St. Jude Church and Shrine

Dear Parishioners:

You have again shown your generosity and concern for our neighbors in need. You contributed over $5800 to our conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the recent second collection. That’s a record – an amazing accomplishment in this time of Covid-restricted attendance at church. Plus, you filled up our Green Drop collection truck in September with clothes and household items. Those collections benefit people in need, and all St. Vincent groups in the region. So your kindness extends well beyond our local area.
 
Because of your continued support of our St. Vincent de Paul team, during the fiscal year just ended we were able to assist 44 families with nearly $30,000 to help with rent, temporary housing, utilities, car payments and repairs, food and more. Also, your donations keep our pantry stocked. Plus, we worked with other groups to make sure some needy families had nice dinners for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
 
Please call us about needy people in the area, or ask them to call us at 267-903-4884. Or, if you know of families who need a good meal for this Thanksgiving or Christmas, please let us know. We are getting our lists together now.
 
What a wonderful parish! God bless you.
Bill Tavani, president, St. Jude Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

About the St. Vincent de Paul Society

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide Catholic lay organization through which men and women grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to the needy and suffering.  It was established in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam and named for our patron, St. Vincent de Paul, the patron of all works of charity.  The people that we in the St. Jude Conference serve do not need to be parishioners or Catholics to request assistance, they just need to live within or near our parish boundaries.  The vision of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is to embrace the world in a network of charity.
 
Our conference has been present at St. Jude Parish since 2016.  The central and most basic activity of conferences is the visitation of the needy in their homes.  This is the clearest symbol of our Vincentian charism, which dictates the highest respect for the people we serve.  Vincentians always visit in pairs, emphasizing our status as a community.  We go as neighbors to listen, offering prayer, hope and support.  Sometimes we provide advice, sometimes we help them utilize community or parish resources, sometimes we provide rides, sometimes we provide assistance with bills, but we always offer hope and prayer.  Since formed, our Parish Conference has helped hundreds of neighbors in need. 
 
Our conference meets twice monthly, on the second and fourth Thursdays.  We typically help our neighbors with small financial assistance but also provide food from our pantry and often link people with other charitable groups who can team with us to provide further help.  Most of our members contribute a few hours each month to our conference. 
 
If you would like to join us in our work, we welcome you!  We have a Board that meets twice a month and Associates who help us with projects as needed.  Some of our projects include:

• Twice a year, we arrange for a Green Drop truck to visit the parish for donations of clothing and/or housewares.
• Providing Thanksgiving meals for some of our neighbors in need.
• Helping to fill Christmas wish-list requests for the people we serve.
• Assisting the Aid for Friends committee in our Parish to make meals for the isolated homebound.  The meals go to local folks and to neighboring areas where they are needed.