The Vincentian Voice
September 30, 2026

Thank You, Holy Infant!

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The members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are grateful to our Holy Infant family for their financial donations and prayers during this past quarter. We absolutely could not do the work of bringing Christ’s love to those in need without your support.

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With soaring utility bills, and unforeseen financial setbacks, many desperate people have contacted us for help this quarter, July through September. Seven hundred and twelve calls were received. Of these, 85 were referrals to other area SVdP conferences. We were able to provide assistance to 12% of the calls from neighbors in our area.

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Our financial assistance this quarter was made possible through both parish donations of $5,213 and grant monies of $35,926 from the $50,000 that we received this past June. These funds enabled us to assist households in payment of 53 power bills, 7 water bills, 1 gas bill, 8 rents, 1 car payment, school supplies for two families, and 25 supports for food or other essential household needs. Twenty-eight home visits were conducted, along with 44 telephone interviews that led to assistance.

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A core tenet of SVdP is that “no act of charity is foreign to the Society.” This can be seen in the diversity of our assistance this quarter. Here are just a few of the cases that we were able to aid.

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An elderly woman was without power for several weeks. She had not shared that her power was off in her messages left for help. We did finally connect with her to find out the extent of her need, which occurred during the height of our heat wave with the daily above 100 heat indices. Helping her was hindered as it coincided with an Alabama Power system upgrade that caused their portal system to be down. This made verification of the amount owed indiscernible and online payment impossible. Once the portal was operational again, we were finally able to assist her in getting the power back on. Since she had lost all her refrigerated foods, we also took her some refrigerated essentials.

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A middle-aged woman with a 25-year-old son that was severely injured in a car accident, now cares for him full-time and is unable to work. After his approval, it was several months before he started receiving his disability checks. Power and rent had both gotten behind. There is a medical hold on the power since he requires oxygen. However, eviction was being threatened by apartment management. We were able to advocate for them and pay enough to eliminate the threatened eviction.

 

Another woman had a critical need for help in paying her car note in order to avert its repossession. She had recently lost her home in a fire and was staying with her sister until the family could be relocated to a new apartment. She had a paralyzed 24 year old son, a teenage son and a daughter in high school, and an 11-month old son with congestive heart problems, who had had a recent heart surgery. We arranged for a partial payment on her car note, averting the repossession, and helped provide school supplies for the teenage children.

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We were so blessed to be able to meet, listen to, pray with, and assist these beautiful families, and others in their challenging circumstances.

Want to Help?

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If you are looking to take a more active role in service to our neighbors in need, we would love to welcome you to our membership. We recognize that not everyone is going to be comfortable with, or available, to make in-person visits to our neighbors. Don’t let that hold you back. There are a number of other roles that you could fulfill depending on your talents and interests. Primarily, though, we are about growing our own spirituality so that we can reach out to share our light of Christ with others. Contact us at (205) 228-8399 for more information.

 

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." — Matthew 25:40

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“We should assist the poor in every way and do it both by ourselves and by enlisting the help of others…. To do this is to preach the gospel by words and work.”

 St. Vincent de Paul

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