DePaul Society provides help quietly

Like their founder, Frederick Ozanam, who was beatified last week by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Ozanam's native France, members of St. Vincent de Paul Societies across the Albany Diocese lend quiet, confidential assistance to the needy.

"No one should ever feel ashamed about coming forward to ask for help for themselves or hesitate to come forward on behalf of another person in need," stressed a representative of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Holy Cross Church in Albany who asked to remain anonymous. "We try to do our work as secretly and as discreetly as possible. Those who benefit from our services never have to worry that others in the parish or the community will find out they were helped through our organization.

"People sometimes fear that if they make a request for assistance they will have to go before some kind of parish group or that the recipient will have to take a means test to determine eligibility. That is absolutely not correct."

Members of the association are Catholic laity devoted to personal service to the needy through the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Their guiding principles were laid down by Blessed Frederick Ozanam in 1833. The first U.S. St. Vincent de Paul Society was founded in St. Louis in 1845.

In most cases, said the Holy Cross parishioner, the pastor of a parish receives "a tip" that an individual or family needs help, often due to a temporary health or employment-related crisis. He then tells the parish's St. Vincent de Paul Society of the situation, and members "quietly and discreetly" swing into action.

At Holy Cross, that can mean anything from securing a new nightgown for a resident of a nursing home to buying new sneakers or a jacket for a student headed back to school. "We've done everything from helping with burials to electric bills," the spokesperson said.

Poor box

While thefts have prompted a number of St. Vincent de Paul Societies in inner-city parishes to abandon traditional "poor boxes" in favor of specially designated envelopes, Holy Cross still collects funds the old-fashioned way.

A poor box is also used to collect anonymous contributions at St. Jude the Apostle in Wynantskill, where Rev. John Varno is pastor. He was quick to add that the term "poor box" is a bit of a misnomer.

"Those helped by our parish's St. Vincent de Paul's Society aren't necessarily poor," he stressed. "More often than not, they are experiencing some kind of temporary need due unemployment or sickness in the family, usually involving the main breadwinner, who may be mom or dad."

Father Varno sometimes tries to handle calls for help "delicately" so not as to wound the individual's pride. When making a referral to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, he does so discreetly, knowing that the chairperson will "respond quietly and with the utmost regard for confidentiality."

Quiet effort

Father Varno said one of the nicest things about having poor boxes in a church is that funds can be raised and distributed "quietly and with no public fanfare."

Those who might let what Father Varno calls "false pride" stand in the way of receiving a donation of food, clothing or financial aid might feel better knowing that the priest's own family once benefitted from the Society.

"I was one of eight children when my Dad was crushed in a work-related truck accident back in the 1940s," he recalled. "In those days, there was no such thing as unemployment insurance, so you can imagine how hard times were for my parents while my father was recovering. Fortunately, boxes of food were left at our back door. It was the St. Vincent de Paul Society that brought them."

Working for others

Another church that relies on "poor box" donations is St. Joseph's in Green Island. Rev. Donald Kelly, pastor, said the town's mayor, John McNulty, who has been a St. Vincent de Paul member there for 40 years, is responsible for emptying the boxes, depositing the funds in a special bank account and making sure requests for assistance are met in a timely manner.

Like Father Varno, Mr. McNulty dislikes the term "poor" so often associated with those assisted by the Society.

"More likely than not, they are people who have met with some kind of catastrophe, an illness or an accident, a loss of employment or housing," he explained. "Usually, they need help on a temporary basis, just to help them get through a difficult period in their lives. To refer to them as poor is not really accurate in the vast majority of cases."

Some donations to the Green Island church's poor box are passed along to the nearby Heatly School to assist needy students. Another portion goes to the Watervliet-Green Island Food Pantry, with which St. Vincent de Paul Society members work closely on a year-round basis.

A joint project around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, in which the youth group of St. Patrick's parish in Watervliet participates, entails preparing and distributing food baskets to needy Albany County individuals and families.

Food pantry

Joseph Shea, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, said the "biggest and most basic need" filled by that 14-member lay group is "providing both financial support and hands-on manpower to the food pantry."

Supporting the Cathedral's St. Vincent de Paul Society in its food collections and other lay outreach projects is the Society at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Delmar. Four members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society volunteer at the food pantry on a daily basis, making every effort to "extend our actual services beyond the food pantry to other needs.

"For example," he said, "members use their own vehicles to do a lot of moving jobs, such as helping elderly people break up housekeeping and move into nursing homes, or delivering donated furniture, such as beds, to needy families."

The Cathedral's St. Vincent de Paul Society also provides tuition assistance to needy students at Bishop Maginn High School -- and hopes to do the same soon for needy students at St. Casimir's Regional School in Albany. At Christmas time, the Society works with the Police Athletic Association to deliver toys to children in need. Once, the Society even picked up the veterinarian bill for a family after the children's pet dog was struck by a car.

Double Vincent

Those affiliated with St. Vincent de Paul Church in Albany are faced with yet another challenge: helping people understand the distinction between the parish and the Society named in honor of the same saint.

According to parish associate Sister Patricia Brennan, SNJM, it is a "mixed blessing" to be one of only two churches in the Albany Diocese named after St. Vincent de Paul (the other is in Cobleskill).

"People call the church all the time thinking they've reached the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and we must take time to explain that the parish and the lay association founded by Frederick Ozanam are not one and the same," said Sister Patricia.

What both do share in common is a desire to feed the hungry, as evidenced by the fact that the parish runs a food pantry that serves hundreds of people each month.

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