Photo: James Baca

This year, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is celebrating its 175th anniversary. Established in 1833, it is the largest lay Catholic charitable organization in the world, boasting 750,000 members in 142 countries.

To celebrate, the organization is inviting the public to participate in a 3-kilometer walk next month to benefit the needy.

Founded by a French college student named Frederic Ozanam, members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society put their faith into action through service to the poor. The mission of the organization is inspired by Gospel values. The society urges its members to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to those in need; it operates food pantries and shelters, and offers emergency financial aid, job training, disaster aid and many other vital services.

In the United States alone in 2006, members donated nearly six million hours of time, aiding more than 20 million people at a cost of a half billion dollars. Last year, the 392 members of the Denver Metro Council served more than 23,000 people in the Archdiocese of Denver through their time, money and donations.
A group of lawyers met in 1845 in St. Louis, Mo., to establish the first conference in the United States and by 1888 the St. Vincent de Paul Society arrived in Denver.

“We’ve had an ongoing presence (here) for 120 years,” Steven Pratt, executive director of the Metro Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, said with pride. “I think it’s tremendous that the society has been going on that long considering it’s been run by volunteers who raise their own money and collect their own goods and then redistribute them to those in need.”

Pratt said that whenever he puts together the society’s annual report, he’s always amazed by what the volunteers in the Denver area accomplish on the part of those in need.

“It just reaffirms my faith in man in that there are a lot of good people out there who are committed to serving those in need,” he said, stressing that the primary goal of the society is to help members to grow in holiness.

“We work hard to maintain a strong spiritual focus,” he said. “We’re not a social service agency. We’re a Catholic lay organization with a strong spiritual foundation.”
 

Anyone within a parish boundary who is in need is eligible for assistance from the society in that parish, according to John Myers, president of the Denver Metro Council and member of the conference at Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Foxfield.
“Right now, there are 28 conferences located in parishes across the Archdiocese of Denver,” he said. “The conferences provide food banks and all sorts of other services to people in need. Parishes where there is a conference present find the society takes a tremendous burden away from the parish staff because there isn’t a parish in the archdiocese that every day doesn’t have someone call or walk in seeking assistance.”

Myers said that last year expenditures in service to the poor totaled almost $590,000. Each year the number of people being served continues to increase. Last year the number of home visits was almost 1,900.

At a metro level the society provides some funding for energy assistance, rental assistance and a voucher program for the thrift store in addition to helping coordinate other resources that may be available in the community. But the core operating unit is the parish conference, of which there are currently 28 across the Archdiocese of Denver. Anyone interested in starting a conference at their parish is invited to contact the Denver Metro Council.

“We have teams of people who go out and help organize a conference,” Myers said. “We provide the orientation to the St. Vincent de Paul Society. We’re a lay ministry that operates under one rule: the spiritual growth of its members. It has a very strong spiritual component and it takes that and puts it into action.”
The society’s best known ministry may be the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store located at 6260 E. Colfax Ave., which makes a wide variety of goods available at low cost.

“The store provides so much,” Pratt said. “It is the epitome of a thrift store in the sense that there’s almost anything you’d want from clothing to hard goods to electronics and furniture. All the donations are reviewed and only things that are serviceable and operate properly are put out for sale.”

There is also a voucher program where parishes can send in a voucher for a certain amount of money and the store will match that amount in goods.

“In effect, it allows people to double their money,” Pratt said.

To commemorate the society’s landmark anniversary, the organization is sponsoring the Friends of the Poor Walk to be held in Confluence Park. Denver is one of 86 cities around the country hosting such a walk.

“It will be held on September 27, the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul,” Pratt said. “All the money raised in Denver stays here to address the needs of the homeless. There is no registration fee and we’re encouraging people to secure as many pledges as they can.”