Sydney
23 March 2003
Home
Archive
Subscribe
Links
Contact
Helping the world’s kids to a new start
One in five kids living in poverty
ACU model for rest to follow: Beattie
Transsexual ‘marriage’
Refugees ‘destitute’
Curtain falls on Woomera
Expo peek aids hospital
Call for inquiry into needs of low-paid staff
Catholic Weekly takes a holiday over Easter
Pope’s 25 years in stamps
New mysteries on pocket cards
CD to help East Timorese kids
New Vinnies head wants to ensure best deal for needy
Conference celebrates the faith
Medicare principles ‘must be safeguarded’
Bougainville - after the war is over
Fast and feast in lent
Editorial: The poverty line
Letters: Tabernacle
Conversation: Dr Henry Pang, GP and aid volunteer - Dead people all around ‘changes your life’
Voice of Youth: ‘O’ - what a feeling! We’re Catholics
Plea from the bush: Come and see us
Waverley’s 100 years of ‘bright stars’
Young train as catechists
Lay ministry great, says jubilee priest
New Vinnies head wants to ensure best deal for needy
By Marilyn Rodrigues
The new national president of the St Vincent de Paul Society, John Meahan (pictured), is committed to “making sure the needy in our society get the best possible deal”.
He plans to achieve this by keeping government leaders informed on the problems that disadvantaged families face at the grassroots level, and by placing a priority on the formation and training of the Society’s members.
Mr Meahan is determined also to raise the profile of Vinnies in the community, partly with a view to attracting young members, and to improve communications within the Society as well.
He believes that nurturing the spirituality of its members is an essential aspect of the Society’s work.
“That’s the difference between our organisation and others doing similar work,” he says.
Advocacy and communications are important areas for Vinnies, Mr Meahan says, but the bottom line of its work is providing immediate service to needy families.
“I can only hope to continue with the great work that John Moore has been responsible for, in helping to shape a more just and compassionate Australian community,” he says.
Mr Meahan, a Scotsborn West Australian who migrated here in 1957, has been a member of the Society since 1960.
He has been national vice-president for seven years and WA State president for five.
He was elected to succeed retiring president John Moore at a Sydney meeting attended by the Society’s international president-general, Jose Ramon Diaz-Torremocha.
Mr Diaz-Torremocha praised Mr Moore’s leadership, saying that the work of the Society in Australia under his presidency has been held up as an outstanding example to other countries.
Mr Meahan is married with two children and three grandchildren.