Theology 3
8-30-06
A Brief History:
The history of the St. Vincent DePaul Society begins with Blessed Frederic Ozanam, a Frenchman studying law at the School of Law at the Sorbonne at the University of Paris. In June of 1830, Ozanam founded an association called “The Conference of History” which held discussions on topics of all kinds and sorts other than politics. In one of the weekly discussions, Ozanam was face with the question “What does the Catholic Church do now?” In response, Ozanam founded the “Conference of Charity” in 1833, which eventually came to be known as The Society of Saint Vincent DePaul in honor of the group’s patron saint.
Their Mission:
The mission is about as simple as it can get, and can be summed up into “Help where it is needed.”
What they do:
The Society provides service to the poor and destitute who would not be able to come by such services otherwise. One of the Society’s most basic services is the food pantries, and meal wagons that it runs supplying food to hundreds of thousands in the U.S., and millions worldwide. Also in relation to this, the Society provides emergency supply’s to disaster areas including New Orleans post Katrina, and to the Pacific rim hit by the deadly tsunami as well as people in Africa who experience drought on an every other year basis.
Not only does the Society provide food for the hungry, it provides shelter for the homeless. All over the world the Society sponsors building projects, low-income housing, and rent assistance programs to help make sure that people are not left out on the streets to fend for themselves when they are not really able.
The list of services provided by the Society is near endless, and ranges from educational and job training services to budget counseling, and from simply giving friendship to the lonely to burial for the unburied dead. The Society has no limits on what services it will provide because they were founded on the basis of helping anyone in need.
Sources: www.svdpusa.org, www.newadvent.org, www.wikipedia.com