updated 18-Feb-12

Sacred Heart Parish - Belfast - 2012

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The St Vincent de Paul Society have a conference at both of the churches in our parish.
Sacred Heart Church Conference
meet each Thursday at 7pm.  Their aim is to help needy and lonely people.  Members can be contacted by putting a note in the St Vincent de Paul box in the church porch.
Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church Conference
meet each Sunday and do the following: visits to the elderly, visits to the sick and the lonely, coal delivered, financial help given, stewarding at Masses, collecting for St Vincent de Paul, and helping with all parish collections.
New members would be very welcome and anyone wishing to join either conference should contact a member of the St. Vincent de Paul after any of the weekend Masses.
The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul exists to fight poverty
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is the largest, voluntary, charitable organisation in Ireland. Its membership of 9,500 volunteers throughout the country are supported by  professional staff, working for social justice and the creation of a more just, caring nation. This unique network of social concern also gives practical support to those experiencing poverty and social exclusion, by providing a wide range of services to people in need.
A Short History
Twenty-year-old student Frederic Ozanam and a few friends started the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris on April 23, 1833. It was a time when the Catholic Church in France was the object of bitter hostility following the French Revolutions of 1789 & 1830.
It is a tribute to youth and a remarkable example which can be followed by young people today that, well aware of the very difficult political, social and economic problems of their times, those young men, students starting out on their future lives, all in their early 20s, did not waste time or energy, but preferred to commit themselves to an active, moral and material service to Church in most deprived.
Favouring a practical, direct approach to dealing with poverty, by their own efforts and raising what finance they could, they worked to alleviate the sufferings and poverty of others, less favoured in their social situation. Frederic Ozanam and his friends believed that Christian help and friendship were the best means of achieving social justice.
This is the same path followed today by the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Ireland as they work for social justice.
The name of St. Vincent de Paul was chosen for the new Society when it was decided that the name of a patron saint should be adopted.  The members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul continue to follow the vision of St. Vincent de Paul and their founder, the 23-year-old Frederic Ozanam, seeking to achieve social justice in a caring nation.