From the interview….
“He went about doing good,” this phrase was one of St. Vincent de Paul’s favorites about Jesus from the Gospel. As such, it has been adopted as a favorite of the Congregation of the Mission and the Sisters of Charity, which are two of the 260 associations who claim St. Vincent as their founder.
Their Superior General, who has taken the place of St. Vincent de Paul for the past 12 years, has many thoughts about his predecessor and what he started back in the 1600s.
“When you think about the charism, what’s the special gift St. Vincent de Paul gave to the Church, or God gave to him to give to the Church? And it was a sensitivity and care for those who live on the fringe, so and we try to keep that alive.”
“You cannot speak about the Vincentian family without speaking about, in one way or another, a personal one-on-one, or group relationship with those who live in poverty. So our focus is on caring for the spiritual and material needs of those who are poor.”
Their care spreads to multiple provinces, with the Congregation present in 85 countries and the Sisters of Charity in 95. The largest group of the FamVin is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul with over 800,000 members worldwide.
[On July 25, 2016 Fr. Tomaz Mavric from the Vice-Province of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, was elected to be the 25th Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and the Company of the Daughters of Charity. For more information about Fr. Mavric visit his official biography on the website of the Congregation of the Mission.]