Saint Vincent de Paul was born on April 24th, 1581 in a village in Gascony, France. Saint Vincent was a French priest of the Catholic Church who was famous for dedicating his life to help the poor. He founded the Congregation of the Mission in 1625, which are also known as Vincentian. They are a group of followers of the Vincentian mission who dedicate their lives, much like St. Vincent de Paul, to the service of others who are in the dire need. Based on the fundamentals of the Vincentian mission DePaul University strives to form an appreciation and understanding of the modes to higher education in culture, society, religion, moral values, and service.
Saint Vincent also elaborated that it is important for us to create a whole family of God, or a community. A community that is even diverse to come to gather to work for the greater good. It’s our mission to create a community who dedicates themselves in the servitude of helping those who are less fortunate. This entails, creating a community of diversity even in the aspects of religion.
Interfaith Scholars are students who join together from various religious backgrounds to perform, and educate the four ways of Dialogue. It is our duty as Interfaith Scholars to encourage discussions, between people and groups of various religious beliefs. We strive to create a safe environment to discuss the diversity within our perspective through events like Interreligious Celebrations, Retreats, and Movie Nights.
Our goal is to raise tolerance and awareness of varying spiritual traditions. We want to form a culture for DePaul that provides openness to religion, spirituality, and philosophical background. We provide service to the general body of students who may lack the key dialogue that unites us all as people.
How the Interfaith mission relates to St. Vincent’s ideals of creating a community, all of whom are the family of God in Vincent’s eyes, from all different ethnic, cultural, religious, economical and racial backgrounds. We are striving to share with our community the knowledge and education to form this diverse community. Vincent’s philosophy and ideas helps us as people to understand that we are different and a like in many ways beyond and within our spiritual ideals. We follow in St. Vincent’s footsteps in creating a more accepting and giving community
– Melanie Kulatilake