WelCom, September 2024
Gerard Stevens, National President, Society of St Vincent de Paul in New Zealand
On 27 September hundreds of thousands of members in 153 countries round the world will celebrate the patronal feast of the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
The Society as we know it was founded in Paris 1833 by Frederic Ozanam and his young friends – aged late teens and early twenties – as means to develop their faith.
They formed a Conference of Charity but very quickly learnt they had to do more than just talk, realising they needed to take positive action by actually visiting and helping the poor. The Conference of Charity rapidly became the Society of St Vincent de Paul after they adopted him as their Patron Saint. Frederic and his young friends were inspired by Vincent’s life and work for the poor some 170 years earlier. As a priest Vincent had been working as a Chaplain to wealthy Catholic families. He lived a worldly way of life until one day he was called to give the Last Rites to a very poor dying man. In that encounter he personally experienced the love of God and became a different person, devoting his life to the service of the poor, helping them with love and practical assistance.
For most people the face of the Society in New Zealand is food parcels and Op Shops and yes, we do those things. But they are a means to an end and there is much more to Vinnies.
The Society, which is unique in that it is a totally independent lay organisation, came to New Zealand in 1868 the Society seeking to achieve the same goals as its parent body; growing the faith of its members and putting that faith into practice by assisting the poor in a practical and personal way. On his very first visit to the poor in Paris in winter, Frederic took some firewood to help them heat their home in the slums of Paris; and even today in New Zealand we still bring firewood to those need of home heating.
The Society is structured in such a way the focus is always on the poor and marginalised members of our community. The local Conference is the kingpin, and its members are the apostles at the ‘coalface’ and it is through them that we carry out our Mission of offering practical and personal help. Like St Vincent de Paul, we want our members and the people they help to have the opportunity to experience the love of God through their actions.
While times have changed enormously, we have to remember the Goals of the Society have not…We are not a welfare agency. The help we supply is a practical way of growing and sharing the love of Jesus Christ for all.
As Pope Benedict XVI said, ‘People discover Christianity not because of learned talks or books, but because they have experienced God’s love in a practical way’.
Local parishes have always been and still are very supportive and nearly all our Conferences have a connection with the local parish. Today, in New Zealand we have approximately 1100 Members, 1735 Volunteers and around 3000 in our Young Vinnies groups, which are mainly school based.
Like all Church-associated groups in English-speaking countries we are following a pattern of ageing membership, declining parish participation, reduced numbers of members and some Conferences have had to close. There is also a lack of diversity in the current membership. Despite these problems there is still enormous enthusiasm for the work being done to further the Society’s Mission. It is an important part of the Church’s mission.
Like many other similar organisations, we must re-examine what we are doing and why we are doing it. The world has changed over the last couple of hundred years and many of the charitable tasks of old no longer exist or have been taken over by government and like bodies. We now must look hard at why our Society was founded and find new ways of achieving the same goals in an environment vastly different to that when Frederic founded the Society. The definition of ‘the Poor’ is now very different and Government plays a bigger part in assisting them. Nowadays, helping the poor can mean advocating for them to the authorities to make sure they receive what is rightfully theirs. Helping them deal with unexpected expenses; making sure people get to live with dignity.
We face extra difficulty in that our Society asks us to visit and make personal contact with the people we help just as Jesus did and as Frederic did. The social and legal environment today makes that harder.
While times have changed enormously, we have to remember the Goals of the Society have not. Yes, the demands for practical assistance are increasing, our numbers are decreasing and in the midst of the turmoil it is easy to forget our original goals. We are not a welfare agency. The help we supply is a practical way of growing and sharing the love of Jesus Christ for all.
Vincentian Charity is Service with Christian love.
Join us in this Mission!
Visit www.svdp.org.nz for more information about the Society of
St Vincent de Paul in New Zealand.
See Young Vinnies’ annual Mass.
St Vincent de Paul cm (1581–1660) was an French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. A man of deep faith, intellect and enormous creativity, he has become known as the ‘The Apostle of Charity’ and ‘Father of the Poor’. He was renowned for his compassion, humility, and generosity and was canonised a saint in 1737. Vincent is the patron of all works of charity. His feast is on 27 September.
Image: Seventh-century portrait of Vincent by Simon François de Tours.
Blessed Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam (1813–1853) was a French Catholic literary scholar, lawyer, journalist and equal rights advocate. With fellow Sorbonne students he founded the Conference of Charity, later known as the Society of St Vincent de Paul. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in 1997.