Conference of Visitors of the United States – NCV

In 1978 the five Visitors of the United Sates formed an association that was called the Vincentian Conference.  During those early days of the Conference there was discussion about interprovincial collaboration in the following areas: formation, vocational promotion, seminaries, rural ministry and an exchange of personnel.

During the 1979 meeting that was held in Los Angeles, California, the Visitors of the United States reviewed and approved Statutes for the Vincentian Studies Institute.  Father James Richardson, CM (superior general during that era) requested the Visitors of the United States to take responsibility for the translation of the complete works of Vincent de Paul from French to English.

From the beginning of this Conference until 1992, the Visitors met annually; then, with the inclusion of the five Visitatrics of the Daughters of Charity, the meetings were held twice a year.

Some other initiatives of this group include: a common Internal Seminary, exploring their relationship with CLAPVI, meetings of the formation teams, formation of formators, and a national convocation.

This Conference is composed of the Visitors from the following provinces: Eastern USA, Western USA and New England.

During the 2016 General Assembly of the Congregation, the members of APVC made the following commitments:

3. In our Conference we will work at promoting the theme and spirit of Internationality present at the General Assembly 2016.
4. We will work for Solidarity with other Provinces by:
   1. Continuing our economic solidarity with other Provinces by supporting the VSO and by giving specific grants.
   2. Investigating how our expertise with money management can assist other Provinces.
   3. Participating in the dialogue with the Curia about the plan for solidarity among the Provinces.
5. We will design a plan for promoting Interculturality and the International nature of the Congregation in our Provinces.
6. We will encourage the Superior General to designate the individual themes of the Lines of Action as yearly themes throughout the Congregation (as we have had with Collaboration and Welcoming the Stranger).
7. We will ask the local houses to include Interculturality as part of the annual House Plan.
8. We will continue to develop (USA West) our Systemic Change Initiative on Immigration and share it with the other Provinces.