''Our Apostolate with Blacks''

Father Sy Peterka, CM reflects on “Our Apostolate with Blacks” in this 2001 article from VINCENTIAN”One might suspect that in speaking about our Apostolate with Blacks that we begin telling the story about various Vincentian Ministries throughout the United States that have a primary focus today in the Black community.  To have such a start would be incomplete and only tell a small part of our Vincentian story. 

If we want the whole story we need to look at our history and our spirit. Our Vincentian Spirit is such that we cannot and should not attempt to speak of individuals or local houses as our Apostolate with Blacks.  As Vincentians in the United States we have had two primary focuses, service to the poor (“to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me…”) and formation of the clergy.  It is within these two broad parameters that we should speak of our Apostolate with Blacks. Within these two broad parameters all Vincentians have been called in some sense to our Apostolate with Blacks.  It is also from this starting point that we must recognize our past and present failures.”

For the full text visit http://www.famvin.org/cm/curia/vincentiana/2001/2001-3-peturka.html