{"id":153249,"date":"2016-09-23T23:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vincentians.com\/en\/?p=153249"},"modified":"2016-09-21T08:26:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T06:26:18","slug":"the-heart-of-vincentian-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/vincentians.com\/en\/the-heart-of-vincentian-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of Vincentian Higher Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you for your great kindness.\u00a0 It means a great deal to me to be here at St. John\u2019s University, where I began my university service 27 years ago.\u00a0 Yes, 27 years ago!\u00a0 I\u2019ll say more about St. John\u2019s in a moment.\u00a0 First, though, permit me to tell you about a small moment in the life of St. Vincent de Paul.<\/p>\n

In 1656, St. Vincent held one of his periodic meetings with the leadership of the Daughters of Charity. St. Louise was there of course and so were \u201cthree or four\u201d other sisters, presumably her Council<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/a> Such meetings typically had several agenda items \u2013 often particularly complex matters that required Vincent\u2019s knowledge, connections or simply his advice to sort through. The agenda for these meetings was generally brought by St. Louise and her sisters, to which Vincent reacted, sometimes confirming the sisters\u2019 own thoughts and decisions on the matter, but sometimes disagreeing and recommending harder decisions than the sisters were at first inclined to take \u2013 particularly when it came to dismissing certain Daughters from membership in the Company. Time and time again, Vincent would recommend removal of sisters from the Company, when the sisters were inclined to keep giving their sisters more chances to change. This day, however, those roles would reverse.<\/p>\n

At this particular meeting of August 13th<\/sup>, there was only one item and it appears that St. Vincent himself had called the meeting. They gathered in the parlor of Saint Lazare, the great Vincentian headquarters, and he looked squarely at the Sister in charge of the Foundlings and asked \u201cif she would soon be able to present some of the older girls from that house to become Daughters of Charity.\u201d It was a shocking question, for these were \u201cfoundlings,\u201d that is, children who had once been abandoned as infants and often \u201cfound\u201d on the church steps, assumed to have been born out of wedlock – no small matter in 17th<\/sup> century France. They were the \u201cwages of sin,\u201d the walking embodiment of their parents\u2019 scandal, carrying for the rest of their lives a social stigma beyond our own century\u2019s understanding.<\/p>\n

The sister to whom Vincent posed the question admitted that the girls were of sufficient age, but warned that permitting them to enter the Daughters of Charity \u201cmight cause pain to our Sisters, and could lead people to conclude that all the Daughters of Charity were foundlings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vincent was roughly 76 years old the day of this meeting and that Daughter\u2019s response was a reaction he had faced all his life. The earliest Ladies of Charity could not bear their charity being used for these infants. Vincent repeatedly had to encourage and teach his Daughters to see these infants as the very children of God<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/a> But this meeting on August 13th<\/sup>, 1656 pushed the question to a level that even the sister in charge of the work with the foundlings found disconcerting.<\/p>\n

In such meetings, it was Vincent\u2019s general practice to linger over each matter-at-hand, drawing out the pros and cons of each decision before settling on a course of action. Not infrequently, he might defer the matter to another day altogether, hoping that prayer and time would bring more insight. But not this day. Vincent\u2019s response to the sister was so startlingly brief and immediate as to signal the conversation\u2019s end. He simply recalled Saint Peter\u2019s vision recorded in the Book of Acts, Chapter 10, where St. Peter saw all sorts of culturally forbidden meats presented to him, and heard the Lord\u2019s voice to say \u201cDo not call anything impure that God has made clean.\u201d Peter, of course, understood that vision to signal God\u2019s love and unconditional acceptance of those outside the Jewish tradition. For Vincent, the story also settled this matter. \u201cDo not call anything impure that God has made clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one else is recorded to have spoken at that meeting, and it appears that the meeting was concluded in short order. Vincent merely gave them permission to implement this quietly and confidentially, and the minutes end there. And so does the historical record. We don\u2019t actually know if foundlings became Daughters of Charity thereafter. What we do know for certain is Saint Vincent\u2019s mind on the matter. And it\u2019s that mind that forms a key part of the work that all of us have done in his name ever since.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been asked on various occasions what St. Vincent would think if he were to come back today and see universities run by his priests and brothers. My answer is that I think he would be quite surprised. It\u2019s not that Vincent was anti-intellectual or thought ill of universities. He personally sought extensive higher education and held multiple degrees. No, St. Vincent\u2019s surprise would come from the vastly changed role of universities in society since his time. In his day, universities were not required or even able to achieve his ends for the poor. What Vincent WOULD recognize, I think, is the continuation of the insight he had that day for his precious foundlings.<\/p>\n

As those abandoned children grew from infants toward adulthood, St. Vincent saw stifled possibility, but possibility all the same. He saw a future for them beyond their present circumstances and socially-imposed limitations. That day, August 13th<\/sup>, he opened one more career path for the young women among them \u2013 the possibility of joining the Daughters of Charity – but he had been doing that all his life. With the Daughters and Ladies of Charity\u2019s assistance, he trained foundlings to read. He trained them in job skills. He arranged for them to be apprenticed or to be placed as servants. He didn\u2019t just find nurses for infant foundlings, he saw that they were raised and educated and that a path was created for them. It\u2019s no accident that so many statues picture St. Vincent surrounded by children. These weren\u2019t just any children. These were children with possibility but no futures, and he sought pathways to give them a future.<\/p>\n

That is, of course, exactly what Vincentian universities attempt as well. Pathways. Our time might even call it \u201cmainstreaming.\u201d It\u2019s more of course. Universities in our age are powerful platforms for the intellectual life, and able to play a strong social role in shaping social policy, in moving a populace\u2019s social commitments through the arts, humanities or social sciences; in improving the living conditions of so many through scientific and applied engineering advances; or in creating a student and alumnu<\/span>s deeply imbued with the religious and social values that care for the poor, in a world that too quickly ignores the poor in favor of their own well-being.<\/p>\n

And that is perhaps what I most admire about St. John\u2019s University.<\/p>\n