WelCom December 2022
Members of the Society of St Vincent de Paul from Kapi Mana, Wellington and Hutt Wairarapa Areas gathered at Tawa parish’s Our Lady of Fatima Church, on Sunday 25 September, to celebrate their annual feast day.
Area presidents, including National President Terry Jordan, and many members joined with Cardinal John Dew and parishioners in the Sunday Eucharist.
Cardinal John spoke on how becoming a priest St Vincent moved in the highest circles of the wealthiest families in Paris. One day he was asked to attend a dying man from a very poor family. Vincent was hugely changed by the man’s faith and by how poor he was. From then on, he focused on doing what he could to help the poor by way of practical and spiritual help. Vincent found Christ in the poor.
At the end of Mass, Kapi Mana Area President Gerry Stevens thanked the people of Tawa for their practical and spiritual support. He explained how, out of that belief of St Vincent, ‘our founder Blessed Frederic Ozanam some 200 years later began the Conference of Charity, dedicated to the care of our poorest neighbours. Shortly afterwards it became known as the Society of St Vincent de Paul’.
Gerry Stevens said the environments in which Vincentians work now are very similar to those in the time of Blessed Frederic. ‘They started by visiting the poor and bringing food and firewood and today we are still doing the same.’
Today SVdP it is recognised as a large international charity with members helping the world’s poor in practical ways, one-on-one, bringing Christ into their lives, while growing their own personal spirituality.
