“Go, Rebuild my House”: Empowering the Church of the Poor through the Eyes of Saint Vincent de Paul

Daniel Franklin E. Pilario interprets the Vincentian charism by relating the concepts of mercy, mission, and synodality to Vincent de Paul’s teaching and ministry. Pope Francis has identified these as the keys to the Church’s reform, which is meant as the Christian response to suffering. Mercy (or compassion) is God’s defining characteristic. As Vincent de Paul taught, God was incarnated as a servant of the world to relieve its pain. We, who are made in God’s image, should therefore also be defined by compassion. If we are, then our most fundamental religious practice (mission) is service to the poor. Mission is “the movement of God into the world,” the antidote to exclusion. The Vincentian mission “is to evangelize the poor,” but such evangelization means to enact Catholic Social Teaching and advance the causes of dignity, human rights, justice, peace, etc. Practicing synodality means including marginalized groups, the laity and the poor, in “our structures, our priorities, our theologies, our liturgies.” Inclusion requires empowering the marginalized to tell us what their needs are and how they should be met rather than seeing them as objects of welfare actions. When the marginalized speak for themselves, they become the evangelizers of the Church.