Sister Barbara Flad, from Austria, delegate of the Federation of Sisters of Charity of Strasbourg to the Executive Board of the Vincentian Family, tells us about her vision and her “dream”.

With her we continue a series of video interviews called “The Heart of a Leader” which will accompany us on our journey to the meeting in November 2024.

“As we dream together, the dream becomes a reality.” – Fr. Tomaž Mavrič, C.M. Register now at https://famvin.org/en/famvin-2024

Transcript:

Sister Barbara, could you introduce yourself?
My name is Sister Barbara Flad, I come from Austria and I’m a Sister of Charity. I’m also one of the two delegates from the Federation of the Sisters of Strasbourg. We are a group of thirteen congregations working in Germany, France, and Austria but also we have Sisters in Peru, Tanzania, and Korea, and so we’re quite a big group of Sisters.

“Working Together”
Sister Barbara, why is it important to work together with the Vincentian Family?
Well first of all I think it’s something that Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac did themselves, and we are following in their way, and if we want to be on that way, we have to work together. So that’s kind of a heritage we have, that we are supposed to work together. But at the same time, I just think that together is always better than doing something on your own because the ideas, the dreams, and that which we do will become better and bigger, when we work together.

“The Future”
Finally, what is the hope and the challenge for the future? (For the future meeting and for the future?)
Well, I think, coming from so many different parts of the world, it’s always difficult to find a way together and to understand each other. And so for me it’s really important that we actually meet up with each other, get to know each other because just knowing a name or seeing some kind of home page or whatever, that doesn’t really build relationships. You have to meet each other, talk to each other, and then you can find, looking at all the diversity that is there, you can find the common ground, and the fire we all kindle. So that’s for me the dream. I experienced that in 2020 when we met. So, I really hope for the next meeting that this is going to be another way of realizing
how we all belong together. And that we are all doing, or trying to do, the same thing.

And that we actually can change the world when we work together.
Thank you.