Frédéric's E-Gazette An e-newsletter from the National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul October 30, 2014 In This Issue From Our Servant Leader Disaster Services Division: Facts About Ebola Q&A - National Council responds to Common Questions (Spanish Link) Michael Thio, CGI President Visits Boston SVdP Featured on EWTN Sheila Gilbert Featured on Trenton's "Catholic Corner Are You Fluent in French? Denver Vincentian Researches SVdP Members and Other Martyrs in the Soviet Union 1918-1953 Chicago Council's St. Pascal SVdP Members Receive Ozanam Award SVdPUSA 170th Anniversary: Pray, Reflect, Share Systemic Change Case Study: Minnesota Conference Provides Language Training Program Feinstein Institute Hall of Heroes Induction Honors Blessed Frederic Ozanam Young Vincentians Inspire Community Service Work in Alameda County FORMATION o Conference Spiritual Advisors o FREE FORMATION MATERIAL Ordering Bridges Out of Poverty Materials "Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin' By World" - Facilitator Training
Webinar in November Warm Hearts for Winter Coats! Order Your Certificates of Appreciation NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS - WILL YOU HOST A NATIONAL ASSEMBLY? NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT UPDATES o FOP Grant Awards in October o FOP Program International Twinning with Haiti to Resume News from Around the Country: SVdP In the News Calendar of Upcoming Events ATTENTION COUNCIL PRESIDENTS & EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS! DON'T KEEP SECRETS VINCENTIANS - Share your news! From Your Servant Leader October 30, 2014 It's good to be at the table. In my CEO Remarks at National Assembly, I mentioned that government and other nonprofits would be calling upon the Society to get real-life experiences and observations regarding various aspects of poverty. Such a request has come about, and I ask for your help to tell our story properly. I'll be a panel member at a poverty Conference organized by Oxfam America in a few weeks that will focus on living wage and minimum wage considerations and ultimately advocacy on these wages. This may be a case where the advocacy story is already written, as they say in the media world. Nonetheless I have been asked to talk about the potential impact on wage policy for our friends in poverty. We have not kept true research results on this matter, so I ask you to please consider the questions below at your upcoming Conference and Council meetings and send me your thoughts. In this manner I can speak with more confidence about we are seeing across America in our service to God and our friends in poverty. Read more Yours in Christ,
Dave Disclaimer: (NOTE: The links in some of the articles are intended to take you to websites for a specific story, page, function or program approved for your use by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The Society does not accept responsibility for, or grant approval of, peripheral advertising or stories that may reside on those websites.) SVdPUSA Disaster Services Division Disaster Prevention Protocols for Ebola and other Contagious Diseases
What should my Council and Conference do to protect our staff and volunteers? the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] websites can help! Log on to: www.cdc.gov and www.ready.gov for more info. SVdPUSA Disaster Services Division will be providing some additional protocols next week. Stay tuned!
In this column, we answer commonly asked questions that the National Council receives from across the country. Q: Our annual budget is about $120,000 plus food. We request grants in financing our activities. Recently, we have been turned down due to the lack of certified statements. Given that an audit would have little value aside from this requirement, is there any SVDP policy on Conference audits? A: The Society has always recommended that Conferences have an informal audit annually or at least when a new president takes office. Because of the size of your program, you need to decide if the cost of a formal audit is justifiable related to the grant request. It boils down to your choice: fulfill to requirements associated with the grant request or withdraw the request. Q: A parishioner is requesting for someone to pick up her husband from an Adult Day Care and take him home on occasion when she can't do it. My question is would this be ok from an insurance/legal stand point? It was suggested that I ask you if we are covered under the group insurance from the National Society. Also I am sure anyone that would do this from our Conference would have their own car insurance. A: From an accident standpoint, the car insurance of the Vincentian covers it. From a liability standpoint under group insurance, it would be covered as long as everything is done in a Vincentian way. For example, person-toperson works of charity are done by two Vincentians. Q: If a Catholic attends meetings but has no contact with the poor, are they full member or associate? A situation: a person attends meetings regularly, their company gives substantial money every year, but their job prevents them from participating in our work. It has been suggested to let them return calls from our answering machine so they are serving the poor. The majority of the Conference wants them classified as full member so as not to lose the donation from their company. Your
thoughts? A: To summarize The Rule, Part III, Statute 3, an Active (Full) Member is Catholic, attends meetings on a regular basis and participates in the works of the Conference. It sounds to me like you need to make every effort to get this person involved in the works of the Conference in some way. Keep in mind that all Active Members are eligible to be officers. Do you want someone as an officer who has no experience with the works of the Conference? It is the Conference who decides who is an Active Member and who is an Associate. We ask that you be consistent with everyone and not be motivated only by money. Q: Considering the Church's stance on gay marriages and the gay lifestyle, does the Society have a right to refuse service to a gay couple, specifically providing them with a double bed? A: There are a lot of moral issues that present themselves to our members over time. The issue you present comes up on occasion - providing, room, rent, bed for a gay couple. How about the case of a couple (man and woman) who indicate they are not married? What about someone who is known to be a sex offender? The Rule of the Society, both in Part I (Article 1.4) and Part III (Statute 8), states that we are not allowed to discriminate. "The Society serves those in need regardless..." The teachings of the Church make it clear what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong. Those values are used to determine our own actions. However, our faith also insists that we are not to judge - God is the sole judge. Whether we provide room, rent, or bed does not mean that sin will be committed. For example, consider the case of giving furniture to a family in need. The father takes the furniture (which now belongs to him), sells it, and then buys drugs or alcohol with it. Should we not have given the furniture to the family? Should we stop giving furniture to other families in the future? The bottom line is that we are not to discriminate. En Español: Preguntas y Respuestas CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS EDITION'S Q&A SEPARATELY Q&A Archives Submit your questions to: Mike Syslo,
Senior Director of Governance msyslo@svdpusa.org International President Michael Thio Visits Boston Michael's meeting with Cardinal O'Malley of Boston. Also, present was U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Ken Hackett. Michael also visited Boston Thrift stores and spent time with members of
SVdP Boston and clients of SVdP. SVdP featured on EWTN Last Thursday, Society of St. Vincent de Paul leaders, International President General Michael Thio, National President Sheila Gilbert and CEO Dave Barringer sat down with EWTN's Jim and Joy Pinto. They were featured on an episode of "At Home with Jim and Joy" where they discussed the Society and its work. If you missed it, you can see the episode in its entirety on the EWTN website by following this link: http://ewtn.com/tv/live/athomewithjimandjoy.asp. SVdP also filmed two episodes of EWTN's show, "The Church Universal." The episodes will air sometime in 2015. Be sure to check the E-Gazette and our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedInpages for updates on when you can watch the episodes. From left: Jim Pinto, International President General Michael Thio, National President Sheila Gilbert, Joy Pinto and National CEO Dave Barringer on the set of "At Home with Jim and Joy."
National President Sheila Gilbert featured on Trenton's "Catholic Corner" Society of St. Vincent de Paul National President Sheila Gilbert took a trip to Trenton, N.J. to visit with members of the Mini Vinnies group at Sacred Heart School in Mt. Holly, N.J. in the Trenton Diocesan Council. While she was there, she stopped by the "Catholic Corner" which features guests of faith who try to make a positive difference in their communities and their world. The series has been in production for more than 15 years and is hosted by Msgr. Walter Nolan, Pastor of St. Paul Church in Princeton, N.J. "Catholic Corner" is distributed to cable systems in the Trenton Diocese and to the Catholic Television Network of Detroit and Boston Catholic TV. To view the interview, click the following link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc3za85cikw. Are You Fluent in French? The National Council office is in need of someone who could translate an occasional letter from English to French or from French to English. If you are able to or know someone who is willing to do so, please contact Mike Syslo atmsyslo@svdpusa.org or 314-576-3993 ext.203.
Denver Vincentian Researches Vincentians and Other Martyrs in the Soviet Union 1918-1953 I've been working for several years on a project related to the persecution of Catholics under the Soviet regime - did you know that St. Vincent de Paul conferences in St. Petersburg and Moscow back in the 1920s were targeted by the State, its members arrested, etc.? Here are a couple links that describe the work. The link to the Notre Dame site is also included. Enter "St. Vincent de Paul" in the search box to see the brief biographies of these Catholics. My purpose in this work was to respond to the question that would come to mind when reading that "the twentieth century had more martyrs than any other time in Christian history" - specifically - who were these people? Well, some of them were just ordinary Catholics, members of St. Vincent de Paul, choir directors, religious education teachers... I hope you find this interesting... and worthy of attention. Gerri Kelley Holy Name SVdP Conference Denver/Metro District Council Biographies: https://biographies.library.nd.edu Related news stories: http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/10/notre-dame-honors-russiasnew-martyrs http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-ussrs-catholic-martyrs-suffered-butthey-suffered-for-god-21120/ CHICAGO COUNCIL'S ST. PASCAL SVdP MEMBERS RECEIVE OZANAM AWARD
Both Geraldine Liss and Patricia Finn have been active members of the Saint Pascal Conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul for approximately 30 years, participating in all facets of the Conference. Geraldine previously has served as Conference Secretary and coordinates the Conference's spring and fall Bundle Days clothing drives. These two extraordinary women show the true face of a Vincentian for their specific efforts, as a team over the past 10 years, on behalf of one particular parish family. Geraldine's and Patricia's involvement with this family began with a home visit. At that time, the family consisted of a 90 year old grandmother, of limited means, who had begun caring for her two teenage grandsons; the older boy, severely disabled, unable to speak, and with limited mobility, needed constant supervision. The boys' mother (the daughter of the 90 year old woman) recently had died in the hospital after a long illness. The father had abandoned the family years earlier.