The work for justice and peace became popular in the modern Church through liberation theology in the 1960s and 1970s. Gustavo Gutierrez, the famous father of liberation theology wrote: “Poverty is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we build a different social order.”
An older liberationist bishop, Dom Helder Camara of Brazil, said: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” This bishop was formed by the Vincentian seminaries in Brazil during his formation in Brazil.
But this “preferential option for the poor” — the slogan of liberation theology — is the main passion of St. Vincent de Paul’s mission. It is the same spirit that runs in the blood of the whole Vincentian family. When those in power and the systems they perpetuate become the reason of the poor’s oppression and a hindrance in the way of their well-being, St. Vincent does not hesitate to defend them.
1. ST. VINCENT AND CARDINAL RICHELIEU (1624-1642)
Despite his close affinity with the authorities, Vincent did deliberately oppose government policies and articulated them.
One of these incidents happened in the disaster caused by the protracted war in Lorraine (1635-1643). Famine and disease abound. The reports spoke of men competing with animals to eat grass. In the midst of this unimaginable suffering, Vincent easily identified the root cause: Cardinal Richelieu’s foreign policy. Richelieu was the Chief Minister of the Kind of France, Louis XIII.
Together with the extensive fund-raising, the heroic work of the missioners on the ground and the acts of penance done in the communities, Vincent never wasted time and confronted the dominant powers. He thought it helpful to visit Richelieu, kneeling down on his knees to plead: “My Lord, give us peace. Have pity on us. Give peace to France!”
2. THE WAR OF THE FRONDE (1648-1653)
A parallel event happened in the War of the Fronde — a civil war between the old aristocratic nobility, the Parlement, and an absolutist monarchy. During these troubles, the poor are the unwilling victims. Out of concern for the victims, Vincent placed his life on the line once more. He knew the root of the problem: the person of Mazarin, the Queen’s Prime Minister.
At the early dawn of January 14, 1649, Vincent set out early in the morning accompanied by Brother Ducournau to Saint-Germain where the royal household moved to escape from the people’s ire. The trip proved to be full of dangers but he suffered it all. He was also apprehensive that the Queen might not be receptive to his pleadings as she is heard to send away people who criticized her Prime Minister. When admitted to her presence, Vincent told the Queen that Mazarin should go. “Peace! Peace! Give us peace. Your Majesty, please send him away for a while.”
While the Queen listened, she also did not like to confront Mazarin, so she instructed Vincent to talk to Mazarin himself. “Your Eminence,” Vincent told the Cardinal, “sacrifice yourself, withdraw from the country to save France. Submit to the present state of affairs. Throw yourself into the sea to appease the storm.”
Vincent did not succeed. Mazarin became more influential on the Queen who also needed him more than ever. But Vincent pursued his efforts for peace. He continued to dialogue with both sides — the royal power and the nobles, and when the negotiations broke down, he even wrote the Pope to intercede.
In one daring political move, on September 11, 1652, he wrote the Cardinal to refrain from going together with the young King and the Queen Mother as they enter Paris in order to talk with the people. He did this because, in his mind, Mazarin is the real problem. This did not please Mazarin. As a consequence, Vincent was dismissed from the Council of Conscience — a price he paid for his act of open defiance to dominant power.
3. POLITICAL CHARITY
Vincent de Paul is known as the saint of charity. Politics is the highest form of charity, Pope Francis says. In Fratelli Tutti, he writes: “One of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good” (FT 180, EG, 1106).
That is why the work of justice, peace and the transformation of the world — what we call “political charity” — are not foreign to Vincentian ministry.
Already in 1971, at the height of liberation theology, the Synod of Bishops wrote: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel” (Justice in the World 6).
If the mission of the followers of St. Vincent is to preach the good news to the poor, the political work for justice, peace and the transformation of the world is an intrinsic part of preaching the gospel. Or else, we do not preach the good news in full!
Pope Benedict XIV already said in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate: “Charity finds expression not only in close and intimate relationships but also in macro-relationships: social, economic and political” (CV 642); “On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples… On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving” (CV 6).
Charity is politics; politics is charity: “It is an act of charity to assist someone suffering, but it is also an act of charity, even if we do not know that person, to work to change the social conditions that caused his or her suffering… If someone helps an elderly person cross a river, that is a fine act of charity. The politician, on the other hand, builds a bridge, and that too is an act of charity (FT 186).
To practice political charity is to deal with power, sometimes to confront abusive power. Sometimes, as the life of St. Vincent showed, to practice charity is to tell the oppressor, “Resign, give peace a chance.”
Pope Francis writes: “We are called to love everyone, without exception; at the same time, loving an oppressor does not mean allowing him to keep oppressing us, or letting him think that what he does is acceptable… On the contrary, true love for an oppressor means seeking ways to make him cease his oppression; it means stripping him of a power that he does not know how to use, and that diminishes his own humanity and that of others” (FT, 241).
Father Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M., is the President of Adamson University in Manila. He is a theologian, professor, and pastor of an urban poor community on the outskirts of the Philippine capital. He is also the Vincentian Chair for Social Justice at St. John’s University in New York.
