The Poor are my burden and sorrow -

St Vincent de Paul: (June 2008)

The poor you have always with you. How often and in how many ways do the words of Jesus continue to ring true? In recent weeks we have had the harrowing news of the enormous destruction of life and property caused by the cyclone in Burma.

This disaster left not only thousands dead, but many more homeless and in urgent need of food and medicines. The more powerful nations of the world and the major relief organisations are more prepared to respond with aid food, medicine and the personnel to deliver all this. In this case they were thwarted by the political blindness of the country’s leaders.

On the heels of this disaster came news of great destruction caused by an earthquake in central China. Again there were tens of thousands dead, millions homeless and needing the necessities of life.

Fr Perry Gildea - Vincentian Fathers

Cliftonville Road, Belfast 15

Aid in this case was quick in coming but was hard to deliver in all cases. Daily our papers and news bulletins warn of the escalating world shortage of food. Again it is the poor who are the first to suffer.

There is a world food shortage. Here in Ireland and Britain we are also experiencing rapid increases in the price of food, and fuel. All are beginning to feel the pinch and again it is the poor who suffer the most.

If one reads the life of St. Vincent and Blessed Frederic one sees they grappled with similar situations. St. Vincent addressed his energies and those of his associates the Ladies of Charity, the Daughters of Charity and his missioners to dealing with the problem of the foundling children abandoned on the streets and church steps of the Paris. To do this he had to raise funds for nurses, for food and to buy properties in which these orphans could be housed.

Similarly he addressed the problem of the beggars of Paris organising food kitchens, aid programs, shelters etc. This was while he was also organising food, medical treatment and somewhat more humane conditions for the galley slaves, the convicted criminals whose sentence was to power the French naval ships of the day.

He founded a hospital in Marseilles for those galley slaves who were too sick or diseased to stay in the galleys. The conditions must have been frightful as two of his priests died of disease contracted while working with the poor galley salves in this hospital! As if this was not enough as the Thirty Years War began to devastate the Province of Lorraine he organised food aid, famine relief really. Again this involved large quantities of food, money, medical care and even the relief of the enclosed convents who were also reduced to starvation by the war all around them.

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All of this required huge sums of money and Vincent endlessly urged all who had anything to spare to give in aid for the poor. During the devastation of the war in Lorraine he insisted his own community in Paris would only have the poorest of black bread so that the grain and money saved could go to Famine relief. On this occasion Vincent remarked:-

“Of course I am concerned about the community, but I am even more concerned about the poor. When we are in difficulties we can always ask the other houses for bread, if they have any, or we could find work in the parishes as curates. But what can the poor do or where can they find something to eat? The poor are my burden and sorrow”

It is in keeping with the ideals of Vincent and Frederic Ozanam that the international HQ of the Society has established a general disaster fund the better to respond to international aid crises. However we will have to keep our minds sensitive to the increasing problems which the poorer members of our society are certainly going to face in the near future.

Vincent’s charitable endeavour while wide ranging was always home-based as well.

Fr Perry (June 2008)

St Vincent preaching