St. Vincent De Paul Society President Sees Growing Role As Advocate For the Poor

By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer

Published: September 11, 2003

ATLANTA—Just as more Americans are in greater financial need in the new century, so too the membership of the St. Vincent de Paul Society has risen to 100,000 strong across the United States, this year expanding into Salt Lake City, Utah, and Anchorage, Alaska.

The growth of the charity to include nearly every state is partly the result of an “Invitation to Serve” national outreach effort to encourage parishes without conferences to start them and to attract new volunteers, particularly among young adults, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and other diverse groups. Last year members served 14.5 million poor.

“We’re growing everywhere,” said Gene Smith, national president. “I’m excited about some of the things happening in the West.”

Smith, from San Rafael, Calif., and Roger Playwin, the national executive director based in Detroit, were among 700 Vincentians who gathered in Atlanta Sept. 3-6 for the 89th annual St. Vincent de Paul National Meeting.

Members came from the United States, with representatives from Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico and Mexico. There were about 175 people from the Atlanta Archdiocese, where there are 67 conferences.

Hosting the meeting was a major event for the Atlanta Council, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Topics on the agenda included spirituality, unity, solidarity with the poor, collaborating with others, and fund raising.

Father Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities USA, Diana Hayes, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at Georgetown University, and Msgr. Richard Lopez, St. Pius X High School teacher in Atlanta, were the keynote speakers.

The Society was founded in 1833 in Paris by a college student, Blessed Frederic Ozanam, and his friends, after they were challenged by other students about their defense of the church with the question, “You brag about being Catholic. What do you do?” Ozanam’s response was to create a conference of charity to “go to the poor.”

Smith said that the SVdP Society, now the largest lay Catholic organization in the world with about 650,000 members, is working to raise its profile nationally and to expand from its traditional work in charity and financial aid into areas such as legislative advocacy, life skills education, homeless shelters and domestic violence protection to help people to get back on their calloused feet.

In the meantime, members, two by two, keep making the home visits which are at their heart of their mission, bringing people safely into the ark of God’s provision.

Smith said although many conferences have struggled, encountering more need and a drop in donations, last year members made 600,000 home visits. The act of going out and visiting people at their residences, which involves listening, and may include distributing necessities such as food, clothing or financial aid for housing and utilities, is a way of affirming the dignity of the people they serve.

“We certainly continue providing the care and concern. We help everybody we can in terms of resources we have,” Smith said.

He recalled an evening visit he and his wife made to a very poor neighborhood where they were fearful for their safety. He reassured his wife by saying they needed to remember that they were visiting Jesus.

A little boy opened the door and they learned his name was Jesús and his mother’s name was Maria. They offered her, a single mother, assistance with rent. She had had to miss work because Jesús was sick, and now they were at risk of being evicted.

“We see this (home visit) as very important,” Smith said. “We believe that when we’re serving somebody, we’re serving Jesus Christ. We see membership in SVdP as a way to live the Gospel of Jesus.”

One of the Society goals is to become more of a voice for the poor through advocacy, he said. He and others will meet with members of Congress next February in conjunction with a Catholic social ministry meeting in Washington, D.C., where they will share their perspicacity on poverty through years of direct contact.

One issue they will advocate for is for reauthorization of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) legislation with nine recommendations, which Smith said particularly benefits single mothers of young children often left struggling to work full time and pay for child care. “We’re going to tell them we know the poor because we visit them in their homes. We know their stories.”

As it raises its voice, the national office based in St. Louis is also trying to strengthen its image “to let our light shine and to let people know that we do what we do because we are Catholic Christian Vincentians living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

To do that, the Society is planning a national media campaign and increasing its national fund-raising goal to $2 million per year. Councils around the country already raise about $320 million yearly.

Another focus of their strategic plan is “to be more collaborative than ever before” with other Catholic agencies and with other conferences and councils around the world, and to engage in twinning programs to support projects in poorer regions like Siberia, where a home for 200 abandoned elderly has to operate on a $3,200 budget for a year.

The Society is also increasing its emphasis on spiritual formation for volunteers, as leaders feel that in recent year focus has been lost on that important component to edify members for service. “In our meetings we always pray together and reflect on and read Scripture and help each other to grow in faith and spirituality. It helps us to do the work we do,” Smith said.

Playwin noted how often the clients themselves inspire them. He recalled a visit to a family to provide food where he found the children had no beds and the refrigerator for the milk he brought wasn’t working. He left “knowing you were helped more than they were because of their response to your visit. It’s such an awesome experience.”

Conference participant Nancy Panther is one volunteer who has been on both sides of home visits. She said that she got involved in the Society 20 years ago out of gratitude for the help given her mother to raise her and her 11 siblings after her father died.

“We couldn’t have done it without St. Vincent de Paul,” she recalled. “We wouldn’t have had Christmas, uniforms for school, been able to go to Catholic school, if it wasn’t for SVdP and I just felt the need to give back. They were just so kind and compassionate. They always brought us groceries.”

She is head of the Mid-East Region, which has the most U.S. members, and where they are trying to incorporate more spiritual formation for volunteers. “We are a Catholic organization and that’s what it’s all about,” Panther said.

Smith is very impressed by the Atlanta Council, one of the flagship offices, which provides financial aid, offers nine thrift stores and distributes new clothes through its Clothes Line program with Sears. One of its goals is to expand its fast-growing life skills education program, which includes classes in computers, GED preparation and English.

Some 150 local volunteers, headed by Phil McGonegal, did a lot of impressive work to create a “very successful” conference, said Jim Rosentreter, Atlanta Council president.

As the Society locally is also focusing on increasing communication among conferences, he was inspired by the teamwork of planners and participants.

“It is a sense of coming together, a sense of community, for (people) from all walks of life,” he said, “with one purpose--to grow in their faith and learn about better ways to serve the poor.”

He noted that the Society’s focus on name recognition is not about tooting its horn but empowering the poor. If the name of St. Vincent de Paul is better known, “more people will know of the good work we do, so we get the support, so we’ll grow for the future.”