Thanks for the above referenced article about the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in helping to protect the working poor from predators, namely payday and car title loan operations, engaged in lending practices that burden borrowers with high interest loan rates.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society members have long been recognized and rightly praised for their works of mercy, work that helps feed, cloth, and provide shelter for those in need, but this new venture is a step in addressing a structure of injustice that make for more poverty and suffering of those already imperiled.
In my many years as a Catholic, and now working as an Ignatian Volunteer in service to Social Action Linking Together (SALT), I have noted that we Catholics are very generous in helping those in need, doing the works of mercy, and taking seriously the teaching of Matthew 25: 31-46, but we have been less enthusiastic in addressing the structures of injustice that make for so much suffering. The St. Vincent de Paul Society has demonstrated how both can be done. May their example of charity and working for justice be one that all of us can follow in service to our God and those special to our God, the poor.
Again, thanks for covering the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
