Major renovations launched at the birthplace of St. Vincent. Tom Krafinski, CM provides us with an unofficial translation from the French  famvin.org site .

THE NEW BERCEAU (The Birthplace of St. Vincent)

by Emma Saint-Genez in “SOUTH-WEST,” 25 September ‘08

From now until 2012, the Berceau will be modernized and will accommodate an international center of formation.

The Berceau of St. Vincent de Paul is getting ready to celebrate its patron a little more solemnly than usually. Saturday, they will celebrate the feast day of Monsieur Vincent, a priest born in 1581 in this ancient village of Pouy, who died on September 27, 1660 after having dedicated his life to abandoned babies and to the most deprived, having given birth to the association of the Daughters of Charity and the community of the Vincentian priests.

Tomorrow, his native home will welcome, along with Bishop Phillipe Breton of the Diocese of Aire and Dax, Fr. Gregory Gay, Superior General of the priests of the Mission, and Sr. Evelyne Franc, Superior General of the Daughters of Charity. These last two will come specially from Rome and Paris to launch the project of a Berceau renewed to an international dimension. At least that is the wish that encouraged René Mateucci, charged with the mission by the local Bishop with this restructuring , and Fr. Alain Perez, general representative of the Work(-of-the-Berceau Committee) and coordinator of the project. “Since Bishop Breton came to the diocese, he has desired to re-energize this special place,” explains René Mateucci. “From their side, the international community of the Vincentians in Rome has decided to rehabilitate Vincentian sites.”

Covering about 25 acres, between rural countryside with the two routes from Mont-de-Marsan and Dax on two sides, the Berceau doesn’t lack assets: a scholastic establishment with 600 students, a retreat house with 86 beds, a reception center for the 60,000 pilgrims who come each year, a souvenir shop, and two communities — the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity. But the site runs in idle: despite the list of expected guests, the retreat house closed in 2005 for reasons of security. The effectiveness of the communities has been reduced little by little to the present eight religious and five priests, so that the service to pilgrims is far from fully staffed.

Where did this decision come from to give a second chance by a mobilization of the Vincentian Family, not just locally but internationally? This change came from a reformulation of the statutes which dated to the regime of Napoleon III, and a new administrative council theoretically co-presided over by the Bishop and the prefect. In the future, the first secondary school of the Founders will include two Vincentian brothers and two Daughters of Charity. Something new on staff in the second secondary school: the Mayor of the town of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul will work at the side of the Bishop, the prefect, and the rector of the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. A third secondary school will include other members of the Vincentian Family and laity.

The 2012 project at the Berceau will include the construction of a new retreat house, the creation of an international formation center in Vincentian spirituality attached to the Catholic University of Toulouse, a modernization of the public reception area and the creation of an entry for the young into the old retreat house of the Vincentians in Dax. This is an ambitious and costly renovation which should serve M. Vincent’s wonderful visitors in the future.