Last week, Yasmine Cajuste, the FHA Project Development Manager, gave the lecture “A Voice of the Vincentian Laity: The Haiti Initiative and the FamVin Homeless Alliance” at the Center for World Catholicism & Intercultural Theology (CWCIT) in DePaul University in Chicago. You can watch her again in this video:

A Voice of the Vincentian Laity: The Haiti Initiative and the FamVin Homeless Alliance from CWCIT on Vimeo.

Answering the Vincentian question (“What must be done?”), Yasmine explained the work the International Vincentian Family carrying out in Haiti since 2010 and through the Famvin Homeless Alliance. She highlighted the core values of collaboration and systemic change in these projects, the progressive journey of learning what needs to be done through active listening and observation, as well as the importance of global partnerships to address current needs of the poor. Yasmine insisted on the role of Providence in guiding the work and on the treasure the Vincentian Charism represents today for the Church and the world, through its members and organisations.

Yasmine’s lecture is part of the series “Poverty: Vincentian Responses around the World”. This lecture series brings to DePaul University different members of the global Vincentian Family to share the ways they are serving and encountering the poor, and God, in their part of the world. Other Vincentians collaborating with FHA, like Father Memo Campuzano CM, have also taken part.

The Center for World Catholicism & Intercultural Theology was founded at DePaul University in 2008 to produce research that will serve the church and the academy. To fulfil this mission, the Centre have paid special attention to the World Church that has emerged since the Second Vatican Council and its growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America. While the CWCIT focus has been on the present global communion of faith, they also attend to historical, theological and cultural questions that will contribute to a fuller understanding of Catholicism and the dialogue of cultures today.