GENERAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIII, Issue 18, 4 May 1916, Page 47

GENERAL

THE ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY.

Writing to Viscount Louis v d'Hendecourt, PresidentGeneral of the Conferences of the. Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Holy Father in- a. letter given": in the ; Acta Apos'tolicte Sedis says:—'Charity is never extinguished, but, miseries and calamities becoming greater, its -ardor, increases each day. We were already aware of this and we found a striking confirmation of it in the letter -which, you lately - sent to inform us of the growth of the number of Conferences within recent years and of the manifold forms of their charity.' His Holiness goes on to say that the picture of the Conferences presented in the PresidentGeneral's letter is,worthy of the Church's best days. . He praises the members of the Conferences the more willingly because he finds them ready for every initiative calculated to serve and develop such a salutary work and to extend its benefits as the requirements of the present time demand. ' Exactly ._ at times which call for Christian charity,' continues his Holiness, we find greater activity than- ever; but we desire-that in exercising it the children of light should be an example to others, that they should not be satisfied with mere humanitarianism, Cut should aim at higher results and draw their proteges to the love of God, that ' they should, so to speak, constrain them to this by the sweetness of their fraternal charity.' His -Holiness recognises that the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul do not. need any exhortation -in this respect, so manifest is their zeal. He contents himself therefore with giving them a pledge of divine grace by blessing all th« members of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul throughout, the world. '■'.'. i;„" j-