Vincent Community

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An institution of the Vincentian Community in Wagga Wagga, Australia

The Vinzenzgemeinschaft (actually: Community of St. Vinzenz von Paul ) is the amalgamation of around 60,000 Vincentian Conferences worldwide , which together have more than one million active members. The Vincent communities thus form the largest voluntary lay organization in the world. Until the 1970s, the Vincent Conferences were Roman Catholic men's associations, while female helpers joined the Caritas conferences . Today the community is open to all genders and denominations.

founding

In 1833 the student and later Sorbonne professor Frédéric Ozanam , who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1997 , founded the first Vincentian community with other students in the Paris suburb of Bailly , which he placed under the patronage of Saint Vincent de Paul . The reason was the poor social conditions of the workers in Paris at the time. Ozanam emphatically emphasized the responsibility of Christians for the poor and the weak of this world.

His demand for solidarity and the endeavor to meet the pressing need through charitable self-organization from the parishes met with a great response in Paris at that time, and groups of like-minded people soon formed throughout France. The first St. Vincent's Conference was held in Germany in 1845, and in Austria in 1849.

The namesake and role model for these groups is St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660), who is considered the founder of modern Caritas .

Organization and activity

The individual Vincentian communities are independent groups, usually organized according to locally applicable association law . They are located in the respective parishes . The pastor responsible or a pastor appointed by the parish are often also active as spiritual advisors in the local groups.

The work in the Vincentian Communities is very diverse and strongly dependent on the needs on site. All Vincent communities volunteer for fellow human beings in need in the sense of Christian co-responsibility. The aim is primarily to help people in need at their own place of residence, but various external and international social projects are also supported. In principle, anyone can work in the communities - regardless of profession, education or religion. The members work free of charge, so that all available resources are used exclusively for those in need.

The headquarters of the Vincentian Community is in Paris. It is recognized on a transnational level by the Pontifical Council for the Laity as an international association of believers and is included in the list of papally recognized lay communities . The Association of St. Vincent's Conferences in Germany (VKD) has its seat in Düsseldorf and is also a professional association within the German Caritas Association . In Switzerland, the parish groups existing at the level of the Roman Catholic parishes are grouped together as an umbrella organization in the Swiss Vincentian Conferences based in Basel . The 110 Austrian Vincent communities with more than a thousand members are grouped in diocesan communities at diocese or state level.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Daniel Wiederkehr: The parish as a space for diaconal work. An empirical study of the possibilities and limits of parish diakonia in the canton of Zurich. Academic Press Friborg, Freiburg 2008, p. 116, note 404.
  2. ↑ a b Vinzenzkonferenz St. Josef , Winterthur, accessed on July 22, 2017.
  3. ^ Association of the Vinzenz-Konferenz Deutschlands (VDK) , Düsseldorf, accessed on July 22, 2017.
  4. ^ The Vincent communities in Vienna , accessed on July 22, 2017.