Origin of the Vincentian Collaboration

I hear the word Collaboration quite often these days. I hear it at work, on TV and in service. Collaboration and cooperation are sometimes used interchangeably, yet they represent fundamentally different ways of contribution. To cooperate is to work together to do something that may not necessarily be part of your beliefs. However, collaboration is more about a common goal that is implanted deep inside those who work to achieve it. The branches of the Vincentian Family share the same history, realities as well as aspirations, objectives and goals.

The signs of collaboration appeared very early with the first building blocks of the Vincentian Family. St. Vincent de Paul and St Louise de Marillac embodied this ideology in a friendship that proved to be of great importance for the Church and for the poor. These two exceptional people with their different personalities set a significant example in humility and sacrifice for the sake of a greater good. Vincent was a country boy, a farm boy, who was loved and wanted by his family while Louise was a city girl, illegitimate, lonely, isolated, not wanted and separated from her family. One might think that these two, so very different in backgrounds, experiences, personalities and ways of operating, could never collaborate to achieve a fruitful outcome, but their journey together changed themselves, France, the Church and Religious life. And for 35 years, they journeyed together, learning to know, esteem and respect each other as they worked intensely establishing missions all over France and beyond. Their collaboration resulted in laying the founding of the Daughters of charity and helping millions throughout different ages.

In 2013, the Vincentian Family Collaborative Action Program (VFCAP) initiated a meeting in Paris with representatives from the different branches from 20 countries. Other meetings followed for the speakers of different languages. The meetings were very fruitful and the members who attended them were the seeds of collaboration between the different branches back in their countries. Every member wrote down an action plan that aimed at raising the awareness of the importance of collaboration between the different branches, and how to put these words into action. Later, the VFCAP advisers visited several countries in order to help the newly formed Vincentian family offices to be on the right track. Currently these countries, along with others, have undertaken a lot of successful projects and have identified a lot of “unaffiliated Vincentians” who live with the Vincentian virtues in their daily lives.

As we are getting to the last quarter of the year of Vincentian charism, as VMY members, we are called to reach out to be enriched with others’ experiences and backgrounds. Let us collaborate to build friendships, skills, attitudes and missions. Let us believe in the power of “WE” which is always more powerful than “I”. Our resources as a family are so enormous if put in a common goal even if we had different approaches to realize this goal. Let us then not hesitate to be that Church that goes out to the peripheries, that is, a church that is for the poor and with the poor.

“We should assist the poor in every way and do it both by ourselves and by enlisting the help of others”

Andrew Wagdy
VMY International Councilor