2022 ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

We are pleased to invite you to the Annual General Assembly of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul - National Council of Canada.

The AGA will be held virtually, via Zoom, on Saturday, September 17, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.

Come join other Vincentians at the annual meeting of the organization!

Please register before Thursday September 15 by clicking on the registration button:

REGISTRATION

VINCENTIANS SOCIAL JUSTICE WEBINAR

The Advocacy Circle, representing Vincentian social justice representatives from across Canada, is inviting all Vincentians to participate in an informative Webinar on Vincentian Social Justice.

Saturday September 10,
1:00 pm.

Participants will gain a better understanding of what the Church’s ‘preferential option for the poor’ actually means. In addition, we will offer suggestions as to how we might engage our fellow Vincentians, friends, parishioners and decision makers in the task of eliminating the poverty we bear witness to as Vincentians.

REGISTRATION

NEW EVENTS PAGE

You can follow upcoming events at the new events page available on the National web site.

UPCOMING EVENTS

OZANAM NETWORK

The Issue nº 02/2022 of ‘Ozanam Network’ digital magazine, is now available.

OZANAM NETWORK

ELECTIONS - JUNE 2023

Rules for the election of the next President General International.

ELECTORAL RULES

IN MEMORIAM

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Maureen MacIsaac on July 31st. Maureen was a dedicated Vincentian from the Halifax area. She served as President of the Atlantic Regional Council and later as Chair of the Spirituality Committee of the National Council of Canada.

Maureen was attentive and responsive to people. She used to write people's names in her hand with her finger and tell them that she would ask God to take care of them during her evening prayer. Someone once asked her, "How do you remember all the names you write in your hand? She replied, "I forget the names, but God remembers them, so I ask him to take care of all the people whose names I put in my hand during the day."  Rest in peace Maureen.

Here is a spiritual reflection written by Maureen in the fall of 2010.

SPIRITUAL REFLECTION

FUND DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES

The Fund Development Committee continues to work on creating resources to help share successful initiatives for your SSVP community.

We recently created the Fund Development Toolkit, sharing promising practices that have worked for some Councils/Conferences across Canada, which can be found at Fund Development - Society of Saint Vincent de Paul - National Council of Canada

Should you have any questions or other successful initiatives to raise funds that can be shared across Canada, please reach out to me.

It is important to look at various ways to raise funds to carry out our Mission of helping people in need in all possible ways.

Linda Dollard, Chair 
Fund Development Committ

GUATEMALA

The North Fraser Particular Council, Coquitlam, BC, is twinned with the National Council of Guatemala. The Canadian council received a report and photos following a visit to conferences by National President Patricia Hidalgo and members of her Council. The photos show a visit to the Good Samaritan Conference in Quetzaltenango (northwest of the country). This conference, twinned with the St. Ambroise-de-la-Jeune-Lorette Conference, Québec, runs the Misericordia Home for the Elderly.

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Did you know that in Quebec, Non-Profit Organization (NPO) will soon be able to obtain free legal advice from retired lawyers with decades of experience? The project initiated by, among others, Benoît-Marc Boyer, priest and retired lawyer, a Montreal Vincentian.

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QUESTION

We are trying to raise the visibility of our Conference work in our parish. Some relatively new, but very effective Vincentians have suggested that we publish our monthly statistics in the parish bulletin: how many individuals and families helped, etc. Do we have a rule that governs this?

ANSWER

It has been the recommendation by the Society for conferences to share a summary of their activity to the priest and to the parishioners at a minimum annually. Using the parish bulletin to do this is appropriate. Note that providing detailed assistance information to the donors / parishioners more than four times a year is usually too much.

If space is available in the parish bulletin, it may be better used by having regular bulletin announcements about the Society and the work it does, being as well an opportunity to recruit.