The inauguration of the Centenary Celebration of SSVP to be held on Feb 9

Mangaluru: The Society of St Vincent De Paul, popularly known as SSVP, will be celebrating 100 years of its presence in the Mangalore Catholic Diocese. The inauguration of the Centenary Year will be held on Sunday, 9th February 2025, at Bejai Church Hall.

Vicar General of Mangalore Dioceses Msgr Very Rev. Fr Maxim Noronha will release the Centenary Logo Rev. Fr Francis D’Souza, spiritual advisor of the Mangalore Central Council, will release the centenary theme. Rev. Fr Dr J B Saldana, Diocesan PRO and Parish Priest of Bejai, will launch the Centenary Projects. Br Walter Martis, Co-ordinator, Western India Regional Council; Br Gilbert Pinto, former Central Council President; along with incumbent Central Council President Br Joe Coelho and other office bearers will be present.

SSVP, the world’s largest Catholic lay charity organization, came into existence in Mangalore in Bendore parish in January 1926. The Milagres unit was established in the same month. Later in May the same year, two more units, i.e., Rosario Cathedral and Bejai, came into existence.

The basic work of SSVP is visiting the poor, sick, and needy and distributing relief to the deprived in their own environment. The SSVP helps the needy by protecting the self-respect of the recipient and anonymity. Each unit adopts a minimum of 5 families and looks after them as their own. Today, Mangalore Central Council has 623 adopted families having 1765 members.

Since 1926, SSVP has spread throughout the Diocese and today they have 111 units in as many parishes across the diocese and also have 3 youth units and a total membership of 1539 active members, and many are serving as volunteers.

At present, SSVP is having the Diamond Jubilee Health Scheme, which covers 623 adopted families with 1765 members. The scheme is executed in collaboration with Father Muller Medical College Hospital, Mangalore, and Thumbay. This scheme provides free medical care and dialysis care for the members of the adopted families.

Centenary Projects: Commemorating its Centenary Celebrations SSVP has envisaged many projects. Major projects among them are:

SHIKAP (Education): Education aid to the 405 students of the adopted families.

ASRO (Shelter): Shelter is a project to help one hundred families to build or repair their houses.

History: SSVP was started in 1833 in Paris, France, by Blessed Fredric Ozanam and his 6 companions, whose average age was 22 years, except for one. Today it has spread to 158 countries in the world, having more than 800,000 members and more than one million volunteers. It is the largest lay service organization of the Catholic Church and has an observer place in the UN.

It was established in India in 1863 at Bombay and has 7225 units and 65546 members spread across India.

Joe Coelho, president of the Central Council; Ligoury Fernandes, secretary of the Central Council; Clarence Machado, treasurer of the Central Council; Philomena Menezes, convener of the Centenary Celebration Committee; and Loyd Rego, convener of the Media Committee, were present at the press meet.