We, The Fortunate Ones

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As we move from celebrating the Feast of Sr. Rosalie Rendu, D.C. (February 7th), we turn our attention to the life and example of Saint Josephine Bakhita, F.D.C.C. (February 8th), a Sudanese woman, freed slave, Canossian Daughter of Charity, patron saint of human trafficking survivors, and someone we might consider a member of our extended Vincentian Family.[1]

Born in 1869 to the Dagiu ́people of Darfur in western Sudan, she was raised among a family of cattle and sheep herders until she was kidnapped (several years after her older sister suffered the same fate) by trans-Saharan slave-traders who mockingly named her Bakhita (meaning “fortunate or lucky one”). Over the course of her adolescence and early adulthood, Bakhita was sold to several enslavers, who treated her with varying degrees of cruelty and kindness, until she finally found a community of support among the religious of Italy. They assisted her in securing emancipation and supported her journey of religious formation. Bakhita spent the remainder of her life living in community among the people of Schio, Italy, serving as a cook and a doorkeeper at the convent.

Few of us in the United States know firsthand the horrors and degradation of slavery; however, we know its terrible legacies of structural, systemic racism, dehumanizing poverty, and environmental degradation. Much like Bakhita, we can at times feel powerless in the face of such forces, which seem immense and beyond our individual control. Although Bakhita had limited control over the what of her life, we can look to her as an example of courage, fortitude, and hope in shaping the how of our lives; that is, the infinitely creative ways in which we can respond to the Vincentian question, “What must be done?”

As you move through today, consider how you can respond to the personal, institutional, and societal injustices that we encounter in our daily life, work, and study. How can you, like Saint Josephine Bakhita, respond to the call for social and environmental justice in your life?

We invite you to contribute your brief response by sharing a thought, a quote, an image, or a combination of these to our communal reflection at our Bakhita Mission Monday Jamboard as a sign and symbol of hope and solidarity within our community.

Reflection by: Rubén Álvarez Silva, M.Ed. (He, Him, His), Associate Director for Just DePaul, Division of Mission and Ministry

Photo credit: Marcin Mazur at https://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicism/46346193904. Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/.

[1] The following sources were used in writing this post: M. Shawn Copeland, “A Woman of Courage, Fortitude and Hope” in Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie, ed. Susan Perry (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009) available at https://www.ncronline.org/books/2021/06/woman-courage-fortitude-and-hope; and “St. Josephine Bakhita,” Catholic Online (website), accessed February 3, 2022, https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5601.

Increasing Your Impact

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There is great joy to be found in working as a community of people who are dedicated to serving others; it is both humbling and inspiring to see the depth of genuine care and commitment. With so much good being done, how do we ensure it is being done well? One answer is self-care.

When we are at our best, we maximize our impact. Selflessness—putting the needs of others ahead of our own needs—seems like a virtue. But isn’t it more laudable to increase our impact by taking care of ourselves so that we are able to serve others to the best of our ability?

Self-care is not selfish, it is essential; it is not a luxury, it is a necessity. As Vincent de Paul said, “We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty, and we must possess the spirit with which we want them to be animated, for no one can give what he does not have [emphasis added].”[1]

We are served best by a balanced and individual approach to wellness, as self-care will vary for every person. Start with eating well and getting enough hydration, sleep, and movement in your day. Layer in fresh air, human connection, creative expression, communication, learning, and reflection.

Spend some time considering what you need to be your best self, and then commit to it. If it is difficult, post reminders that taking care of yourself means you can better serve others.

What will help you be better? Read a book. Write a letter. Walk among the trees. Meditate. Sing a song. Play a game. Get enough sleep. Eat more plants. Tell a joke. Share a personal goal with a friend. Dance to a favorite song. Drink enough water. Take a yoga class. Compliment others. Compliment yourself. Go for a swim. Donate your time or money. Hike a trail. Express gratitude. Listen deeply. Watch the clouds. Ask for help. Write a poem. Learn something. Call a friend. And, maybe, exercise at The Ray!

Reflection by: Maureen McGonagle, Director of Campus Recreation and the Ray Meyer Fitness Center, and a serving DePaul Mission Ambassador

[1] Letter 1623, “To a Seminary Director,” n.d., CCD, 4:570. Available at https://‌via.‌library.‌depaul.‌edu/‌vincentian‌‌_ebooks/29/.

 

Care for Yourself: DePaul Busy Person’s Online Retreat. Week of February 21st.

Life can be exceptionally busy and overwhelming, moving at an ever-accelerating pace, leaving you wondering if you can keep up or how you can remain grounded and at peace in the midst of the constant shifts and challenges coming at you. During the week of February 21st, the DePaul Busy Person’s Retreat will offer daily 15-minute reflections, inspired by our Vincentian tradition, exploring the richness of intentional time for pause, for meditation, and silence in the midst of the noise and busy-ness. We hope that you’ll find new meaning, tools, and inspiration to anchor your life and work, to deepen your understanding of yourself and your community, and to re-connect to what brings you peace.  REGISTER NOW.

 

What’s your DePaul origin story?

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Tomorrow, January 25, is Foundation Day! So … what is that? It’s a day Vincentians around the world celebrate one of the community’s key origin stories. Everyone has an origin story—not just comic book superheroes, or even saints. They are moments where the line between before and after becomes very clear. Foundational stories help frame and contextualize our lives and give us resources to understand and overcome whatever current challenges we face.

Take our own hero, Saint Vincent de Paul. Several well-known experiences formed who Vincent became—and the legacy that we still live out today. One was in a small village named Folleville in France. At the time, Vincent was a priest accompanying his incredibly wealthy benefactor Madame de Gondi on a tour of her lands (we are talking, “I have a family castle up the road” wealthy). Vincent, though of course concerned with the welfare of the poor, was not yet the driven saint that we know today. He saw joining the priesthood as the surest way of enjoying the finer things in life. His experiences at Folleville were about to change all that.

In January 1617, while staying at said family castle, Vincent received a message that a sick peasant desperately wanted to see him. When Vincent arrived, he discovered that the man was dying, and he proceeded to take his last confession. After a lengthy conversation—that seemed to be grounded in what we might call mutuality today—both men found joy in unburdening themselves to each other. This cathartic experience shook Vincent to his core, so much so that he brought “I have a castle” Madame de Gondi to the peasant’s small hut to talk with him. This transformed her as well, and a mission began that was centered on the question, “what must be done?” In retrospect, Vincent looked back on the sermon he gave about this experience on January 25, 1617, as the formation of the Congregation of the Mission—an institution through which we find our own origin and mission as a university.

Foundation Day is the story of when Saint Vincent really understood what his mission was and what questions he should be asking and answering. His formative experience with the peasant not only inspired internal reflections but drove him to action—and it has inspired the actions of many others over the past four centuries.

What is your DePaul origin story? When was the moment you really understood how you needed to live and what you needed to do … or what DePaul’s mission was all about? Which person or people helped you to really see how your work contributes to DePaul’s (or the Vincentian) mission? What experiences opened your eyes to “what must be done?” Whatever your answers, these are now a part of your foundational story.

Reflection by: Alex Perry, Program Manager for Faculty and Staff Engagement, Division of Mission and Ministry

 

Foundation Day Celebration

Tuesday, January 25, 11:00 – 1:30pm

LPC Student Center Atrium & Loop DePaul Center, 11th Floor

Join Mission & Ministry to celebrate the 405th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation of the Mission. Stop by for a snack and take a moment to reflect on how you carry out the Vincentian legacy at DePaul.

DePaul SOCK DRIVE

Monday, January 24th – Friday January 28th

Further celebrate Vincentian Foundation Day through action!  Join us as we partner with the Wool Gathering Project to collect socks for those who need them this winter to stay warm.  Just get a brand new pair of socks of any kind and drop them off at the bins at any of the following locations sometime this week:

11th Floor DePaul Center, Loop Campus, Near #11010

1st Floor Student Center, Near the CCM Office on the West End.

The Theatre School, Near 1st floor Elevators

Lawful Assembly Podcast Episode 22: Suffer the Little Children

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This is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of the DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migrations Studies Program and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. The podcast requests that you send comments to the federal government before midnight eastern standard time on Tuesday, January 25 providing ideas to end the policies that have led to family separation and lengthy detention of asylum seekers.  The Biden administration has recognized the human tragedy caused by these policies and has requested your ideas to ensure the United States never engages in such policies and practices again.

ACTION STEP

You can use either of these links to send your ideas to the Task Force.

The National Immigrant Justice Center has provided the direct link to the request for comments:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/10/2021-26691/identifying-recommendations-to-support-the-work-of-the-interagency-task-force-on-the-reunification

A coalition of groups has put together this link for Immigrant Justice at:

https://immigrationjustice.us/advocacy/take-action/ensure-family-separation-never-reimplemented/?utm_source=fbt&utm_medium=ptnr&utm_campaign=famsep#/112/

You can use any resources or background material you find persuasive, but please make sure your comments uniquely represent your views.  Do not simply copy and paste someone else’s comments unless you add why you find them persuasive.  You can add your personal experience or why you believe the United States should end family separation and detention of asylum seekers.

The quotes from the Biden administration regarding the human tragedy of family separation and the goals of the Task Force can be found in the Background information produced by the Department of Homeland Security at:  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/10/2021-26691/identifying-recommendations-to-support-the-work-of-the-interagency-task-force-on-the-reunification

Paragraphs 181 and 182 of the U.N Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (Geneva, January 1992) can be found at: https://www.unhcr.org/4d93528a9.pdf

The Supreme Court found that the Handbook provides “significant guidance” in INS v. Cardozo-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 420, 439, fn. 22 (1987).

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights can be found at: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.  (Adopted December 10, 1948)

The Convention on the Rights of the Child can be found at:  https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx (Adopted November 20, 1989).

For a discussion of how United States asylum policies have fallen short of the protections of the CRC, see Craig B. Mousin, “Rights Disappear When US Policy Engages Children as Weapons of Deterrence,” (January 1, 2019), AMA Journal of Ethics, Vol. 21, Number 1: E58-66, Available on SSRN at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3317913

The National Immigrant Justice Center has several resources providing ideas that would end or minimize family separation.  You can find the letter it submitted to DHS at:  https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-files/no-content-type/2022-01/Family-separation-policies-NIJC-comment-2022-01-19.pdf

This NIJC blog provides short summaries of issues of concern:  https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/biden-administration-routinely-separates-immigrant-families.

NIJC also prepared this short video on family separation:  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6889620108780584960/

The Detention Watch Network provides several resources to more fully understand the extent of immigration detention as the United States has established over 200 locations throughout the nation.  See, for example, “Immigration Detention 101,” at: https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/issues/detention-101

or “Communities Not Cages,  A Just Transition from Immigration Detention Economies, (2021) at: https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/default/files/reports/Communities%20Not%20Cages-A%20Just%20Transition%20from%20Immigration%20Detention%20Economies_DWN%202021.pdf

Need more information?  Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Program invites you to a Families Belong Together program on Monday, January 24 at 7 p.m. (EST).  You may register for more information at:  RSVP here.  Speakers will share their expertise about the latest updates in immigration policy and the ongoing horrors of family separation.

Thank you for joining this effort to meet the Task Force’s goal “to ensure that the Federal Government will not repeat the policies and practices leading to the separation of families at the border.”   Please share this podcast’s request with others to lend their voice to ending these tragic policies and practices.

Lawful Assembly Podcast – Episode 21: Pondering Anew

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This is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of the DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migrations Studies Program and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy.  The podcast opens the new year with a request to consider how our biblical and national founding narratives offer us an opportunity to reconsider how we as individuals and a nation should respond to asylum seekers fleeing danger in their homelands.

The biblical narrative stories can be found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 2:1-19.

The TRAC data base from Syracuse University provided the information on the 22,068 individuals in detention.  See: https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/detentionstats/pop_agen_table.html

The American Immigration Council’s report on individuals in detention and the number of unaccompanied minors in detention can be found at: “Rising Border Encounters in 2021: An Overview and Analysis” See: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/rising-border-encounters-in-2021

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights provided the number of over 70,000 individuals trapped in Mexico under the MPP, the stories of the children cited in the podcast, as well as additional stories of children trapped in dangerous situations under these policies.  See:  https://www.theyoungcenter.org/mpp-harms-children

The National Immigrant Justice Center documents that thousands more have been denied the opportunity to apply for asylum by the continued implementation of the Title 42 program and expansion of the MPP program. “NIJC Condemns The Biden Administration for Reinstating The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).  See: https://immigrantjustice.org/press-releases/nijc-condemns-biden-administration-reinstating-migrant-protection-protocols-mpp (October 15, 2021).

Marilynne Robinson, in her essay in “Old Souls, New World,” discusses the democratic principles fostered by many of the Puritans coming to New England in What Are We Doing Here? Essays, (NY, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018), 274, 291-92.

The Walter Brueggemann quote can be found in his book, The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2002), 10, as cited in Craig B. Mousin, “Constantine’s Legacy: Preserving Empire While Undermining International Law,” 389: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3960335

Rev. Ted Conklin’s full poem, “Displaced Person” was cited in an Advent meditation by the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin, “Keeping Advent, Saturday, December 11, 2021” at:  https://thomasmousin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Keeping-Advent-December-11-2021.pdf

The full poem of Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman’s, “The Work of Christmas Begins” can be found at:  https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/now-the-work-of-christmas-begins/

ACTION STEP

Ponder anew how we can offer hospitality to those seeking safety in this new year and then follow Rev. Drs. King and Thurman: go forth to “find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner.”  We will be providing additional information on other action steps in subsequent podcasts.

An Invitation to Prayer

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As the Division of Mission and Ministry (DMM) seeks to support all members of the DePaul community in their spiritual well-being, the division is preparing to offer monthly prayers for the community. The DMM Pastoral Care Team recognizes that as we continue to live in times of uncertainty and constant transition in the face of the pandemic, the prayer and spiritual needs of our community might look different now than they have in the past and they certainly are different for each person.

Living into DePaul’s commitment to personalism, DMM has developed a brief survey that we encourage students, faculty, and staff to complete. With your input, the DMM Pastoral Care Team will strive to develop regular and meaningful prayer moments for our community.

Please take a few moments to take the 2-minute survey so that DMM might better understand what types of prayer experiences would be life-giving and accessible during these times. If you would like to be entered for a drawing to receive a gift card upon completing the survey, please include your name and email address. We deeply appreciate your time and look forward to sharing prayerful moments with the entire community.

 

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “We are on the move now… Our God is marching on”

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“Today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now…. Let us march on segregated schools until every vestige of segregated and inferior education becomes a thing of the past, and Negroes and whites study side-by-side in the socially-healing context of the classroom.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March 25, 1965[1]

The words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose memory we celebrate in the coming week, are an eloquent reminder for all races and ethnicities that dreams have not been defeated. This is not a post-utopian era. Utopias are alive in the hearts of all who struggle to build true democracies in which all people, especially the “most abandoned” (as Vincent de Paul called them), can finally live with dignity. The memory of Dr. King should always awaken a belief that a better world is still possible.

History is a continuum—in the utopia of yesterday, the reality of today was incubated, just as new realities will breathe from the utopias of today. The utopia of one century often becomes a simple fact of the next century. Utopian vision is the beginning of all true progress and the design of a better future. I believe it’s not too late to make real Dr. King’s utopia of a just world in which people of all cultures and races are treated equally and given the same opportunities to flourish.

In our encounters within the Vincentian Family, we constantly realize that our creativity is not exhausted and that we are still too far away from the realization of a world in which all forms of life are respected and protected. We must ensure ‘the most abandoned,’ as Vincent called them, are taken care of, and provided with everything they need to live with dignity.

In a 1965 sermon, Dr. King explained that the “majestic words” of the Declaration of Independence, “all [people] are created equal,” were the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement.[2] He did not see that document as a lie but as an unfulfilled promise, “raised to cosmic proportions,” that the movement was now struggling to realize. When we see the unbearable suffering of so many people in the United States, especially so many people of African descent, we understand the current challenges of the movement Dr. King championed.

DePaul University is built on top of this same foundation, this universal truth. Vincentian understanding recognizes the dignity of every human story, and especially those persons that are broken because of systemic injustice, structural poverty, inequity, exclusion, or social and racial discrimination. We recognize the essential equity among all human beings of so many diverse backgrounds.

In many places of the world, I have seen a growing movement of intersectional liberation and social transformation. We, the Vincentian Family, are bearers of just part of this seed of life that has been entrusted to all races, religions, cultures, social classes, and nations of the earth. This seed is hidden in the heart of the Vincentian charism, a charism that belongs to the reign of God and his justice. It is deeply connected with all the other seeds entrusted to humanity to make dignified life on our planet possible and sustainable. The vitality and relevance of the Vincentian spirit can only be guaranteed if a connection with this universal movement is kept alive.

The Vincentian charism is pro-cultural. We are at the crossroads of history alongside the excluded of the earth, and of the earth itself, and our horizon is the same that the universal movement of justice and peace envisions: “a new heaven and a new earth”![3] The systemic racial justice of Dr. King’s utopia is a Vincentian issue that we embrace from our own convictions and for our vocation. His dream is not strange to us. Our Vincentian sociology, theology, and anthropology naturally bring us to this cause. We are on the move, marching with God for a world free of hate. DePaul should be a school where the equitable new world is designed, where students of all racial identities and diverse cultural backgrounds come together “side-by-side in the socially-healing context of the classroom” as Dr. King envisioned in 1965. That is the dream.

In 2022, the memory of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. can give us all the elements we need to understand that the emancipatory movement is urgent today and needs support from every angle. It is deeply connected with all social and environmental movements of liberation and transformation.

We are on the move, we cannot stop marching, and we won’t turn around now! We will continue resisting the hegemonic ego- and capital-centric narratives that are destroying our planet, making life unsustainable, and oppressing human beings. It is an urgent necessity that all human, social, and environmental movements of systemic change work together side by side to be effective. As Dr. King said, “The battle is in our hands. And we can answer with creative nonviolence the call to higher ground to which the new directions of our struggle summons us. The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going.”[4]

Reflection by: Guillermo Campuzano, C.M., Vice President, Division of Mission and Ministry

[1] Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Our God is Marching On,” speech, March 25, 1965, Montgomery, AL, transcript, https://‌kinginstitute.‌stanford.‌‌edu/‌our-god-marching.

[2] Ibid.

[3] For biblical examples, see, e.g., Isaiah 65:17-19, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1, and Isaiah 66:22.

[4] Ibid.

Be a Community Builder in 2022!

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“What a blessing to be a member of a Community because each individual shares in the good that is done by all!” — Vincent de Paul[1]

When we pause to consider all that the world needs as we begin the year 2022, many would agree that, among other things, we certainly could use more people who are motivated and able to act as community builders. This holds true not only for broader society and in our neighborhoods and families, but also within our DePaul community. The challenges of the past 20+ months of the pandemic, including our increasingly virtual and remote existence, have frayed the relational fabric of our communal life. If we at DePaul are to continue as a “community gathered together for the sake of the mission,” then we need community builders to help weave together new bonds of connection that ultimately benefit us all.

Among your New Year’s resolutions, I invite you to ask yourself: What can I do in the days and year ahead to build or rebuild relationships, bridges, bonds, shared memories and experiences, shared understanding, a greater sense of belonging, and a common purpose among my DePaul colleagues?

A strong sense of community among us creates a healthier and more vibrant workplace and an educational environment that better serves students. In our broader society and in our neighborhoods and families, a little bit of intentionality in connecting with others and weaving relational bonds improves the quality of life for all.

Vincent de Paul recognized that the mission he envisioned was only possible through a community. It was not something he could do on his own. The same is true of the Vincentian mission we envision at DePaul—and perhaps also of the big-picture vision you have for your own life and work. We need others to join us, support us, and challenge us in positive ways if we are to succeed. This is made possible largely through and because of the relationships we have taken the time to cultivate and sustain.

Make it your New Year’s resolution to be a community builder in some concrete ways. Here are ten suggestions. Just pick one and do it, or come up with your own!

  1. Serve as a hospitable, cheerful, welcoming host to a newcomer or simply to people who have been away for a while and whom you haven’t had the chance to see in person.
  2. Affirm or give thanks to a colleague for something they have done or just because of who they are and what they mean to you.
  3. Connect to other people across departments/divisions/silos during or through meetings, a coffee or lunch gathering, a handwritten card, or a simple phone call or email offering a random hello or “thinking of you.”
  4. Make note of the significant life events of others and follow up with them later to see how they went.
  5. If you are feeling irritated or out of sorts, make a commitment to hold your tongue and consider possible constructive solutions and words first, rather than bitter or harmful ones.
  6. Make more of a conscious effort to stop what you are doing and truly listen when interacting with a colleague or neighbor.
  7. Follow through on an idea that emerges for you regarding how you might show compassion and care toward another.
  8. Just simply show up for the life events, programs, presentations, or celebrations that are important to others and for which your presence would be a show of support.
  9. Find ways to share fun and laughter with friends and colleagues.
  10. Read and share a meaningful quote, article, or book with another person.

None of these alone will “build community” once and for all. They are clearly not shared as a panacea or solution to some of the complex societal and institutional challenges and structural problems that we face collectively. However, if we follow these ideas, they will put us all in a better position to work together to do “what must be done.”

Reflection by: Mark Laboe, Associate VP, Division of Mission and Ministry

[1] Conference 1, “Explanation of the Regulations,” July 31, 1634, CCD, 9:2. Available at https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/34/.

Across the Divides: How the Dialogue of Life Can Enrich All

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Mission and Ministry’s Abdul-Malik Ryan published an op-ed in Visible Magazine talking about his work as a Muslim Chaplin here at DePaul. Below is an excerpt from the article:

The world needs spaces where people who are different can live together and form deep relationships. They need to be with not just with people who are superficially different but meaningfully different, over things that matter to all.

As the Director of the Interfaith Youth Core Eboo Patel puts it, “Diversity is not just the differences we like.”

At my university, students call their community, “umma” meaning “whole community” in Arabic. The intention is to live up to the ideal that all are welcome here — across political, ethnic, sectarian and all other differences not to debate and struggle for control, but to live together and know each other as human persons, beyond labels and disagreements.

There are benefits to groups and associations of people passionately dedicated to a certain perspective, to advancing a certain cause. Such groups and such spaces are necessary and powerful. This is evident in progressive movements such as #MeToo for the empowerment of women or in defense of the rights of Palestinians and in conservative religious revivals.

Read the article in it’s entirety here.

Vincentian Studies Institute Revises Additional Texts of Vincent de Paul

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DePaul University continues its support of Vincentian scholarship with a new revision of our four volumes of additional, mainly unpublished texts by and about Saint Vincent de Paul. This revision includes multiple new documents added across all four volumes along with corrections and updates to the existing texts. The translator and editor is John E. Rybolt, C.M. The books supplement the fourteen volumes of Correspondence, Conferences, and Documents, published by Pierre Coste, C.M., over a century ago.

These fully searchable, free to download pdf e-Books total more than 4,500 pages of letters, conferences, and documents in their original languages of French, Latin, and Italian, followed by an English translation.

These texts represent an open-ended collection, allowing for additional texts to be added as they come to light, as well as corrections and updates. We welcome suggestions and input from the reading public.

Click through to access each new volume of the collection:

Correspondence: CCD Additional Texts

Conferences: CCD Additional Texts

Documents, part one: CCD Additional Texts

Documents, part two: CCD Additional Texts

It is hoped that these new texts will further our understanding and appreciation of the great saint of charity, Vincent de Paul.