By Priscilla A. Greear - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Just five years after its founding, Miami’s Ladies of Charity association welcomed nearly 150 members from across the United States for a national gathering focused on turning a centuries-old Vincentian mission into concrete service to people in need.
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For the Miami association’s 35 members, that mission is already unfolding close to home: helping families with food and rent, supporting immigrant teens working toward high school diplomas or GEDs, connecting immigrants with legal resources and offering spiritual companionship to those who feel alone.
The 46th Ladies of Charity USA National Assembly, held Sept. 10-12, 2026, at the Miami Marriott Dadeland, brought together participants from an organization with approximately 6,000 members in 200 communities nationwide. Under the theme “Charity and Solidarity,” they explored ways to support the poor and marginalized.
Ladies of Charity USA invited the young Miami association to host because it was the Southern region’s turn to organize the gathering.
“It was very exciting because we are very new compared to other women across the world and we were called to host the assembly,” said Paulina Velez, president of the Miami association. “The beautiful thing about this organization is that it’s worldwide. We had support internationally and nationally.”
The conference opened with a day of reflection at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity focused on Miami’s immigration history and concluded with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at St. John Vianney College Seminary.
Putting charity into action
Established in 2021 after the Daughters of Charity invited Velez, Lily De León and others to form a local association, the Miami group has grown to 35 members. They hold monthly meetings, retreats, service projects and twice-monthly formation sessions with the Daughters as spiritual advisers.
Members partner with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at parishes and local nonprofits to provide emergency assistance. They also volunteer at the Daughters of Charity food pantry, which serves about 300 people weekly, and help immigrant teenagers with educational guidance and supplies, including laptops.
Among those assisted is Angelica Duarte, a single Catholic woman who became the caregiver of a baby through her involvement in the pro-life movement. Despite her modest income from nonprofit work and small apartment, a judge granted her custody of the child.
Duarte, now the baby's legal guardian, took unpaid leave from her job to care for the infant. Without her regular income, she struggled to afford essentials, including baby formula. The Ladies of Charity, alongside the Respect Life Ministry and Knights of Columbus, stepped in to help.
“I faced a difficult financial situation during those first two months and I didn’t have items for the baby,” Duarte said.
Before she began receiving benefits through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), even purchasing formula was a challenge.
“The Ladies of Charity helped me with formula, groceries, and funds that allowed me to cover a month’s rent. They have also included my baby’s health in their prayers, for which I am truly grateful,” Duarte said.
“I thank God for his blessings in my life and I am grateful for the generosity of these ministries of our Church.”
For Velez, such assistance reflects a ministry that goes beyond meeting immediate material needs.
“We are helping them spiritually and materially and take them food, help them pay the rent and in connecting with the resources they need. And it’s spiritual companionship. A lot of times they feel left alone,” she said.
A centuries-old mission of solidarity
The Ladies of Charity trace their origins to 1617, when St. Vincent de Paul organized laywomen in France to help a family in need. He later founded the Congregation of the Mission in 1625 and, with St. Louise de Marillac, the Daughters of Charity in 1633.
Archbishop Wenski reminded participants that Vincentian charity requires selfless service without expecting anything in return. He called St. Vincent de Paul the “Mother Teresa of his day.”
Charity “is self-sacrificing, given completely for the ultimate good of the other,” he said. When people abandon a transactional approach to helping others, “we become conduits of God’s boundless, reckless and beautiful charity — a love that gives simply because it is the nature of love to give.”
Sister Ellen Marie Hagar, DC, executive director of the Vincentian Family Office, expanded on that message during her presentation, “Charity Becoming Solidarity.”
“It’s not just a handout on one occasion to one person,” she said. “It’s a way of looking and seeing people as my brothers and sisters where I want to work in a plan for their best interest and work with them in that plan.”
She encouraged participants to look beyond immediate assistance and address the underlying causes of poverty while accompanying those they serve.
For Miami members, immigration is one area where that accompaniment has become particularly important.
Lily De León, the Miami association’s communications coordinator, said many people seeking help lack documentation or have pending immigration cases. The women connect them with Catholic Legal Services and other resources.
“It’s really sad to see what is happening in Miami. You see it so close. It’s to try to serve and comfort the people with spiritual encouragement,” said De León, a Doral resident.
She added that some immigrant parents are afraid to take their children to school and that she knows people detained by immigration authorities.
“Working with Ladies of Charity, Daughters of Charity, I cannot fix everything but I can try to help any way I can.”
The Miami association also supports the Daughters’ Minukaridad Project, which helps children in 12 countries in Hispanoamérica through educational sponsorships and Vincentian formation.
Passing the mission to a new generation
The Ladies of Charity are also preparing younger generations to continue the spiritual legacy of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac.
Through the Junior Ladies of Charity, young people participate in service, prayer and formation, accompanied by a Lady of Charity who serves as moderator and liaison with the local association.
Among them is Luisa Maria Dussan Cambindo, 19, who grew up with the Daughters of Charity at her parish in Colombia and now helps lead a Junior Ladies group in Miami serving homeless people, migrants and others in need.
“We need to do something with our hands, with our feet, with our heart,” she said. “We really see the face of Jesus in the most in need. And if Jesus is in front of you, we need to do something.”
For Dussan Cambindo, serving others offers young Catholics a deeper sense of purpose.
“Young people have the desire for the truth,” she said. “The Catholic Church and particularly the Vincentians and Ladies of Charity offer us a different way to encounter the purpose of our life, to put others first.”
For Velez, that mission is also a family legacy. Her three aunts were Daughters of Charity in Ecuador, inspiring her own commitment to serving the poor.
“Those are role models I have in my life,” Velez said. Continuing to work with the Daughters of Charity and serving the poor, she added, is “very inspiring.”
“They have been great teachers on the virtues of the Vincentian family, which are simplicity, humility, selflessness, gentleness and zeal.”
For information, visit ladiesofcharitymiami.org.
