Celebrating Jubilees

I have felt I have walked unworthily in the footsteps of St. Vincent for these 40 years of priesthood: as a chaplain to retired and infirmed DC’s in Emmitsburg, as a formator in Niagara Falls, as a campus minis-ter at NU, as a Missionary and formator in Panama for 15 años, as visitor in America Central, as Superior General for two six-year terms, and as missionary in an immigrant parish in Charlotte, North Carolina. Perhaps the most challenging of these years have been as Superior General…accompanying and animat-ing the entire Vincentian Family to walk together in the charism St. Vincent de Paul, evangelizing and serving those most abandoned by society. I often imaged how St. Vincent from heaven would be filled with joy to see the effective love so many had for the most marginalized of our world. I experienced first-hand the deep love that many laypeople, Daughters, Sisters, Brothers, and Priests have for our lords and masters, the poor.

The Vincentian priests teaching at St. John’s Prep awakened in me a call to walk in their footsteps. Armed with my high school diploma, I remember the car ride to our Minor Semi-nary. Ten years later, I was ordained beginning a journey I had no idea would be so unlike what I anticipated.

For the first half of that journey I was deeply involved in higher education. When I discov-ered this thing called the ‘World Wide Web,’ I began to discover a vocation within a voca-tion.

For the last 25 years (I can hardly believe it), I have been increasingly involved in what our General Assembly of 1998 called “new means of communication.”

Along the way, I was part of the birth and maturation of the Vincentian Family’s presence in the digital world via a network of sites under the umbrella of FamVin.

It was a cold winter’s night when my phone rang waking me up. It was the daughter of one of our faithful parishioners who said to me, “Fr. Steve, my father is very sick in ICU, and he wants to receive the sacraments before he dies.”

The family was there when I arrived and prayed with me as I administered the sacraments.

Since it was about 2:00 a.m., I decided to stay awhile with the family. I thought it was my duty. I could see the peace on the faces of the family and father. Such a precious and memorable scene I could never forget.

Neither can I forget that whenever the daughter writes to me she always mentions how grateful the family is to me and how often they recall THAT NIGHT and how much it still means to them even after so many years.

May I add I feel the same way and how much THEY MEAN TO ME because THEIR FAITH has deepened mine.

I have recently celebrated sixty-eight years as a Vincentian, since I was accepted on June 10, 1952, into the novitiate. I began eight years of formation: the start of a life-long process in knowing and loving God in the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul and the special virtues of the community he established; and the spirituality and teaching of God in the Scriptures.

After ordination to the priesthood (May 26, 1960), I began the apostolate of evangelization in the works to which Superiors assigned me: four years teaching at St. John’s Prep; thirteen years at Niagara University teaching history (during which time I also earned a Doctorate in History from the University of Buffalo); from 1978 to 2010, I was part of a team translating the fourteen volumes of the Letters, Conferences, and Documents of St. Vincent de Paul, edited by Pierre Coste; and from 1994 to 2018, I established the present site of the Provincial Archives and conserved the on-going history of the Eastern Province of the Congregation of the Mission.

From 2018 to the present, I have been involved in the apostolate of “prayer and suffering” in St. Catherine’s Infirmary, a distinct apostolate of which St. Vincent spoke in his conferences to the Priests and Brothers of the Congregation of the Mission and to the Sisters of  the Company of the Daughters of Charity.

Having known, loved, and served God in the apostolates to which he gifted me, I am awaiting God’s summons to join Him in the happiness of heaven.

Sadly during production, Fr. Carven passed away. Before his passing, he shared his reflection with us. We are fortunate to have been able to capture his sentiments on his years as a Vincentian.