from our confreres

Homelessness stigmatizes, marginalizes, socially excludes, and weaponizes human need. We don’t even know the extent of it. Couch-surfing, staying with friends (for a while), is hidden homelessness and just as devastating. Women and children suffer the most, as they do with every social issue, despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including housing as a right for all (article 25). Why is it so hard to admit that homelessness is a systems failure?

When St. Vincent spoke about the virtue of zeal, he usually referred to it as “zeal for the salvation of souls.” In the 21st century, this understanding is usually viewed as being too narrow. Today we expand would expand our understanding of this virtue to include zeal for the salvation and wellbeing of the entire person – soul, mind, and body. 

The virtue of mortification is one that most Catholics and probably many Christians are familiar with. Every year during Lent people might ask one another, “What are you giving up for Lent.” or “What are you doing for Lent”? Both of these questions point to the virtue of mortification.

In practice, meekness is a combination of gentleness and firmness, standing fast to one’s principles, but always willing to listen and speak with affection.

Humility has gotten a bad name in the modern world. To be humble or to be humbled can connote a sense of low self-esteem. However, prescinding from the context of seventeenth century spirituality, the Vincentian practice of humility today is actually affirmative and helpful.

On Sept. 20 and 21, the UN hosted two action days focused on youth and their concerns, signalling an appropriate increased focus on young people at the international body.

The 13 Houses Project, by the Famvin Homeless Alliance has in only six years provided homes and access to services to more than 10,000 formerly homeless people, worldwide.

Even in the more undeveloped areas of the world, where futures seem pre-determined and fixed, with some exposure to the wider world everyone would want greater fairness, with opportunity for everyone, with material help when needed, with everyone’s dignity respected. The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda of Peace and Prosperity for People and the Planet aims at getting humanity closer to that world. And the underlying promise is to leave no one behind.