Saint Vincent de Paul

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a world-wide lay organization founded in Paris, in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam who was a 20 year old student at the Sorbonne University. He forme the first group which was called the ‘Conferences of Charity’ and was later known as St.Vincent de Paul Society. They visited people in their homes and offered spiritual and material support. To-day this practice is known as home visits and it is the main activity of the Society.

The Society was first introduced in India by the French Missionaries at Pondicherry in the year 1852, which was not registered. Officially the Society started in India in 1863 with six Conferences in Bombay.

Structure of the Society: The basic unit of the Society is the Conference functioning at the Parish level. In India we have men, women, mixed, youth & junior conferences as on date. The number of conferences in the nearby areas are grouped together to form Area Councils and Area Councils are generally grouped at Diocesan level to form Central Council. There are totally 76 Central Councils. The National Council animates and co-ordinates the activities in India and reports to the International Confederation in Paris.

The Society stands recognized by the Holy Catholic Church as a Pious Association and is registered with the Catholic Bishop Conference of India (CBCI) as Catholic lay organization. The Spiritual Advisor of National Council is appointed by the CBCI. The Spiritual Advisers of the Central/Area Council are appointed by the respective Bishops. At Conference level one of the Priests of the Parish is the Spiritual Adviser. Thus the Society is entwined with the Parish and our members involve themselves spontaneously in all Church related activities. The mission of the Society is to bear witness to Christ by deepening the faith of its members and to serve the poor in order to uplift them from their miseries. The principal objectives of the Society are alleviation of poverty, provision of medical and educational assistance, disaster relief and self-help projects.

The Conference of Our Lady of Lourdes, Orlem completed over 50 years. It has 34 active members. They meet every Thursday at 7pm in the school classroom on the ground floor.

The conference has 58 adopted families which receives ration twice a month and 45 aided families which gets ration once a month, where possible, the medical expenses and children’s educational needs are taken care of. The Conference organized lunch for all the adopted families in January every year. In Mumbai the Society runs a Home for the Aged “Shanti Bhavan” at Kalyan and an AIDS Hospice/Leprosy Home at Trombay- “The Eduljee Framjee Albless Niramay Niketan”.

Priest-in-Charge: Fr. Ronny Vaz OFM CAP

President : Sydney Rana