have the pleasure of sending you herewith a report form for the use of your Conference and we beg you to answer it. We are asking this to enable us in the General Report for 1846, which shall soon occupy our attention, to give all information concerning your Conference. We hope that you will comply with our wish and that you will not only answer with the statistical sections but especially that you will give us details concerning the works which you are performing, their moral results and the good which you expect to accomplish. … Before leaving this consideration, may we add a few technical details. It is hoped that in totaling the amount of your income and disbursements you will terminate as of October 31st. Thus we will be enabled to give to the Conferences the exact amount of revenues for the year.”

Gossin continued, “We also pray you to send us the report by mail as soon as it is compiled. Each year we make greater and greater efforts to hasten the publication of the Report, and we hope this year to achieve our ambition.”

Our annual reporting requirements are important and have always been part of our tradition. I echo our second President General’s request: Please get your reports in by the deadline so that we can publish our National Council Annual Report in a timely manner. It is by this means of accountability that we can give testimony to the good we accomplish together for so many.

Serviens in spe,

Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

P.S. I really enjoy history and will share a few more of Gossin’s insights during this year dedicated to his memory.

 

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10-06-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leader
10-06-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leader 1363 1363 SVDP USA

It is often said that history is written by the winners. For example, if our country’s Revolutionary War had been won by the British, our Founding Fathers would have been largely forgotten traitors and Benedict Arnold might be remembered today as a protector of the Empire. Perspectives are largely formed through the prisms of those who have benefitted from the experiences.

Let’s consider this, then, from a Catholic perspective. Who decides when something is the work of the Holy Spirit?

We hear this all the time when something good happens, right? When our position wins in a courtroom battle, when a storm misses our home, and when just the right leader has taken our parish or our Society’s Council to greater heights, we thank the Holy Spirit for being present and gracious in our lives. But hold on a minute. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit was actively working against that other position, those other homes that were damaged by the storm, and those other candidates who offered to help but who weren’t selected to lead?

Is the Holy Spirit really that personally involved, and indeed even that capricious? That doesn’t sound like part of the Holy Trinity to me.

We know from the Book of Isaiah that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and neither are our ways the Lord’s ways. Thus, we can’t begin to understand the presence and plans of the Holy Spirit, except perhaps to believe that the Holy Spirit is always with us, from our worst days and most unspeakable tragedies and pain to our most joyous days and celebrations. It’s all part of God’s plans for us that we don’t, and may never, understand.

We can be defeatist about all this and assume that because it won’t matter anyway, let’s just sit and be God’s lump of clay, simply exist with as little effort as possible, and wait until He calls us home. Or, since you are probably a Vincentian reading this column, you have instead assumed that God put you here for a purpose. You may not fully understand that purpose, but you assume it is for good! You further understand that the Holy Spirit helps you develop your potential for that good.  The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is just one of the tools given to you to build your spiritual formation, to serve God’s chosen people the Poor, and to help develop the good in others, too. Indeed, how could the Society have blossomed around the world to more than 150 countries and 800,000 members without the Holy Spirit’s guidance?

Who decides when the Holy Spirit is at work? At times, at least, we do. Not only when, but where- in the streets, in homes, in prisons, in nursing homes, in hospitals and shelters, wherever we do our works of mercy and hope. It is there extensively, and consistently – every day around the country and around the world. We are the chroniclers of today’s presence of the Holy Spirit through our lives and service.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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09-22-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
09-22-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 400 400 SVDP USA

Editor’s note:

The following is a shortened version of the letter from Rev. Tomaž Mavrič, CM, Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and leader of our Vincentian Family. Links to the compete letter in multiple languages are found later in this edition of the E-Gazette.

To the members of the Vincentian Family throughout the world:

Dear sisters and brothers,

May the grace and peace of Jesus be always with us!

We are fast-approaching the Feast of Saint Vincent that officially falls on 27 September, but, given the reality of a country, the celebration may be held on some other day to allow the greatest number of persons to attend.

We are seeing the return to in-person gatherings, which bring us joy and encouragement, since we are able again to witness as family, as persons of faith, participating in the Eucharist and other celebrations that a year ago were still hampered by the pandemic. This is an additional reason for us to put all our efforts and talents into making this observance of the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul a memorable one after these past few years of very limited gatherings or their prohibition.

In fact, the whole month of September is called a Vincentian month. Depending on the structure and program of the Vincentian Family in a given country, different events, gatherings, and initiatives may be offered throughout the month. These might include days of recollection for youth who are discerning a vocation to the consecrated life, as well as formation and charity initiatives to deepen our Vincentian spirituality and charism. We also invite others, who may not know Saint Vincent de Paul and the other Saints, Blessed, and Servants of God of the Vincentian Family, to get to know our Vincentian spirituality and charism through our words and deeds.

The title of this year’s letter for the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul is, “From a Vincentian Family Structure toward a Vincentian Family Movement” and “Vincentian Centers of Spirituality and Formation around the world.”

Not so long ago, the international leaders of the different Vincentian Congregations of Consecrated Life and Lay Associations began to gather every year to build closer relationships and collaboration, as belonging to the same spiritual and charismatic group, even though each one retained its own specificity and uniqueness. This group began to be called “the Vincentian Family” and was symbolized by a tree with many branches. The central part of the tree with is roots is our common Vincentian spirituality and charism, and each branch represents an individual Congregation or Association. That is why we often use the word branches, having in mind the beautiful symbol of a tree.

The structured groups of Women’s and Men’s Congregations, and Lay Associations presently number 165. In addition, many other people, attracted and inspired by the person of Saint Vincent de Paul and the other Saints, Blesseds, and Servants of God of the Vincentian Family, do not belong officially to any of its branches. They are drawn to the Vincentian spirituality and charism through books, articles, the internet, radio, television, and social media. They would like to further their knowledge of the Vincentian way of thinking, speaking, and living, thus becoming active participants in the spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, having the right to be called “Vincentians.” Already, a large number of persons who do not belong specifically to any group, because of their way of living out their lives, serving, thinking, speaking, and acting, embody the Vincentian spirit and charism. Here I see the further development of the Vincentian Family and this wonderful Vincentian Tree into what is becoming a so-called “Vincentian Family Movement.”

I would like to encourage all the international, national, and regional leaders of the structured branches of this beautiful tree called the Vincentian Family to invite as many members as possible of the Confraternities and the collaborators who do not belong to any specific group to participate in the different events that will be organized in the various countries throughout the month of September.

May Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Saint Vincent de Paul and all the Saints, Blesseds, and Servants of God of the Vincentian Family, intercede before Jesus for us all!

Your brother in Saint Vincent,
Tomaž Mavrič, CM

Please send us pictures and videos of the various celebrations you organized throughout the Vincentian month of September, or short articles about them, to these two email addresses, and we will try to share the information through different means of communication.

Javier Fernández Chento: chento@famvin.org

Hugo Marcelo Vera, CM: nuntia@cmglobal.org

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09-15-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
09-15-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1363 1363 SVDP USA

In a recent e-Gazette Q and A column, I screwed up. A member asked about how they might change the national logo for local use. Attempting to keep things simple, I ignored (actually, I just forgot) a relevant National Resolution. This column will re-visit and clarify the rules for everyone – I hope! – as we think about how the public views the Society locally and beyond.

Some people believe that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is just the parish or thrift store down the street, having no idea that we are a nationwide, much less global, organization. Others see us only as a major nonprofit and forget that we are a collection of usually parish-centric groups of their neighbors helping neighbors.  Identifying marks, or logos, can clarify or confuse this situation when we use multiple versions of the same design. When we choose very different logos to represent the same organization, we certainly confuse the public when they venture from one city to another or from state to state.

This was recognized in 2006 when our National Council adopted National Resolution 11 at its Annual Meeting. Here is most of its wording:

  • The name and the Logo of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are protected and the exclusive property of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Council of the United States.
  • Use of the name and the logo can only be approved by the National Executive Director, who is the designated agent for Council of United States in this matter.
  • The Dimensions, Shape, Color, Font Style, Copy and Placement of the logo and the name are governed by specifications determined by the National Council.
  • The approval and authorization to use the name and or logo can only be secured through a written request and provided by a written response.  Properly established Conferences and Councils are permitted to use the Society’s name and logo consistent with this policy.

Okay, so what this means is that if your Council or Conference wants to replace the word “U.S.A.” at the bottom of the national logo with your local city, you need the written (email is fine) permission of the National CEO to do so.  This is required to maintain our trademark consistency and legal rights to protect our marks against fraudulent uses by others. Believe me, after nine years of battling other groups who have used our name and images for non-Society uses, even for good purposes, I can testify just how important this protection is for all of us in the Society. Others highly value the brand of the Society in our ability to raise funds, collect and sell used goods, and to be recognized for many types of charitable works.

Note that this Resolution was created before the current tax exemption policy for the Society. Therefore, another element needs to be considered, that of the “controlling” tax exempt status of the requesting Society group. For example, if a District Council wants its own version of the national logo, and it is organized under a Diocesan Council, then it also needs the permission of the Diocesan Council to avoid local confusion. The same goes for a Conference under its higher Council/s.

Any change to the national logo, whether it be temporary wording for a special event, or a color for a special day, or additional design elements that touch the existing design, changes the trademarked work and damages our ability to protect our rights are discouraged. All of us have a shared responsibility to maintain and protect the design as it is, and to change it only with specific permission as described above. I promise to help you navigate any questions you may have on logo permissions. We also have branding and logo specifics to help you under the “Resources” tab of the Members page of our national website. Click here to access now.

We will delete the Q and A entry from our archive. I am reminded that one of my roles is “Keeper of the Logo” which sounds like a Marvel movie character. Gee, I wonder who will play me in the next Avengers film?

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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09-08-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
09-08-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1367 1520 SVDP USA

A wonderful Annual Assembly of the National Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society wrapped up last Saturday evening in Baltimore. I want to warn our members who did not attend that we who were there are returning home with many new ideas and zeal for the renewal of our Society. I hope you catch some of that enthusiasm. I am back home writing this column with the intent of featuring the highlights, and I am having trouble – not because of my aging memory but because there were so many of them.

It was not the National Assembly’s most important moment, but for me the most-moving highlight took place during our Friday-morning retreat. With fervor, nearly 800 Vincentians sang “Here I Am Lord” with musician and composer Dan Schutte. They sang “I will go Lord, if you need me, I will hold your people in my heart,” and there was no doubt they meant it.

A close-second highlight also came in song. At the end of an informative and passion-filled speech by Renato Lima de Oliveira, the President General of the Society’s International Council, he led us in Matt Maher’s powerful song, “I Need You Lord.” A song fervently sung and meant by the overflowing crowd of Vincentians made tangible the bonds of friendship we forge as we journey together toward holiness.

The most-important thing that happened at the Assembly was the choice made during Saturday’s Business Meeting, when your delegates chose the two candidates for whom you will vote in the months ahead to be your next National Council President. After listening to talks by the four candidates, delegates chose John Berry and Brian Burgess to advance as the final nominees. I want to thank all four highly qualified nominees for their willingness to serve. More will be shared with you about the voting process in the weeks ahead.

One of the specific initiatives we kicked off at the Assembly was promotion of a revised version of an evaluation of our organization at all levels. Started back in 2009, this evaluation framework is called our Standards of Excellence. We will be asking every level of our organization to engage in this self-evaluation process to ensure our Councils and Conferences are prepared structurally to meet the challenges we are facing in the years ahead. Please take this process to heart and use it to assess your current activity and structure and then to create the plans that will make us a stronger, better Society.

The talks, workshops, and liturgies at the Assembly were excellent. The workshops, especially, gave us much to take home and work on in the months ahead. At the meeting, we also celebrated our accomplishments and challenged ourselves to meet the needs of the changing world in which we serve our neighbors in need. We featured the 20th anniversary of the highly successful Invitation for Renewal Program. We also recognized the work of our Disaster Services Corporation, which has significantly grown its capacity and credibility since we established it five years ago. Thank you to all the organizers and presenters who made this an exceptionally great meeting.

Music always moves me and enriches my prayer life. That may be why hearing hundreds of voices singing “Here I am Lord” together in Baltimore was so powerful for me. I hope you, too, can say, “Here I Am,” and make that commitment to serve, to be a leader and to grow our organization. It is not easy work we do. Our need for being spiritually grounded in that commitment could not have been more powerfully communicated to us than it was by having our very own President General choose to sing, “Lord, I need You, oh, I need You. Every hour, I need You.”

I left the meeting in Baltimore with a desire to work for this Society with a renewed commitment in this last year of my presidency. That’s a commitment to serve all of you as we grow in holiness and live out our Vincentian mission together. Even though you may not have been with us at the National Assembly, I hope you choose to renew your passion for that mission with me.

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

P.S. This Friday, September 9, is the Feast of Blessed Frederic Ozanam. Please take time to pray for his canonization, which we hope will occur in the near future.

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08-25-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
08-25-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1368 1387 SVDP USA

It’s easier to see when someone else does it.

Let’s call this the Annual Backpack Explosion. Every year at this time, schoolchildren are given the opportunity to pick up a free backpack, often stuffed with free pencils, crayons, pads of papers, and other school supplies. They can go with their parents to a convention center, a school, a shopping mall, an automobile dealer, or some other place that usually has lots of parking for families and of course some media to watch the lines of kids getting their selection of the free goodies. Sounds great, right?

At one level, of course this is a good thing, as we hope that every child is adequately and equitably prepared for the first day of school. However, on a large level, there is usually little or no coordination or communication with the groups organizing this chaotic attempt to do good. One result can be more, perhaps many more, backpacks than are needed, or certainly an uneven distribution than where the need is across a region.

Another unintended consequence is that expectations often change with repeated behaviors. What do the children and their parents now expect next year? Will they make plans to buy what they need for school, or wait for another handout? Will a simple backpack be enough, or will only a designer brand or the one with that year’s more popular superhero be the only one they will accept? Will generic crayons be good enough, or will that box of only eight colors satisfy them?

To any Society food pantry, dining hall, or Home Visit worker, the above examples might feel, well, familiar. We wonder sometimes if the families we see every week at the pantry are trying hard enough to find other solutions, and then we feel guilty about feeling this way. We try as Vincentians not to judge others. Then we judge ourselves when we work really hard, but the people we serve don’t always appreciate our service and even demand more than we gave them last time.

We must also ask ourselves, and we can see this with the backpack program as well, does this program really help the intended beneficiary audience all that much, or is it more about helping the volunteers or donors feel good about helping others? The answer can change over time, and this can be a bitter pill to swallow!

When we create a program, we often forget to create an exit plan, or even an evaluation plan. We get so excited to start something that we forget to think about its consequences, intended or unintended, on the people we serve, the community, and even on ourselves. We might notice an impact on our wallets! But what about the impact on the way people’s behaviors change because we changed ours? Have we created not only a new resource, but a new dependency? Is the resource we think of as a temporary fix viewed by others as a continuing benefit in time, money or other advantage?

We also forget in our rush to start something to tell others, especially our friends, that we are about to do something good. Sure, we have a grand opening announcement. However, we often do not tell other nearby Conferences parishes, other faith groups, government agencies, and others about our programs, our resources and especially our limitations. Then we wonder why that family shows up in the middle of the night asking for our help, telling us they were sent by our “friends” across town.

Sometimes we think we are just a few good people doing a few good things from the church basement. In truth we are a lot of great faith-filled people, doing many good and Holy things all over the country. People notice, as do other agencies, churches, community groups, the media, you name it. People in need talk to each other, and they have our name as a trusted friend on their lips to tell each other who they can go to for help.

We owe it to our neighbors, especially those in need, our partners and funders, and ourselves, to re-assess our work constantly in light of its impact today and tomorrow. We may be making a difference, but is it still the one we wanted? Is it the one Christ would want us to make with what we have?

Yours in Christ,
Dave
CEO

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08-18-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leader
08-18-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leader 1363 1363 SVDP USA

When we retire, or ultimately when God call us home, we think about what we accomplished. We also think about what we have left behind for others who follow behind us. Did we destroy things in our wake, do little or nothing, or leave a foundation of strength for others to continue to build upon?

It’s not about me, but as examples I’m proud to be an Eagle Scout but much prouder to have helped dozens of other young men to reach the same rank. I’m a pretty fair communications pro, but there are a dozen even better nonprofit PR professionals who survived working under me to become leaders. Most dear to my heart, the time and attention invested along with my wife to raise a child pays dividends every day with a young high school teacher and coach who calls me Dad. You doubtless have many of your own great examples!

It is often not about personal lineage but about culture and experience. As Vincentians we live out in practice the lessons of Vincent, Louise, Frederic, Rosalie, and others who served before us. We often ask how we might undertake a project in the way a former President would have done it, or certainly how the Society’s culture prescribes as written down in our beloved Rule.

God gives each of us gifts at different times in our lives, be they time or talents, friendship or funds, hope or help.  How do we spend them now for the greater good, and then how do we leave some of them behind for the next generation of our family, and for our next generation of our Vincentian friends? These are questions for us as individuals, as a family, and even as a Conference.

The poor will always be with us. The challenges of today, however, may look quite different tomorrow, and may even be in different places. For example, America looked quite different 100 years ago. The Church is experiencing today the result of not paying attention to demographic changes that happened slowly over the decades. Real estate did not move with the population and demographics or languages. Jobs moved. Infrastructures crumbled. Economies shifted for better or worse. Our own families dispersed across the country and even the world.

Fortunately, the Society serves everywhere, and we can take a national, even global approach to poverty and disaster relief. We can build new Conferences while combining others when parishes are forced to close. Through Twinning, we can move resources from more advantaged areas to those in need. Our legacy as the Society stays the same; we serve people where they live.

As an older social construct in America, the Society can think and act across time. At more than 177 years old, we have seen it all – wars, pandemics, depressions, you name it – and we’re still here and still serving. We might make adjustments and deliver our works differently to fit the times and the safety requirements, but we are still here, two at a time and at your door, help in hand as the Face of Christ. That’s a legacy to keep going, isn’t it?

When we come together for the National Assembly in Baltimore, we will talk about our legacy as individuals and how each of us can take action to reflect what is likely already in our hearts. We can commit to continue to serve the Society in serving our beloved poor after we ourselves are called home. We will go home to rest, but our resources will be able to work on our behalf by those who come after us. And we can do this with just a little planning with our families and our advisers.

Legacy gifts are not at all exclusive to the wealthy. Anyone can, and should, have a will to protect their family. Many of the bequest gifts we receive at the National Council are from working people who leave a small to moderate amount, and these gifts are added together with many others to make a huge difference. You know, just like your Vincentian service now.

Vincentians don’t try to wish away the problems of the poor; we help families to solve them. We can do the same for the desired future of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul itself. Rather than just hope for its strong and sustainable future, we can help to build it. We can do this in part through prayer, yes of course, but also through the simple yet intentional act of thoughtful, prayerful giving. I ask you to join me in this legacy activity in the near future.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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08-11-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leader
08-11-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leader 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

Have you read any good books this summer? I just finished reading the newly published biography of Amélie Ozanam. It won’t make the list of New York Times bestsellers or any list of great summer reads, but I found it compelling. Amélie, as most of us know, was the wife of our principal founder, Frédéric Ozanam. That is about all any of us knew about her until Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée wrote this wonderfully detailed biography.

Amélie turns out to have been much more than a supportive spouse for a brilliant Sorbonne professor. All of us who love Frédéric will have our understanding of him enriched by seeing him through Amélie’s perspective. Her biography includes 50 pages of her letters, which are insightful and charming — and contain firsthand details of the couple’s life together that cannot be found elsewhere.

It is clear from this biography that Amélie was a true partner to Frédéric. He was not always an easy man to live with, but he was a better person for having her in his life. Those of us who value the legacy of our founder owe Amélie a debt for keeping the memory of him alive. She worked with several biographers and saved many of his personal artifacts that are now on display in our international headquarters in Paris. She was especially dedicated to preserving his writings; her efforts included overseeing several posthumous publications and writing many of his friends to have letters he sent them returned for preservation.

Amélie was 33 years old when Frédéric died. She never remarried and was often seen publicly in her mourning dress. She continued to lead an active social and family life, however. Her main task was raising their daughter, Marie, with the help of family and friends. Many of Frédéric’s friends would stay in touch with her, and she participated in several charitable activities in Paris.

I found reading Amélie’s letters included in this book touching — particularly so those written in the months when she and Frédéric were engaged but separated. He was teaching in Paris, and she was living with her parents in Lyon. Her writings are romantic, insightful, humorous and occasionally a bit confrontative.

We all need people in our lives who love, challenge and support us. In Amélie, Frédéric Ozanam had such a person. A quote from one of her letters to Frédéric serves as an appropriate subtitle for the book, “A heart with much love to give.”

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

P.S.  In full disclosure, the National Council is the publisher of this book and — working with the author, Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée — arranged for the translation of this work from French to English. I had the pleasure of reviewing the proofs with Raymond Sickinger and Timothy Williams, but seeing the final product in print exceeded my expectations. The book can be ordered from the National Council office.

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