St. Vincent de Paul: Human Rights Goals for Charitable Organizations

February 26, 2001 Comments Off

St. Vincent’s goals for all his charitable works…It was relatively easy to promulgate the famous “Rights of Man”, the cornerstone of the French Revolution. More difficult, however, was the on-going task of making these rights lived realities. Even before the Revolution, however, Saint Vincent analyzed the social situation of his time and proposed these right as goals for all his charitable works. Slowly, then, these rights became affirmed as the basic rights of all people:

— the right to life, abandoned children;

— the right to eat, soup kitchens, food distribution;

— the right to health, hospitals, care of the home-bound;

— the right to housing, care for refugees;

— the right to personal respect, attention to the mentally ill and the galley slaves;

— the right to a dignified old age, work in nursing homes and hospices;

— the right to work, distribution of tools and seeds in the ravaged areas;

— the right to education, the creation of schools.

For full study of VIncent and Justice