Everyone deserves a safe and stable home. However, financial hardship can make securing basic shelter difficult, as housing costs often exceed what individuals and families can afford. Guided by our Vincentian values, we are committed to address this challenge.

Our 13 Houses Jubilee Project, an initiative aligned with the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year 2025 theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” is spearheaded by the Famvin Homeless Alliance. Here in the Eastern Province, our Vincent’s Homes program conceived in 2017, has provided more than 30 homes to those in need.

Excessive wealth, self-service, hate, power, and materialism frequently overshadows Gospel values of love, humility, empathy, charity, and justice. As Vincentians, we present these values in both words and actions. Only when both are peacefully, harmoniously aligned can we effectively share God’s love.

The Blessed Mother is a beautiful example of living these Gospel values. Vincentians are intertwined with Mary, honor her, and ask for her intercession through her son, Jesus Christ, and through the Miraculous Medal, which she inspired St. Catherine Labouré to create. Service is best done through love, as Mary has demonstrated.

What is God’s calling for our lives? Many men have considered religious life as their calling. Of them, some feel a specific pull toward service to others and choose to be a Vincentian priest or brother. They strive to live the virtues of St. Vincent: simplicity, humility, gentleness, and service.

In the Eastern Province, we are committed to supporting these men in their journeys to discover if this life aligns with their calling. While this is a deeply personal process, our Vincentian family creates a welcoming and supportive community for men exploring a Vincentian vocation.

Our Vincentian family includes people from diverse cultures, expertise, religions, and abilities. We share a common goal: service to others.

For some, that service may come as a calling to be a Vincentian priest, brother, or Daughter of Charity. For others, service may be as a student of another faith following the tradition of service at St. John’s University. At Niagara University, for example, we offer Afghan scholars providing both a refuge and opportunity to contribute their talents.

Vincentians appreciate and embrace the beauty of unique perspectives and life experiences that everyone has to offer.

Often, our programs become community led. In North Carolina, the Social Outreach at St. Mary’s Catholic Church is run by its parishioners and provides assistance to anyone in Greensboro who needs it. In Philadelphia, Face to Face began as a Vincentian ministry but now operates as its own nonprofit, providing nutrition, hygiene, health care, and legal services to people experiencing homelessness. By creating remarkable programs to serve others, we can then entrust their capable hands to serve others and perpetuate the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul.

Through our work with the underserved, our parishes are enriched by a diverse culture, and in turn, we provide a welcoming space where people can come together to worship and connect with their neighbors.

We must also leverage our platform–be it in the world or online–to provide all underserved with social justice, charity, and voices.

In a fair world, everyone would be treated with equality and dignity. Unfortunately, our world is filled with many inequities. The Vincentians, working within the confines of their own communities, are called to respond by serving others and striving to create a more just world. When we do this, social justice becomes possible.

Saint John the Baptist in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood (Bed-Stuy) of Brooklyn, New York, has a rich history of serving its community through various educational and social services. The parish originally founded by the Vincentians as Mary, Queen of the Isles was later renamed St. John the Baptist Parish in 1888. St. John the Baptist Parish was the original site of St. John’s College, which later became St. John’s University. The parish also established a seminary in 1889, a grammar school in 1903, and a high school in 1927.  In the 1950s and 60s, as the area became impoverished, St. John the Baptist Parish expanded its outreach to include social services. The food assistance programs, thrift shops, and support for the homeless, all reflect the Vincentian mission to serve the poor and marginalized.

In 2005, due to a clergy shortage, severe financial restraints, and new demographics, St. John the Baptist Parish merged with the neighboring Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish. Together, they continued the Vincentian work of serving the Bed-Stuy community.

“At one time you could’ve lived your whole life here and never leave,” commented Fr. Astor Rodriguez CM, pointing to the church’s supports available at every step of someone’s life.

As the 21st Century progresses, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and all of New York City face a different challenge: gentrification. Once, many of the Irish and German immigrants who prayed at St. John the Baptist in the 1800s could choose to leave the neighborhood. Now, people no longer have that choice and have been pushed out due to rents and the overall cost of living continuously rising.

As our community in Brooklyn has changed, so must our Vincentian service. In addition to the social services we founded that still exist, Vincentians are collaborating with local agencies that help make a difference in the lives of the underserved in Brooklyn. All of their work can be found here.