A preferential option for the poor:

(October 2006)

In the last week of September we celebrated the memory of St Vincent. It is sobering to think that his charisma, which inspired Blessed Ozanam, is even more necessary several hundred years later.

Despite the advance of social conscience, the development of the social services in most of the developed countries of the world, the problem of poverty continues indeed increases.

It is a commonplace of modern society that the gap between the rich or those who have enough and the poor grows ever greater. Even here in Ireland with the amazing improvements in national wealth, the statistics about the number, especially of children, living in poverty is shameful.

This is not to consider the dire situation of the vast majority of the population in the developing countries.

Fr Perry Gildea - Vincentian Fathers

Cliftonville Road, Belfast 15

In these countries, and those racked by war and poverty, the conditions in which millions live is a constant rebuke to the rest of the world.

One is reminded of one of the more trenchant remarks of Jesus, "the poor you will always have with you". St Vincent would have nodded in vigorous approval when the church articulated the principle of "preferential option for the poor as an essential characteristic of the Christian community".

The Society of St Vincent de Paul can proudly hold up its head as a living part of the Church which is dedicated to this preferential option. But given the increasing burden of poverty locally, nationally and internationally, it cannot rest on its laurels.

We must always be examining the effectiveness of our ministry to the poor, examining our perception of where and how poverty is operative in our society, and above all asking what it can do to remove the causes of poverty.

Cardinal Helder Camarra, one who had great devotion to Vincent de Paul, famously commented, "When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist."

Archived Reflections....click here

The true disciple of St Vincent de Paul and Blessed Ozanam must be alert not only to the presence of the poor and their needs but also what can be done to remove the conditions which create poverty.

The disciple of St Vincent and Ozanam must be the voice of those whose voice is rarely heard - that is part of the preferential option for the poor.

Fr Perry (October 2006)

Archbishop Helder Camarra of Rio de Janeiro during

Pope John Paul IIs visit to Brazil in 1997