A special exhibition at the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton reveals how more than 20,000 religious sisters carried Mother Seton’s legacy into schools, hospitals, battlefields, missions, and communities across the United States.

In Poland, in the Chełmno-Poznań Province, we have been organizing Vincentian Vacations with God for children and youth for over a dozen years. It is a time of formation, prayer, sightseeing, and having fun together in the great outdoors.

As poverty, extreme hardship, and isolation increase, charitable organizations are adapting the way they serve. For the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, fraternity goes beyond material assistance: it grows through personal encounters, attentive listening, friendship, and a faith lived out in the service of every person.

Nicaragua rarely dominates the world’s headlines, yet its democratic space is nearly closed. Political opponents have been jailed or exiled, civil society dismantled, and the Catholic Church repeatedly targeted. The recent detention of Bishop Abelardo Mata exposes a deeper question: what happens when repression becomes normal enough for the world to stop looking?

As extreme heat swept across Europe last month, the UK registered record temperatures for June. For the homelessness sector, this severely impacts our clients and our workforce. But, as the climate crisis intensifies, how prepared are we?

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on August 10, killing hundreds and devastating communities. The Vincentian Family has not escaped the tragedy: a Vincentian volunteer died, houses and churches were damaged, and communities are mobilizing in prayer, solidarity, assessment, and aid. Here is what we know so far.

Alexia Murphy, CEO of Depaul UK, welcomes Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s pledge to end rough sleeping, but calls for urgent action on youth homelessness. She urges investment in prevention, affordable housing, frontline services, support for care leavers, and policies shaped by young people with lived experience across the United Kingdom.

Human trafficking remains a global human rights crisis, driven by poverty, conflict, migration, inequality, and increasingly digital forms of exploitation.

In the semi-arid interior of Bahia, Brazil, a new building is taking shape—one wall, one room, and one act of generosity at a time. Known as the Casa della Speranza, or House of Hope, the project will provide hundreds of vulnerable children with a safe place to learn, play, eat, and simply experience the childhood they deserve.

Can hope transform the lives of thousands of people? This documentary takes viewers into the heart of the Vincentian mission in Madagascar, where priests and local communities face poverty, isolation, and a severe lack of infrastructure. It is a story of missionary courage, priestly formation, solidarity, and faith capable of building a better future.

Across Belgium, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Belgium carries out a mission that is deeply local, practical, and personal. Its work is not built around one single service, but around many small doors of help opened in towns, cities, neighborhoods, and parishes.

In Honduras’s remote Mosquitia region, Vincentian missionary Father Enrique Alagarda, CM, and lay minister Henry Godfri travel by canoe and on foot to accompany Catholic communities rarely reached by pastoral services. Their ministry reveals a Vincentian Church that overcomes distance, listens, celebrates, forms leaders, and refuses to let isolated communities be forgotten.

In Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, the Vincentian mission is alive in a form that is practical, creative, and close to everyday life. The Vincentian Association of Nijmegen works to ease poverty and loneliness in the city and surrounding area, while also encouraging health through movement, sports, and healthy food.

Brother Ad Vermeulen O.F.M.Cap and Brother Caspar Geertman CMM launched a special initiative in mid-2025: the Colourful Inn on Wheels. Their roles as guardian and superior, respectively, of a community of elderly, vulnerable fellow brothers are fulfilling, yet they sought a way to be close to other people as well.

In Augsburg, Germany, a simple but deeply human project reminds us that people who have fled war, violence, insecurity, or hardship need more than documents, housing, and basic services.

Caritas Conferences of Germany (CKD), AIC’s national association in Germany, has joined the Plaudernetz, a free and anonymous phone service launched by Malteser Germany with Deutsche Telekom. CKD will draw on its network of approximately 45,000 volunteers and its experience addressing loneliness to help the growing initiative reach more people.

In the Netherlands, the Vincentian mission is not carried out through one single model. It is expressed through a network of local associations, each rooted in its own town or city, each shaped by the needs of the people it serves.

For many children and young people, education is the path toward a different future. But for families marked by poverty, loss, illness, or social vulnerability, school can become fragile.

In August 1617, an appeal for one suffering family stirred the people of Châtillon to extraordinary generosity. Vincent de Paul saw both the beauty and the limits of their response. Three days later, eight women joined in an organized service of the sick poor, planting the seed of the Confraternities of Charity and today’s AIC.

In the Parque do Colégio neighborhood of Jundiaí, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, the Parish Church of Blessed Frédéric Ozanam stands as a particularly meaningful expression of lay Vincentian spirituality. It is not simply a church named after the principal founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Its own history grew from a community already shaped by the Vincentian tradition of faith, fellowship, and service.

“It is not enough to be convinced,” Bl. Frédéric wrote to a friend. “You have to believe.” A bright intellect from a very young age, Frédéric had gone through his own period of doubt in his faith as he absorbed so many great accomplishments of reason and science in his studies. Many of the youth around him were falling away from the church, and perhaps there was an element of peer pressure helping to sow Frédéric’s doubts.

In this series, Fr. Rooney extends the Sunday experience by looking at how we practically live a liturgically informed life. This week: When God places Vincentians into someone’s life, God is saying, “You can be faithful and you can trust in me.”

Homelessness is often imagined as sleeping on a sidewalk. In wartime Ukraine, however, the reality is far broader: people may be living in shelters, abandoned buildings, temporary rooms, or the homes of relatives without possessing a safe and stable place of their own.

A jurist, husband, father, member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and active lay apostle, Luis Belda made faith a concrete way of serving people in need and participating in society. His life, cut short amid the violence of the summer of 1936, culminated in a witness of fidelity, forgiveness, and Christian hope.

In this video, Tom Judge of DePaul University reflects on his visit to Châtillon, the birthplace of the Ladies of Charity (AIC).

After Fr. Nicolle’s death, the Archconfraternity flourished, with many miracles and conversions linked to the Holy Agony medal and Chaplet. His legacy endures through those who continue his mission of consoling Christ and guiding souls to Him.

The Brothers of Our Lady Mother of Mercy (CMM) are a religious congregation founded in the 19th century, dedicated to living out God’s mercy through education, social care, and community service, inspired by the examples of Jesus, Mary, and St. Vincent de Paul.

Read In: Español Italiano Polski Français Português Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  Yes, we know him so by grace, by the Father’ revelation.  And we, who are flesh and blood, must announce him so with our lives.  By grace, by the Father’s good will, simple folks get to know things […]

Peter’s walk on water reflects the Christian journey: courage begins by answering Jesus’ call, but fear takes over when our eyes shift from him to the storm. Discipleship requires boldness, trust, and a willingness to leave our comfort zones. Keeping Christ at the center opens new paths for mission and inspires others to step forward with faith.

There is no answer from Jesus to the Canaanite woman who cries out to him for help. Besides, he uses the word ‘dog,’ a word Jews use to refer to those who are not Jews. So, Jesus does not seem to tear down yet the wall that separates the Jews from the Canaanites.

St. Paul’s image of treasure in earthen vessels reveals the mystery of human fragility inhabited by God’s inexhaustible presence. Though suffering, persecution, and weakness may crack us, divine love sustains, heals, and refills us. St. Vincent’s words echo this truth: our weakness does not prevent virtue but becomes the place where grace enables it to flourish.

Read In: Español Italiano Polski Français Português Jesus does not fail to save those who cry out to him for help in nights of gloom and storm.  For he is the Son of God. For Jesus, to save folks means, in concrete, to free them from illnesses and hunger.  And for the Teacher, to save his disciples is not to let […]

Five major discourses of Jesus give form and substance to Matthews’s Gospel. The Parabolic Discourse found in chapter 13, is the third of these major teaching blocks. 

Political convictions can enrich Christian engagement, but they become dangerous when ideology replaces the Gospel. Inspired by Frédéric Ozanam, this article proposes four Vincentian tests for political discernment: God’s Word, closeness to the poor, community life, and concrete service in building God’s Kingdom.

Read In: Español Italiano Polski Français Português From no more than five loaves and two fish, Jesus feeds more than five thousand.  All eat and have their fill, and there are leftovers still. A small mustard seed turns into a large bush; a bit of yeast leavens the whole batch.  In a similar way, five loaves and two fish multiply so that many folks have their fill of them. For, indeed, the […]

We’ve all heard the saying “I never would have guessed.” That is, what is going on at the present time would never have led me to predict this future outcome. This theme figures prominently in the stories of two early Saints, Peter and Paul.