As a brand new NGO Society of St. Vincent de Paul representative from the United States to the United Nations, I look at my role through the eyes of a Vincentian. Having read the Preamble and Chapter 1, Articles 1 and 2 of the UN Charter, I am amazed that none of these words is acted upon by any nation since the United Nations was founded in 1945.
Since 1945, there have been wars in Palestine/Israel, Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, several countries in Africa, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and countless others in the Western Hemisphere. Many countries have seen the violent overthrow of governments, coups, and people taking to the streets in opposition to governments that are heartless and malevolent. Where has the UN been in all of these painful and seemingly hopeless situations?
What is the UN saying to the world, especially to our young people? Who is paying attention to the Charter and enforcing the spirit and goals of the Charter? I serve on the Working Group to End Homelessness and the Open Door Committee. I bring my Vincentian perspective to these meetings asking why government officials do not see the pain and suffering of their people, their constituents.
In the Working Group to End Homelessness, we meet to hear the work that member nations are doing to end or prevent homelessness. In the Open Door Committee, we are listening and critiquing the design of a global homelessness index to measure the impact of homelessness in member states.
All of these actions and actions from other committees of the UN are laudable. Yet, I am waiting for the UN to decry the actions of countries that terrorize, bulldoze, invade other countries and leave the population and the environment in drastic and deplorable conditions. There are numerous nonviolent actions that the UN can sanction that are listed in the Charter. Three Popes from Pope Paul VI through the present Pope, Leo XIV, have spoken against war, torture, abuse of migrants and immigrants, homelessness, and the environment and have encouraged and demanded that leaders of nations address the needs of those who are voiceless and unseen.
The member states of the United Nations can and must demand that governments meet the needs of all their constituents. Pope Leo XIV, has recognized that the United Nations “has lost its ability to bring people together on multilateral issues” and said that the key to “building bridges is primarily through dialogue.” (Claire Giangrave, NPR, September 15,2025.) The UN must re-commit to bring nations to the table to engage in dialogue. Otherwise, the UN will remain an irrelevant tourist attraction to New York City.
Sandy Figueroa NGO representative of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to the United Nations 
A Vincentian Mirror to the UN’s Soul
Reading this through your eyes, Sandy, I felt both the ache and the urgency. You’ve held up the UN Charter like a mirror—and asked the world to look at its own reflection. Your callout of the global community’s failure to uphold Articles 1 and 2 isn’t just a critique; it’s a moral reckoning. The Vincentian lens you bring—centered on the unseen, the voiceless, the displaced—is exactly what multilateral spaces need if they are to reclaim relevance and integrity.
Having worked alongside you for years now, I know firsthand that you not only speak truth—you walk it. Your commitment is lived, not just spoken. Thank you, my friend, for walking us along the footsteps of St. Vincent and Blessed Frédéric, reminding us that dignity is not negotiable and that silence in the face of suffering is a form of complicity.
Your work with the Working Group to End Homelessness and the Open Door Committee is a testament to what it means to build from the margins. But your challenge to the UN—to move beyond procedural praise and confront state-sponsored harm—is what makes this piece prophetic. Dialogue, as Pope Leo XIV reminds us, must be more than diplomatic performance. It must be bridge-building rooted in truth and accountability.