07-24-25 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

It’s a Great Time to be a Vincentian! 

When former Cardinal Robert Prevost recently became the first Pope from the USA, he was a longshot choice that even Vatican pundits said “would never happen”.  I took a moment to reflect on other major “firsts” during my lifetime.  Those that came to mind included:

• The jet airplane enabling passengers to safely travel to any point in the world in a matter of 24 hours or less…
• Humans landing on another celestial body, the Moon, 250,000 miles away from earth, while other robotic spacecraft land on Mars, or observe other planets, sending back images over millions of miles from these desolate places…
• Your Apple iPhone which has more computer processing and memory than the Apollo lunar landing vehicle…
• Successful medical transplants of critical human organs, protective vaccines, cancer treatments, and other significant discoveries enabling longer and more healthy lives…
• The Internet which provides answers to any inquiry in mere seconds, far outperforming the purchase of an entire selection of the Encyclopedia Brittanica only a few decades ago…
• The ability to purchase anything globally with a plastic card and without cash in your pocket, and
• Color TV, satellite radio, GPS, driverless vehicles, and many, many more…

Human innovation inspired by the Holy Spirit has driven our collective progress.

I wonder what our patron, St Vincent de Paul, and our founder, Blessed Frederic Ozanam, might think about the progress of SVDP over the last nearly 200 years, and especially in the US?  They probably hoped that their simple idea of charity to neighbors would catch fire. It certainly did! The Society is now established in over 150 countries around the world.  In the US alone, we have nearly 90,000 Vincentian members in over 4400 Conferences.  According to the Society’s FY23 report, we provided over $1.7 billion in total value of goods and services, made over 1.9 million visits to neighbors in need while serving over 5 million people here.

Despite these successes, however, the increasing challenges that our neighbors face today mandate that the Society build upon its progress.  And we are:

• The VisionSVDP team is currently analyzing over 24,000 comments from Vincentians around the country into common themes from which next actions will be derived. We are forming our Society’s future together.
• This past April, our National organization set up a Washington DC office, led by Ms. Ingrid Delgado. She is well qualified to advocate for our neighbors on a number of Congressional issues ranging from preventing homelessness, food/nutrition, and other related policies.
• SVDP is now ranked 59^th in the Top 100 Charities in the US as determined by the well-respected Charity Navigator organization, a major improvement from 75^th the year before. This key ranking ensures our donors, both large and small, that their donation to the Society will be used prudently and effectively.  We are looking to crack the top 10 soon!
• The Vincentian mission has expanded into areas such as operating homeless shelters, disaster services, medical and dental clinics, pharmacies and prison ministries.
• Although Vincentians have always worked to prevent homelessness at the Conference level, this issue has become our North Star as a National organization. We are accomplishing this through government advocacy, funding related projects, and broader public awareness.

Your Board of Directors is fully engaged in continuing to build our momentum in assisting our neighbors.  But it is you, our Members, who work tirelessly each day to make our Society what it is and what it will be tomorrow.

Who will give the Society it’s next big idea in spirituality, fellowship, or service?  Look in the mirror; YOU, that’s who!  Your prayers, support and innovative ideas are always welcome at the National, Regional, Council or Conference levels.  We thank God for you and all those called to be Vincentians.  Come Holy Spirit, come!

St Vincent de Paul and Blessed Frederic Ozanam, pray for us!