A Gift that Opened My Eyes To My History
At the time of my 50th anniversary of priesthood, one of my cousins from Germany sent me an extraordinary gift… a chart of my family history. What was really extraordinary was that it included small pictures of each of my relatives going back the last four generations. It takes four 4’x 2’ frames. Obviously, I can only display one frame at a time on my wall.
There is something truly striking about these photos of the most recent generations … the uncanny resemblances between my nephews and nieces in the US and some of their counterparts in Germany. So often I had to do a double-take. The similarities were so great! People I had never met looked so familiar. They looked like they came from the same womb.
I became aware of how large my family actually was. And I wanted to somehow bring them together for a party so that we could get to know one another!
The Vincentian Family Tree
My earliest understanding of the Vincentian Family was limited to the “Double Family” – the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity. I had no idea of a Vincentian Family beyond that.
My eyes were opened in 1996 thanks to the publication of the ground-breaking study of the Vincentian Family Tree by Sr. Betty Ann McNeill, DC. Then in 1998, I had a week-long experience of this previously unknown family when I was a delegate to the 1998 General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission in Rome. For a whole week, I was introduced to my Vincentian cousins from all parts of the world. They now had names and faces. I realized we all came from the heart of Vincent and Louise and carried the values of Vincent and Louise.
Since then I have dedicated my life to getting to know my Vincentian Family better… and helping others get to know each other via the complexus of websites under the banner of famvin.org.
Some 20 years later I was moved to tears watching 11,000 plus people gather with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate our family heritage in the presence of the relic of Vincent’s heart. Three years later this gathering led to leaders 99 international of the Branches of the Vincentian Family gathering in Rome for the first-ever Assembly of leaders of our Vincentian Family Movement.
The Vincentian Question
The Vincentian Question has always been “What must be done?”. We each have done marvelous things. But it was now asked in a different way. What can we do together that we could not do working in our own silos?
The motto of the AIC successors of Vincent’s very first foundation, even before the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, comes to life… “working together against all forms of poverty”.
Realizing that we can do more together led to the Vincentian Family Homessless Alliance and it’s “13 Houses project”. We now have a commitment to collaborate in the very specific task of building at least 13 facilities for those who are homeless for whatever reason.
Think of it… over 4 million people in 159 counties walk in Vincent’s footsteps. There are 161 congregations and lay Institutes collaborating on one of the major problems in the world … Homelessness!
The words of St. Vincent to the Daughters of Charity continues to echo in our ears:
And that was the beginning of your Company. As it was not then what it is now, there is reason to believe that it is still not now what it will be later on when God brings it to the state on which He has decided.
Quite a history lesson!
This post first appeared on Vincentian Mindwalk
I can somewhat relate with you, John, about this thing that has to do with family ancestry and tree. Lately, my wife’s nephews and nieces have been digging up on their grandparents (of my own family, I can only go back, on my mother’s side, to our great-great-grandparents; I lost interest when my oldest sister warned: “Be careful. You may discover that we owe money to a relative.”).
Two of several items the nephews and nieces have so far unearthed have struck me: (1) 1920 US Census in Kauai, HI, which list my wife’s maternal grandmother as Austrian, but was a native speaker of Polish (maiden name: Mrocyzko); (2) a passenger manifest of American Presidents Lines’ “President Cleveland,” that left Manila 07/02/1925 and arrived San Francisco 07/29/1925. On board that ship was my father-in-law Mariano and still another Mariano, but from another region in the Philippines. Doing a bit of inquiry myself, it appears to me that the other Mariano was a relative of my daughter-in-law, which means my grandchildren are relatives not only of their great-grandfather but also of the other Mariano. This prompted me to say what I had already said in one comment, namely, everything is connected to everything else. Or in John Muir’s words, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
Or to tie this up to today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: “There are different gifts but the same Spirit; there are different ministries but the same Lord; there are different works but the same God who accomplishes all of them in everyone.”
Little wonder, then, that the same looks and the same names keep recurring in the family. God has already taken the initiative for a party. It’s now our turn to follow it up.
Many years ago, when the Vincentian Philippine Mission Work was not yet organized, a Redemptorist priest friend confronted me by saying, “what we are doing with the missions is supposed to be the Vincentians’ work. How come you’re not doing it?”
So when I learned that the Filipino Vincentians were on missionary work, I felt very happy and proud. At long last what “the Vincentians as a body hold as the end of the Congregation of the Mission is to follow Christ the Evangelizer of the poor” has become a reality! And I’m glad to know that they are doing a good job.
In my joy, Tom Mckenna’s observation on “Is Vincent’s Journey, My Journey?” struck me to the core when he says, “that Vincent openly acknowledged his own poverty, his own weaknesses, his own sinfulness became the bridge that enabled him to meet others … this fact is often overlooked…” How true?
And then, Peter Drucker (author of”Managing Non-Profit Organization”) calls my attention when he says, “Work isn’t done by a magnificent statement of policy. Work is only done by people with deadline, who are trained, who are monitored and evaluated, and who are held responsible for results.
And I discover that what Peter Drucker is saying is found in our Constitutions: “The Community is continually responsible for its own development … It involves ongoing formation; it is always being created…” Follow through matters.
St. Vincent de Paul’s legacy continues to amaze me and holds me close to his heart of hearts! Ad majorem Dei Gloriam!
Thanks, Manny, for the comment. I remember reading or someone telling us (Antón, maybe?) that part of the reason St. Alphonsus de Liguori founded the CSSR was because the authorities then wouldn’t allow the Vincentian missionaries to move to where St. Alphonsus wanted them to go and preach missions. I don’t know, though, how true this is.
And have you seen this article on an interview Cardinal Tagle gave to Vatican News?
Tagle says the pope “is not against efficiency and methods” that could help the church’s missionary activities. He added, though, that the Pope “is warning us about the danger of ‘measuring’ church mission using only the standards and outcomes predetermined by the models or schools of management, no matter how good and useful these may be.”
The article, “Faith, not efficiency, is heart of church’s mission, Cardinal Tagle says” is at https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/05/faith-not-efficiency-is-heart-of-churchs-mission-cardinal-tagle-says/. Pope Francis’ message is at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200521_messaggio-pom.html.
Thank you, Ross, for bringing up Pope Francis’ statement.
In his homily (May 23, 2020), Pope Francis warned against “the temptation of efficiency” which he said causes people to think everything in the Church is going well as long as it is under control, “without shocks,” and “agenda always in order.”
“But the Lord does not proceed like this; in fact. to his followers he does not send an answer, he sends the Holy Spirit.” He underlined, “And the Spirit does not come bearing an agenda, it comes as fire.”