St Vincent de Paul Society Reputation

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Lubomyr

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I have a lot of old clothes to donate or just throw away. I’d rather donate them, but not to someplace that supports abortion et cetera.

I know the St Vincent de Paul society is somehow affiliated with the Catholic Church, but these days that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, since it is common knowledge that “Catholic” hospitals do abortions, “Catholic” social service agencies do gay adoptions, “Catholic” campaigns for human development promote Marxist ideology and so on.

Is there any dirt on SVDPS I should know about before I throw away several bagfuls of old but serviceable clothes?
 
I was an associate member of SVdP several years ago in my parish.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is organized into Conferences, many of which operate within a parish, and usually composed of parishioners who live and work nearby. The conference uses parish resources such as meeting space, storage, bulletin announcements, and special collections for the Society. I believe that the conferences are fairly independent of each other, but regional meetings are held so that conferences can compare notes and share success stories. There are also services offered outside parishes such as central dining rooms, showers, clinics, and thrift stores.

It is because of this independence that you are probably wisest to inquire at your own parish about SVdP. The pastor will be aware of a conference that may operate in the parish, and the members of that conference will be knowledgeable about local SVdP services such as thrift stores. You may offer your clothes and other items to the conference first, and anything that they cannot use can be taken by the thrift store.

The people I knew in SVdP are still my friends going forward. They are faithful Catholics who have a love for service and love to serve those who are suffering, especially the poor and homeless. I took Basic Ozanam training and it was spiritually sound and based in Catholic social justice teaching.
 
here’s a liile “dirt” about our St. VdP conference-We often eat biscuits at our meetings that are leftover from the week before. The coffee is terrible but we drink it like it’s “nectar from the gods” Most of our members are well over 60 yrs. and the younger members often are rushing in and out between soccer games and work.Most are dealing with some sort of ailment but refuse to stay home because the plight of the poor is a greater concern.
We constantly read prayers or meditations written by such scandalous people like John Paul II, Benedict the XVI or St. Paul.
We have a terrible habit of helping people outside of our parish when we are suppose to be focused only on our own. And we further have the gall to help people who aren’t even Catholic (what would Jesus think about that!)
Some of us are saints, but we are all sinners striving to do our best.
 
raaucoin said:
here’s a liile “dirt” about our St. VdP conference-We often eat biscuits at our meetings that are leftover from the week before. The coffee is terrible but we drink it like it’s “nectar from the gods” Most of our members are well over 60 yrs. and the younger members often are rushing in and out between soccer games and work.Most are dealing with some sort of ailment but refuse to stay home because the plight of the poor is a greater concern.
We constantly read prayers or meditations written by such scandalous people like John Paul II, Benedict the XVI or St. Paul.
We have a terrible habit of helping people outside of our parish when we are suppose to be focused only on our own. And we further have the gall to help people who aren’t even Catholic (what would Jesus think about that!)
Some of us are saints, but we are all sinners striving to do our best.
Click to expand...
Scandalous! Well St Vincent ain’t getting none of MY fat jeans!
 
I’ve never heard anything bad about the St. Vincent de Paul Society, but have heard an enormous amount of good.
 
Decisions are made at the local level (parish). Money from the stores help fund the local groups. My group doesn’t take money from the stores (I don’t know why). We have rules on how often we help people, etc. One of the members is a former social worker, and I trust we will NEVER be swindled.

At the local level, we help people, not organizations. Your donation is safe. I do not donate to the CCHD collection, but do a lot of work for SVdP.
 
The only complaints I have heard came from drug addicts and alcoholics who asked for money for food and were given vouchers for food instead of cash. To me, that is the truly Christian thing to do.
 
Lubomyr said:
Is there any dirt on SVDPS I should know about before I throw away several bagfuls of old but serviceable clothes?
Click to expand...
I’m a member of SVDP at my parish. Our focus is completely on helping the poor. We try to help as many people as we can with the little money we have.

Here is a link from out Detroit website that shows how we use resources:

svdpdet.org/donate/how-we-use-resources
 
the biggest difference between SVDP and other charities whose work is similar is first that it is a spiritual confraternity for its members (or is supposed to be) before it is a charitable agency. Many parishes sadly have lost that and SVDP is run by one or two dedicated volunteers who often refuse to allow others to assist.

The second is that aid is collected and dispensed locally, within parish boundaries. It exists first to assist parishioners, since at the time it was founded virtually all living within the boundaries would have been at least nominally Catholic, and now includes all living within the area served by the Parish. If they ally with other agencies, such as Food Bank, they also have to follow those policies when dispensing aid received from those agencies.

For instance our church due to its location is a regional center for distributing disaster relief, not only through SV but also Catholic Charities, Red Cross etc, but SV volunteers organize the projects.
 
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