Society of St. Vincent de Paul Los Angeles CONFERENCE DEPARTMENT/VINCENTIAN SERVICES  A chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (Blessed Sacrament Conference) failed to appropriately respond to reports of racism inside the conference, as well as other complaints of unequal treatment made to the organization’s Los Angeles District upper council.  Los Angeles CA

Executive Director David Garcia 323-226-9642 Deputy Executive Director Susana Santana 323-226-9645 Pamela F. Hudson (Johnson) | National Director of Governance & Membership Services | U.S. National Council of SVdP | 58 Progress Parkway, Maryland Heights, MO 63043 | Office: 314-576-3993 | Fax: 314-576-6755 | Cell: 314-629-3685 |phudson@svdpusa.org

One of the largest charitable organizations in the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (www.svdpusa.org is allowing a culture of racism within its structure and has successfully covered it up for years just like the sex-abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church until someone stood up and said “ I am not taking this anymore, I am going to tell anyone who will listen.

​Hollywood, Calif. ― A chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (Blessed Sacrament Conference) failed to appropriately respond to reports of racism inside the conference, as well as other complaints of unequal treatment made to the organization’s Los Angeles District upper council. Martin Miller, former volunteer of the Blessed Sacrament Conference said “We met in October and at the beginning of the meeting our Vice-President LaNordo Conn announces that there are more White people on Section 8 Housing than Blacks or Hispanics.

He looked directly at me during the announcement."  Leonardo also said "I have a job interview and I betcha the job will go to some white guy that has less experience than I do." I am white and those were two of many racial remarks that hurt." 

We were not there to gather statistics we were there to raise money and allocate funds to help the poor. The entire conference laughed and thought it was funny and swept it under the rug. Nancy Stellos-Miller’s attitude was “he means well,” “try to ignore it we do not want any problems.” the conference President admitted to the upper-council Susana Santana (Deputy Executive Officer of Operations) that she heard the comment but did not act. 

Pope Francis said, “Racism today is the ultimate evil in our world.” ​ By signing this petition, the community can be active in addressing racism and discrimination​! As taxpayers and business owners, we can refuse to donate to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (including its thrift stores) until they visibly change their policy on racism.