‘Caring for others opens the heart of the giver to God’s grace’
By Wendy Shaw
Advocating for a future where everyone has access to safe, secure housing was a focus of a range of St Vincent de Paul Society events in Tasmania during Homelessness Week last month.
These included a Homelessness Week Awareness Breakfast on Hobart’s Queens Domain and Homelessness Week Walks in Launceston and Burnie.
During the week, the Society highlighted that more people are seeking help, more are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
In the past year in Tasmania, the Society has assisted 17,315 people through its emergency relief service; supported 26,724 people through Vinnies and Loui’s Van services; and seen nearly 80 people a month who had not sought support previously.
The national President of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Mark Gaetani, from Launceston, said in a statement: “Homelessness is not a personal failure; it is a policy failure.
“Australians want homelessness action now because everyone deserves a safe, secure and affordable place to live.”
The Society called for housing to be recognised as a fundamental human right and for greater investment in social and affordable housing and specialist homelessness services.
Meanwhile, Pope Leo has urged members of the Society of St Vincent de Paul to give witness to their faith through serving the poor.
“Saint Vincent de Paul demonstrated that prayer and social justice are not merely complementary but, in fact, are inseparable,” the Pope said during a meeting with a delegation from the Society at the Vatican on 28 August, according to a report from Catholic news service OSV.
“It is therefore my hope that you will continually turn to your heavenly patron in order to follow his example and seek his intercession.”
Recalling his apostolic exhortation on love for the poor, ‘Dilexi Te’ (‘I have loved you’), the Pope reflected on St Augustine’s teachings on the “Christocentric nature of care for the poor” and on God’s generosity toward “those who serve them”.
When motivated by love, he noted, caring for others “not only helps those in need, but also opens the heart of the giver to God’s grace”.
“Dear friends, I urge you, then, always to give of yourselves,” Pope Leo said. “In this way, the Lord’s grace will steadily purify your hearts and minds, and you will more readily recognise Christ in your neighbor, both in those you serve and in those with whom you work.”
Founded in 1883 by Antoine Frédéric Ozanam, the lay organisation is dedicated to serving the poor and the marginalized and was inspired by the example of St Vincent de Paul, the 17th Century French priest who was declared the patron saint of charitable associations by Pope Leo XIII in 1885.