Honoring the legacies of its patron saint and its founder in serving the poor and addressing the root causes of poverty, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA opened a new advocacy office in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 2025.
Speaking at a reception before the ribbon-cutting and blessing of the new office near the U.S. Capitol, John A. Berry – the national president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s National Council of the United States – said, “The needs of the poor are evolving, and the face of poverty is changing. Seniors, women, single parents and the displaced middle class have become a larger part of the more than five million people SVdP USA serves every year. As the world evolves, so do the needs of the poor.”
That reality, he said, has prompted the new initiative of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA, to open a national office in Washington, D.C., in addition to its headquarters in St. Louis, to advocate on behalf of the poor and homeless.
“This unique direct relationship we have with our neighbors in need gives us a perspective and a view from the reality of the poor that we will be able to share with policy makers and like-minded nonprofits and other organizations. The new D.C. office will anchor that advocacy work,” Berry said.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA – which is also known for the thrift stores and food pantries it operates in cities and towns across the country – works in 4,428 parish-based conferences across the country, with almost 90,000 Vincentian volunteers serving their communities. Vincentians are known for face-to-face encounters with the poor, as they visit the homes of those they serve, to identify both immediate and longer-term needs, including emergency assistance with utilities, rent, food and clothing, and they also offer prayer and spiritual comfort to the people they serve. Last year, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA provided more than $1.4 billion in aid, including $60 million in emergency financial assistance to prevent evictions and keep people housed.
Inspired by the example of St. Vincent de Paul – who is known as “the apostle of charity” – in 1833 Antoine Frédéric Ozanam and five other students formed a lay organization to serve the poor in Paris that became the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
“That small effort by six college students has become a fire that lights the world,” Berry said. “The Society of St. Vincent de Paul today serves in 155 countries around the world, with 800,000 members and 1.5 million volunteers.” It is the largest lay Catholic organization in the world.
Blessed Frédéric – who was beatified in 1997 by Pope St. John Paul II – once wrote that “it is too little to relieve the needy day by day. It is necessary to get to the root of the evil, and by wise reforms to diminish the causes of public misery.”
Berry said those words “are our heritage, they are our history, they are the calling we must continue to follow in today’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul.”
Opening his talk, he pointed out that today, more than one-half million people in the United States are experiencing homelessness, and he later noted how millions of Americans lack basic necessities like affordable housing, nutritious food and quality healthcare, with families living on the streets, children going hungry and the cycle of poverty persisting.
“Since our founding in 1833, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been committed to working not just to serve the poor, but to advocate for them,” said Berry. He added, “The work of charity cannot, and must not, be neatly divided from the claims of justice. While SVdP is not a political organization, our work and our faith demand that we advocate for those living in poverty.”
Highlighting the legacies of the society’s patron saint and its founder, Berry said, “As St. Vincent and Blessed Frédéric showed us, we must not only serve the poor, but stand beside them, speak for them and challenge the systems that keep them in poverty. We must advocate for affordable housing, living wages and access to quality education and healthcare.”
Berry emphasized that “our faith and our actions must walk hand-in-hand. We must support organizations that are working to address the root causes of poverty, including systemic racism and economic inequality.”
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA leader said that the new Washington, D.C., office will advocate in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services and other nonprofits to “drive the changes needed to address poverty at its source.”
In addition to John Berry, the participants in the ribbon cutting and blessing of the society’s new advocacy office included Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States; Juan Manuel B. Gomez, president general of the International Confederation of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul; Archbishop Andrew E. Bellisario, a member of the Vincentian religious order who leads the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, Alaska and serves as the national episcopal advisor for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA; Michael Acaldo, the national chief executive officer of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA; and Ingrid Delgado, national director of public policy and advocacy for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA.
Before the ribbon cutting, Juan Manuel B. Gomez presented John Berry with two gifts for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA’s new advocacy office in Washington – a bust of Blessed Frédéric Ozanam and a replica of the crucifix that Blessed Frédéric had on his desk.
Members of the International Board of Directors of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, who were in Washington for a meeting, also participated in the opening of the advocacy office.
Ingrid Delgado, who will lead the new Washington office for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA, recently served as the associate director of government relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She earlier worked as the associate director of social concerns and respect life for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In an interview, Delgado said this advocacy with members of Congress is urgently needed at this time, and she noted how Vincentians can share personal stories about how policies impact constituents of congressional districts. “There is a real potential that programs like SNAP and Medicaid will be severely cut,” she said.
Medicaid provides health coverage for low-income people, and SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budgets.
Delgado said that as a Catholic girl growing up in Miami, she learned about how “St. Vincent de Paul is where you went when you needed help.” She said it is a privilege for her now to work with the St. Vincent de Paul Society in serving the poor and vulnerable.
In another interview at the reception, Brian Corbin – the executive vice president for member services of Catholic Charities USA – said advocating on behalf of the poor and people in need with congressional policy makers and federal agency leaders offers a reminder to them that “how they allocate money in the budget is a moral blueprint for how we as a country respond to the poorest among us and the most vulnerable.”
Corbin added, “It’s important for the same policy makers and congressional leaders to understand how the long-term public and private partnerships between government agencies and nonprofits, especially faith-based (entities), continue to work together for the common good, especially at the local level, serving people who are in need or who are vulnerable.”
Earlier that morning before the opening of the advocacy office, Cardinal Wilton Gregory – the archbishop emeritus of Washington – celebrated a Mass for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s International Board of Directors at the St. Vincent de Paul Chapel in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. That chapel includes a statue of St. Vincent de Paul holding a child and a bas relief of the saint comforting a dying man, and a mosaic of Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.
In his homily, Cardinal Gregory praised the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul saying Blessed Frédéric “had a great heart for the poor. In many respects, he sought to find justice through charity – still a well-sought journey in our own modern world. Your venerable organization is Blessed Frédéric Ozanam’s legacy to our Church as you continue to care for those that you find in need.
Cardinal Gregory said “God’s justice always tilts toward love. We are called to emulate this divine perspective regarding justice. Surely that was the motivation that prompted Blessed Frédéric and his young counterparts in caring for the poor of their world, and it is the foundation of the mission of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in today’s world following the wonderful example of St. Vincent de Paul himself in caring for the poor in Paris.”
Later at the reception for the opening of the advocacy office, John Berry emphasized that “the work of every Vincentian across the globe is a vital lifeline for countless people in need… We must become bearers of hope… Hope, in the Vincentian tradition, is rooted in the unwavering belief that God is present among the poor and suffering. When we stand alongside them, we stand with Christ himself.”
He noted how St. Vincent de Paul launched his ministry to the poor in the 1600s in France in a world plagued by war and social upheaval. “Vincent’s actions remind us that even in time of great darkness, the light of charity and justice must shine together,” he said.
Berry concluded his remarks with words of St. Vincent de Paul that remain central to the society’s outreach: “Go to the poor, you will find God.”
