About the Society
A network of friends, inspired by Gospel values, growing in holiness and building a more just world through personal relationships with and service to people in need.
- The Society's Mission
In the tradition of its founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, and patron, St. Vincent de Paul, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic lay organization inspired by Gospel values.
The Society leads women and men to join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering regardless of religious affiliation.
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Works of Charity
No work of charity is foreign to the Society. It includes any form of help that alleviates suffering or deprivation and promotes human dignity and personal integrity in all their dimensions. The Society serves those in need regardless of creed, ethnic or social background, health, gender, or political opinions. Vincentians strive to seek out and find those in need and the forgotten, the victims of exclusion or adversity.
Vincentians endeavor to establish relationships based on trust and friendship. Conscious of their own frailty and weakness, their hearts beat with the heartbeat of the poor. They do not judge those they serve. Rather, they seek to understand them as they would a brother or sister.
The Local Conference
We are the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul Conference in Middleboro Massachusetts, serving the towns of Middleboro, Lakeville, Rochester and Carver. The primary ministry of our conference is the operation and funding of the Sacred Heart Food Pantry in Middleboro.
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The SVdP Society offers financial support for those in need of assistance. These supports are not available on an on-going basis for any client, but rather are intended to provide assistance during a period of urgency or crisis for the client. Beyond food and financial assistance, counseling creates an awareness of other agencies that can assist and help get the tools needed to become more self-sufficient and overcome setbacks.
The Society and Social Justice
The Society is concerned not only with alleviating need but also with identifying the unjust structures that cause it. It is, therefore, committed to identifying the root causes of poverty and to contributing to their elimination. In all its charitable actions there should be a search for justice; in its struggle for justice, the Society must keep in mind the demands of charity.
Affirming the dignity of each human being as created in God's image, and Jesus' particular identification with those who are excluded by society, Vincentians envision a more just society in which the rights, responsibilities and development of all people are promoted.
Advocacy and Education
Where injustice, inequality, poverty or exclusion are due to unjust economic, political or social structures or to inadequate or unjust legislation, the Society should speak out clearly against the situation, always with charity, with the aim of contributing to and demanding improvements. Vincentians oppose discrimination of all kinds and work to change the attitudes of those who view the weak or those who are different with prejudice, fear or scorn, attitudes which gravely wound the dignity of others.
