This story was first published in the Provincial's Newsletter March 2024
edition which you can find in our Library along with all previous Newsletters.

The Vincentian Solidarity Office (VSO)

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VSO Bulletin – March 2015 (1616)

The Vincentian Marian Youth: A Beneficiary of the Patrimony Fund Project

The Vincentian Marian Youth (VMY) is a worldwide association directed by our Superior General. Yasmine Cajuste serves as VMY International President, and works as the education coordinator of the Vincentian Family Initiative in Haiti. The VMY is a beneficiary of the Patrimony Fund Project. At our request, Yasmine shared these reflections on the VMY:

Yasmine Cajuste in Haiti

In July 2015, the VMY will celebrate its 4th General Assembly in Salamanca (Spain). After 12 years of service to VMY International, I will pass on the torch to a new Council with new dreams and projects. I am happy to do so because this story that started in July 1830, will continue to offer youth a meaningful and joyful way to live Christian faith as they evangelize and are evangelized by those most in need.

A gathering of VMY members in Brazil

Two sets of words summarize the purpose of VMY: “To Jesus with Mary” and “To Live, to Contemplate, and to Serve”. In this amazing journey of Christian living, each young person is given the opportunity to envision his/her life as part of God’s project, as a call to mission and as a testimony of Christ’s presence in our hearts and in our midst. Life becomes an exciting project with God, under the maternal guidance of Mary and in favor of our brothers and sisters. With approximately 100,000 members working in 65 countries and a great network of collaborators within the Vincentian Family, VMY offers many other young people like me, the grace of belonging to a larger family and a long chain of service that embraces the world. If most of our membership is composed of teenagers, VMY welcomes children and young adults as well, according to the needs and reality of the specific countries.

National VMY chapter in Cameroon

I discovered VMY quite late, compared to other members. I was 17, and about to finish high school. I came thinking of a trial period of three months – and never left. VMY has greatly shaped my personality, my faith, my commitment to others and to life. From Haiti to Madrid, and visiting many countries in the world, I came to appreciate the multiple faces of the same Association, in the respect of different cultures. I have met very committed young people, passionate of Saint Vincent de Paul and eager to reach their full potential. I understand better what it implies, for an Association and for a Vincentian, to embrace the beauty of the Gospel and to live it in today’s reality. Despite its 185 years of history, VMY remains an exciting adventure for young people today. I have no doubt that the Association will continue to strive and to attract them. In a few months, during our General Assembly, we will dream new dreams and spend the next years making them true. With God’s grace and with all the support it will receive, VMY will continue to offer to the youth a community, a transformative experience with Christ, and amazing opportunities to grow through service.

Vehicles in Italaque and Mocomoco

Two of the parishes operated by the confreres serving in our International Mission of Bolivia, the Parroquia San Miguelin in Italaque, and the Parroquia San Pedro in Mocomoco, lacked dependable motor vehicles. The situation severely impeded evangelization efforts.

Our missionaries in Bolivia with their new vehicles

Both parishes are located in rural, mountainous areas with poor roads that turn treacherous during rainy seasons. The Parroquia San Miguelin serves 3,000 people in 30 communities. Some of the communities are located hours apart by vehicle. The Parroquia San Pedro in Mocomoco has 53 communities with 4,000 inhabitants. Many of these communities are also remote and difficult to reach. Our confreres working in the parishes must transport pastoral and other services out to the communities, since their residents are poor and lack means of transportation.

The Bolivian Mission requested the help of the VSO in obtaining a new vehicle for both parishes. The VSO matched grants from Adveniat and contributions from donors with monies from the Vincentian Solidarity Fund, enabling the mission to purchase a four-wheel drive Toyota land cruiser for each parish.

Protecting a School in Tabarre

The retaining wall under construction by the school

Not long after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti, our confrere Fr. Raphael Verlux, C.M. constructed an “earthquake proof” school in the city of Tabarre, located 8 kilometers outside Port au Prince. St. Vincent de Paul School serves over 450 poor children in grades Kindergarten through 8th.

After the school opened, the City of Tabarre decided to construct a canal to channel flood water into a river. The city located part of the canal at the edge of the property of St. Vincent de Paul School, only a few feet from the back of four of the school’s buildings. The canal lacked adequate reinforcement. It quickly deteriorated with heavy rains, and began to wash the ground out from underneath the school buildings. The buildings were in danger of being lost. Appeals to the city officials responsible for the canal fell on deaf ears; the school had to act on its own to save its buildings.

Fr. Raphael requested the assistance of the VSO to secure funds to construct a retaining wall to hold back the flood waters. The VSO obtained a large contribution from a donor in the United States, which it matched with monies from the Vincentian Solidarity Fund, to finance the wall. The wall was built with reinforced concrete and stone, and is 165 meters in length and 6 meters in height. The wall is designed to protect the school for 100 years.

Vincentian Solidarity Office
500 East Chelten Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19144

How to contact us:
Fr. Miles Heinen, C.M., Executive Director:  Telephone: (215) 713-2432
Email: cmvso@yahoo.com
Scott Fina, Ph.D., Associate Director:  Telephone: (215) 713-2433
Email: scottfina@gmail.com
Fax: (215) 843-9361
Our websites: www.cmglobal.org/vso www.cmglobal.org/patrimony-en/
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The Vincentian Solidarity Office (VSO)

Download as PDF:
VSO Bulletin – June 2014 (1377)

The Province of Hungary: A Beneficiary of the Patrimony Fund Project

Hungary faces many lingering challenges after enduring 40 years of rule by a Soviet backed, communist regime. A troubled transition from a centrally-planned, to a market-based economy hampers its efforts to build a just, democratic, and civil society. Hungary had adopted austerity measures before the 2008 global recession, compounding its poverty and economic inequality.

The experience of the Catholic Church in Hungary has mirrored the nation’s socioeconomic struggle. The Church was severely oppressed under communist rule from 1950 to 1989. International religious congregations—like our own—suffered tremendously. Some Hungarian confreres were imprisoned. Others joined dioceses to be able to continue to work as clergy, or became manual laborers. Although officially disbanded by the government, and monitored by police, many confreres continued to associate and support each other in faith. When the province was re-established in 1990, only a few of the original Hungarian confreres were still alive. The pressing need to rebuild the “apostolic society” paralleled the need to rebuild the broader Hungarian society. Confreres from other provinces volunteered as missionaries in Hungary. The province worked to regain its properties that had been confiscated by the government.

An assembly at Szent László School

The product of these efforts is a small, but remarkably spirited and dedicated group of confreres who constitute the Hungarian Province today. These ten, mostly young priests, vigorously embrace the call to rebuild Catholicism in Hungary, and promulgate Gospel justice and concern for the poor among its populace. In doing so, they focus their work on the youth, looking toward the future, such as administrating the Szent László Secondary School in Szob (the first Catholic school in Hungary to include students with disabilities in regular classrooms), operating hostels for university students in Piliscsaba where they also serve as university chaplains, and hosting youth retreats in Budapest. Other ministries include parish work, pastoral guidance to organizations of the Vincentian Family, and serving as chaplains for the ill and destitute. Because of the promise of its works and future growth, the Province of Hungary will benefit greatly from its participation in the Patrimony Fund Project.

Confreres of the Province of Hungary

A School in Kimbanseke

he newly completed Saint Vincent de Paul School

Good schooling is a privilege, rather than a basic human right, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Impoverished families have few education options. These families are numerous in the Kimbanseke district of Kinshasa. Many are refugees from famine. Because of the lack of schooling, many of their children roam the streets and are recruited into military factions and criminal activities.

In response to this situation, our Province of the Congo began to construct a kindergarten through secondary school in Kimbanseke, with monies contributed by the Belgium Region. These funds financed the construction of the foundation and superstructure of the building’s three wings, and its toilet block. The province then turned to the VSO for funding assistance to complete the school’s construction (including plastering, installation of doors and windows, installation of the electrical utilities, ceilings and flooring, and painting), and to purchase its furnishings.

The VSO obtained a grant from a private foundation in Europe, and applied matching funds from the Vincentian Solidarity Fund, to finance the completion of the school and furnish it. St. Vincent de Paul School currently provides over 1,000 mostly impoverished children with a high quality education.

Renovations in Antananarivo

The new laundry at the Maison Saint Vincent

The Maison Saint Vincent in Antananarivo serves as a residence and apostolic center for missionaries of the Province of Madagascar. Confreres in the house oversee a number of works, including the Akamasoa Association development project, a mission chapel, and a nearby vocational training center. Recently the province decided to also use the house to accommodate elderly and infirm confreres. Toward this end, the province needed to reconfigure the house by moving the laundry outside, adding two bathrooms and enlarging one of the rooms for a wheelchair.

The Province sought assistance of the VSO. The VSO responded with a micro-project grant for the laundry and with donations and a match to finish the project.