Our Social Action Committee is the umbrella committee for our justice and service ministries. Peace and Justice subcommittee, active since 1983, advocates for social justice issues and peaceful resolution of domestic and international tensions, promote interfaith dialogue, educate and advocate for human rights.
While St. Vincent’s no longer has a school on parish property, we support St. Frances Academy an independent Catholic high school with African American and Hispanic roots, and City Springs Elementary Middle School, an inner city school on the edge of our parish boundaries in Jonestown. Our parishioners donate their prayers, time, effort, and money for the success and thriving of these students.
We provide Emergency Neighborhood Services in the form of a Monday Food Pantry and 2nd & 4th Tuesday Men’s Clothing Program. In collaboration with Our Lady of the Fields Catholic parish in Millersville, we open our facility every Friday evening to serve a hot meal to those who are hungry in the neighborhood.
Our justice commitment extends to the entire Baltimore metropolitan region. We support inclusionary housing, workforce development, equitable education, and accessible public transportation. Our former Pastor, Fr. Richard Lawrence, was a founding organizer of the Archdiocesan program, Beyond the Boundaries, to address these issues. St. Vincent’s is also a member of the Baltimore Regional Initiative to Develop Genuine Equality (BRIDGE), the church coalition through which we advocate.
We have a passionate Racial Equity Group that has a separate page under the “Justice and Service” tab, including recordings of our monthly meetings sharing our journey to learn and work against racial injustice.
St. Vincent’s maintains a commitment that is balanced between advocacy and direct service, an involvement of both head and heart to keep in mind the faces and needs of the people we are called, as sisters and brothers, to serve.
