Holy Spirit Vincentians

     We are Holy Spirit Catholic Church parish volunteers who are members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVDP). The Society is a worldwide Catholic organization dedicated to helping members grow spiritually through service to our neighbors in need.

    The first meeting at Holy Spirit was held in November 2020.  In August 2021 we were officially recognized by the national SVDP and received our 501(c)3 tax exempt status from the IRS.

    As of June 2022, there are about 20 parishioners who are active members (Vincentians) and 10 associate members.

    The SVDP officers are

• President - Dave Laurence
• Vice-President - Catherine Rogers
• Secretary - Maureen Busam
• Treasurer - Susan Tenczar
• Spiritual Advisor - Deacon Vernon Krajeski

Committee Chairs

• Food Pantry - Maryann                  Hakowski
• Jail Ministry - Joe Maher

Membership

There are two types of membership in the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul:   

 Active Member, Associate Member, and Contributing Member. 

1. Active Members must belong to the Catholic Church, accept the Basic Principles or Charter of the Society, be accepted as an Active Member by a Conference and be enrolled in it. In addition, they need to take part in the life of the Conference to which they belong. Participation implies a reasonable degree of involvement in SVdP meetings, charitable activities, and religious observances.

 2. Associate Members, like the Active Member, are affiliated with the Society by formal action of the Conference with which the member will be joined. Associate Members include those who sincerely and publicly accept the Society's basic principles but may or may not belong to the Catholic Church.  They participate, as they are able, in the charitable activism of the Society in their area. 

     We provide various forms of assistance to our neighbors in need in the Virginia Beach community.  Specifically, we do 

the following:

• Visit our neighbors in need in their homes to offer prayer,  a willingness to listen, and friendship.

• Maintain a food pantry providing non-perishable food items to those in need.

• Provide financial assistance to those needing help with their rent and utilities. 

• Maintain Vincent's Closet, which has a large selection of both women's and men's gently used clothing. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer children's clothing at this time.

The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul is composed of women and men who seek their personal holiness through works of charity. In this essential way, the Society differs from charitable associations or agencies whose principal objective is not the spiritual advancement of their members but the doing of good for someone else.

In his Circular Letter of December 12, 1915, the President -General of the SSVDP, Vicomte Hendecourt, wrote:

"The Society has two aims: to do a great deal of spiritual good to its members through the exercise of charity, and to do a little spiritual and temporal good to a few poor families in the name of Jesus Christ. If it did not continually seek to combine these two aims, it would lose its raison d'etre. If it were to seek only the holiness of its members through pious exercises, there is no lack of Confraternities and Third Orders to meet that need. If on the other hand, it were to seek only the relief of the temporal miseries of the poor, it would only add one more to the list of public and private institutions founded for that purpose."