The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Roman Catholic lay ministry which is not part of the official Catholic Church.
In 1833, in Paris, France, a group of young law students at the Sorbonne created a group that would help the people in one of the poorest districts of Paris. A nun, a Daughter of Charity, who had been walking the streets and alleys of this district bringing food and other aid to the people, became a mentor to these men. She cared for, fed, visited, consoled, and comforted the poor and destitute. She taught these young men to see Christ in the poor and to approach each with humility as Christ’s servants. This was the beginning of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
In 1845, a young priest from St. Louis, Father John Timon, visiting relatives in Ireland, saw firsthand the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society there. When he returned to St. Louis, he started the first American Council of the society. Two years later, when he was assigned to go to Buffalo, New York, become its first Bishop, and create the new diocese of Buffalo, he started a council in Buffalo and a conference in Lockport.
The main hierarchy of the Society begins with the International Council in Paris, the United States Council in St. Louis, and diocesan and archdiocesan councils all across the country. Within the Buffalo Diocesan Council, there are small groups at individual parishes called conferences. Currently the Buffalo Diocesan Council has about 48 parish-based conferences comprised of approximately 750 volunteer members.
One of the early ones was the Saint Margaret conference established in 1925. It consisted of men from the parish right up to the end of the 20th century when it welcomed its first female member. From 1988 onward, when membership totaled 12 plus the pastor as spiritual advisor, it began to dwindle in number. It dropped drastically to only one member and the pastor as spiritual advisor in the early 2000’s. It began to build up again with several members and today stands at five active members, two associate members, and a spiritual advisor.
From the 1980s until the early 2000’s, our service consisted of visiting patients at the Veteran’s hospital, annual giveaways of turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and giving money to people who would approach our priests and the rectory seeking help. In the early 2000’s, we began to practice the most important expression of our ministry: the home visit. Like our founders, when people reach out to us for help, we visit them in their homes, listen to their story, and try to meet their needs. The assistance we offer includes food, clothing, appliances, bedding, other furniture, household goods, and occasional help with paying rent, security deposit, or utilities. Often, we find out they have additional needs that we cannot provide, needs that require professional help. In those cases, we refer them to a network of agencies around Western New York who, in turn, refer their clients to us for material needs.
Individuals seldom approach our rectories now, but instead reach out to our central office at 1298 Main St. They can walk in or call and request assistance. Our intake coordinator will then ask them some key questions beginning with their contact information and get a general idea of what their needs are. That coordinator will write up a case report which she sends to one of the many parish-based conferences in the region. At that conference, the case is assigned to a pair (following Jesus’ command to his apostles) of volunteers who belong to the conference. They reach out by phone to introduce themselves to our friend in need and set up an appointment for a home visit.
The home visit is a very special encounter with our friends in need. After we’ve been welcomed into their home, we have a very brief conversation about their background: how did you hear about us? Have you been help before? Have you been to our thrift store or dining room at 1298 Main St.? How long have you lived here? We give a brief history of our ministry and ask if they practice a religion. Sometimes, they will express an interest in coming to our church or reconnecting with a church they may have belonged to in the past. Then we get into the business of discussing exactly what they need. Sometimes the volunteers have to assess the size of an appliance, if it’s gas or electric, or if they have plans of moving. If they indicate they may be moving soon, we will postpone our assistance until they find a new residence.
Our response to their need may be to immediately go out to a grocery store and buy bags of food, issue a voucher for a thrift store at 1298 Main St. for them to go and select the items that they need for which we pay, or write a check to the landlord or to a utility company.
We sometimes follow-up later to see that the appliance was delivered or do they need anything else or how are they doing. They may even come back to us a year or more later and ask for further help.
This home visit is a very gratifying and spiritually rewarding expression of our faith. Here in the Catholic Community of Buffalo North, when the Saint Margaret church closed as a parish but remained as a secondary worship site, we decided that, since Saint Margaret did not exist as a parish anymore, we should choose a new name, one that is more inclusive of the entire family. Our spiritual advisor Sister Karen Marie Voltz, suggested Saint Marguerite D’Youville, the foundress of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, and patroness of charity.
Currently, our conference serves people in need in ZIP Codes 14208, 14216, 14217, and 14222. We also belong to the Timon conference which is based in the Diocesan Council offices at 1298 Main St. In the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, we made 84 home visits and served 98 adults and 37 children. The ability to pay for appliances, bedding, furniture, etc. come from donations by parishioners and friends.
If you have a yearning to make a difference in a person’s or families’ lives, want to volunteer to do something meaningful, to make a difference in people’s lives, consider joining the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Saint Marguerite D’Youville conference.
Monthly meeting dates are posted in the bulletin. For more information, call conference president Larry Brooks at 716-994-9075.
For more information about the Diocesan Council, visit svdpwny.org.