Rome, 15 September 2021

FEAST OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL

To all the members of the Vincentian Family

Dear brothers and sisters,

May the grace and peace of Jesus be always with us!

The month of September is called the Vincentian month because we, members of the
worldwide Vincentian Family, prepare to celebrate together the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul
with beautifully prepared Eucharists, liturgies of the Word, or other prayer encounters,
engaging all the branches of the Vincentian Family in a given parish, village, city, region, or
country. We also prepare to celebrate the feast with concrete acts of corporal and spiritual
charity toward our Lords and Masters.

I would like to thank deeply and congratulate each branch of the Vincentian Family for
the incredible inventiveness, engagement, and service it has shown from the outset of the
pandemic through today to alleviate the suffering brought to the world by Covid-19, which, as
always, hit hardest the Poor, the most vulnerable. We all hope and pray that the worst of the
pandemic slowly is getting behind us, although that is true in some countries more than in
others. We still live with much uncertainty as to what might come next.

More and more, we are learning to use new tools to keep in touch with each other
through social media, Zoom, and other platforms at our disposition. These are excellent means
to grow in interconnectedness and collaboration. Nevertheless, we are experiencing, with even
greater urgency, the need to resume personal encounters, meetings, and gatherings that we had
before the Covid-19 pandemic spread around the world. After experiencing so long a period of
isolation, distancing, and prohibition of meetings, it is our heart’s desire to make personal
encounters, meetings, and gatherings even more numerous.

While Vincent wrote more than 30,000 letters, the primary form of “remote”
communication of his time, his days were filled with meetings with individuals and groups,
and he clearly valued repetitions of prayer and conferences that brought together the confreres
and the sisters.

Speaking of growth in interconnectedness, I would like to highlight three areas that I

already discussed in the past. There have been big improvements in all of them, but there is
still much to do to achieve the goals we set for ourselves in these spheres. Therefore, I am
returning to them in this year’s letter, convinced that if we succeed in intensifying

Vincentian Family Office — Oficina de la Familia Vicenciana — Bureau de la Famille Vincentienne

500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@famvin.org famvin.org
 2

interconnectedness and collaboration and in fulfilling the objectives we set for ourselves in
these specific areas, the other areas will follow almost automatically, and it will be much easier
to bring the 160 branches together for any new initiative that we may begin in the future.

1) National Councils of the Vincentian Family in all 162 countries where the
Vincentian Family is present today.

The Vincentian Family Office (VFO) is

working very hard to help to reach the
following goal: by next year, 2022, all
162 countries will have a National
Council of the Vincentian Family.

Who should be part of the National

Council? The representatives of all the
branches in a given country. No branch
should be left out, but all, large or small,
should feel part of the same Family. If
the country is big, there could be
Regional Vincentian Family Councils,
as well as Local Councils in large cities, as is already the case in some countries. All of these
always would be interconnected among themselves and coordinated by the National Council.

I would like to call upon the branches in a given country, region, or city that have been there
longer and have more experience than other branches in the field of organization to help bring
the different representatives of the Family together. They are well positioned to invite branches
and organize the Councils, in which every single branch will take part, in order to plan together
different initiatives, projects, and encounters throughout the year. I encourage the National
Councils not to limit encounters to once a year, but a few times a year, to develop and intensify
collaboration and interconnection that will bring the Family together regularly.

To insist upon the importance of collaborating in initiatives begun by others and in line with
the purpose of the Congregation of the Mission, Vincent imagined objections its members
might make. “Someone in the Company may say, ‘Monsieur, I’m in the world to evangelize the
poor, and you want me to work in seminaries’” 1; “It’s fine for us to do that, Monsieur, but why
should we be serving the Daughters of Charity?” 2; “But the Foundlings, why burden ourselves
with that? Don’t we have enough things to do?” 3 Vincent says that those who would turn away
from such collaborative ministries are “people who have only a narrow outlook, confining their

1
Vincent de Paul, Correspondence, Conferences, Documents, translated and edited by Jacqueline Kilar, DC; and
Marie Poole, DC; et al; annotated by John W. Carven, CM; New City Press, Brooklyn and Hyde Park, 1985-2014;
volume XII, page 75; conference 195, “Purpose of the Congregation of the Mission.” Future references to this
work will be indicated using the initials CCD, followed by the volume number, then the page number, for example,
CCD XII, 75.
2
Ibid., 76.
3
Ibid., 78.

Vincentian Family Office — Oficina de la Familia Vicenciana — Bureau de la Famille Vincentienne

500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@famvin.org famvin.org
 3

perspective and plans to a certain circumference within which they shut themselves away, so
to speak, in one spot; they don’t want to leave it, and if they’re shown something outside it and
go near to have a look, they immediately go back to their center, like snails into their shells.” 4

I invite you to do everything possible so that these encounters, projects, and initiatives will not
be limited to two or three branches in a given country, region, or city, but include literally all
the branches. Once one or another branch brings up an initiative and invites the other branches
to collaborate, they certainly will follow.

2) Response to natural disasters, wars, and other calamities, as a whole Vincentian

Family.

Within the Vincentian Family, we need to come up with a system on the international, national,
regional, and local levels to respond as efficiently and quickly as we can to natural disasters,
wars, and other calamities, not as a single branch, but together as the whole Vincentian Family.
In fact, we already started to reflect and act in this area on the level of the Vincentian Family
Executive Committee (VFEC).

4
Ibid., 81.

Vincentian Family Office — Oficina de la Familia Vicenciana — Bureau de la Famille Vincentienne

500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@famvin.org famvin.org
 4

Last year, we came together as an International Family to help the people affected by Covid-
19, as well as the tragic explosion in the port of Beirut. The VFEC launched a campaign with
the Committee of the Famvin Homeless Alliance (FHA) to assist the hundreds of thousands of
homeless in the Lebanese capital, through the Vincentian Family National Council in Lebanon,
coordinated by its national president.

During the plague that struck Marseilles in 1649, Vincent, learning of the death of Father
Brunet and of his lay collaborator, the Chevalier de la Coste, described a rapid response to the
crisis. He wrote Antoine Portail, “The Duchesse d’Aguillon is supposed to be sending you five
hundred livres… If you need more money, let me know; we shall send some immediately and,
if need be, we shall sell our crosses and chalices to assist you.” 5

5
CCD III, 465-466; L. 1125, “To Antoine Portail, in Marseilles,” 6 August 1649.

Vincentian Family Office — Oficina de la Familia Vicenciana — Bureau de la Famille Vincentienne

500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@famvin.org famvin.org
 5

By forming and strengthening the National

Councils of the Vincentian Family in all
162 countries where we are present, we will
have grassroots coordinating teams in
collaboration with the Vincentian Family
on the international level, which become a
force on which the world’s poor can count.
Every single branch, whether large or
small, is an invaluable part of the
wonderful mosaic that makes up the
Vincentian Family.

3) Famvin Homeless Alliance (FHA) with its 13 Houses Campaign.

The FHA with the 13 Houses Campaign is an initiative in the area of charity that brings the
Vincentian Family together and, thus, needs to be promoted within the Vincentian Family to
reach each member’s heart so that everyone becomes involved. The FHA is our unique
common project. Therefore, it must be promoted, introduced, and extended in all 162 countries
where the Vincentian Family is present so that no Congregation or Association remains outside
it, but all take an active part in the initiative in every corner of the world where we live and
serve.

So far, 44 branches of the Vincentian Family have engaged actively in the FHA and the 13
Houses Campaign. It is now present in 44 countries; 1826 houses have been built, and 6628
people have been helped. We hoped that by last year’s Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul we would
get many more additional branches, Congregations and lay Associations, to take part in one
way or another in the FHA, but that goal was not reached. There is still a long way to go.

Unfortunately, the numbers of people who live on the streets, refugees who are displaced from
their homes, and people living in substandard housing are increasing drastically all around the

Vincentian Family Office — Oficina de la Familia Vicenciana — Bureau de la Famille Vincentienne

500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@famvin.org famvin.org
 6

world as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. A united response to these overwhelming

needs is more necessary than ever.

Our time recalls the situation Vincent faced during the Fronde when he mobilized Vincentian
and other ecclesial groups and individuals to assist displaced persons. He could report to his
confrere in Poland, “About eight hundred refugee girls have been placed in private houses,
where they are taken care of and instructed. You can imagine how much harm would have been
done if they had been left wandering around. We have a hundred of them in one house in the
faubourg Saint-Denis; we are going to rescue from the same danger the nuns from the country,
whom the armies have thrown into Paris. Some are on the streets, some are living in
questionable places, and others are staying with relatives. Since, however, they are all in a
state of dissipation and danger, it was felt that enclosing them in a monastery, under the care
of the Daughters of Sainte-Marie, would be a service most pleasing to God.” 6

As I have written in a previous letter, we need to come quickly to the point where homelessness
will not be tackled alone as an individual person or an individual branch, but together as a
Family on the local, national, and international levels. Each branch, by bringing its long history
of service to the homeless, its expertise, professionalism, and resources, helps to build up a
wonderful force that becomes much more effective in helping the Poor.

To this end, I would like to invite

any of the 160 branches of the
Vincentian Family, which have yet
to do so, to become active
collaborators in the Famvin
Homeless Alliance initiative by
contacting the FHA coordinating
committee member Mrs. Yasmine
Cajuste: (fha.info@famvin.org) to
receive information and materials.
You also can visit the FHA
website: vfhomelessalliance.org.

I wish every single member of the worldwide Vincentian Family in the widest sense of
the word a deep experience of grace as we celebrate the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul in all
corners of the world. May Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Saint Vincent de Paul, and all
the Saints, Blessed, and Servants of God of the Vincentian Family continue interceding for us
and inspiring us on the path to globalize Charity!

Your brother in Saint Vincent,

Tomaž Mavrič, CM

6
CCD IV, 399; L. 1511 “To Lambert aux Couteaux, Superior, in Warsaw,” 11 June 1652.

Vincentian Family Office — Oficina de la Familia Vicenciana — Bureau de la Famille Vincentienne

500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA
+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@famvin.org famvin.org