Geraldine embraces Vinnies role
Local
The new State president of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Geraldine Hawkes, is well versed to lead an organisation committed to tackling inequality and injustice.
A gentle Scottish lilt and deep empathy dances through her sentences as she talks. It harks back to Glasgow, the place she grew up in before moving to Australia with her husband Paul, an Aussie and State chair of the Knights of the Southern Cross, and their two children.
She credits her strong sense of justice to her late parents.
“My father was a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society and my mother did things like making extra sandwiches every morning for me to give to girls at school who lived in an orphanage so they had something to eat at recess,” Geraldine told The Southern Cross.
“There was always a sense of sharing when I was growing up, and I never had a sense of ownership, rather whatever we did have was for sharing with others who might need it more than we did.”
Moving Down Under gave her a further chance to express this.
“When I came to Australia in 1988 I was able to give it fuller expression in my work life,” she says.
“I was offered a position with the Catholic Archdiocese; an affirming place for giving expression to justice with strong collegiality and solidarity, of course, around the gospel values of social justice.”
Geraldine reflects on the importance of community and feeling connected, especially when starting from scratch in a new place.
“I was beginning to be surrounded by people who had the same aspirations as I had; the same values and the same struggles. While I was distant from my extended family and from the land I grew up on, I felt like I was in a space where
I could work with others to make a difference.”
Her formal involvement with the Society in South Australia began in 2020 when she became a member of the Salisbury Conference. She officially stepped into the role of Vinnies State president on October 8, following the conclusion of Brad Hocking’s term.
“When I think of a president, I think of someone who acts as a unifier; someone who connects people and provides a place for listening, distilling, and encouraging initiatives. Also, someone who keeps us grounded in the ethos,” she says.
“St Vincent de Paul Society has a particular ethos, and it’s very easy to let go of that in order to achieve efficiency or play the numbers game. I think a president has the particular responsibility of working with others in remembering our foundational story and keeping us on track through listening, encouraging and imagining new possibilities for facilitating more just ways.”
It’s a true north to which she is devoted.
“I often look to religious communities; the Mercy Sisters, the Josephites and the Jesuits. This is a lay Catholic organisation, and ours is attentive to people who are marginalised and are experiencing any form of poverty, whether that’s economic, social or spiritual.”
Vinnies members, staff and volunteers are devoted to walking alongside the marginalised.
“While we do give out food and clothing vouchers and provide meals and accommodation, it’s much more than that,” Geraldine says.
“We are companions to one another, we build friendships and take each person seriously – never seeing them as a problem, but rather as someone with a deep inner beauty and who needs some assistance at this point in their life.”
The State president believes this is particularly important during the festive season.
“Christmas will be a time when we’re all eating, drinking and socialising more and sometimes we’re left a bit jaded,” she says.
“How can we develop what I would call an ‘attitude of gratitude’? By that I mean the experience of being able to choose how to celebrate a day that people across the world are celebrating, while trying to be aware of those who can’t.
“Gratitude can refer to having people around us, to having a roof over our heads, and to having a choice. Jesus and the family didn’t have a choice, they had to take the stable when they were looking for accommodation. Many of us by comparison, have so much choice. What are we actually choosing? And what are we sharing?”
Geraldine has a 13-year-old granddaughter in London and is on a mission to encourage younger people to get more involved in social justice.
“One of the initiatives we’re looking at is working more with students as they leave Catholic colleges,” she says.
“The Catholic colleges are amazing places. They already do a lot of work for Vinnies; fundraisers, food drives, Mini Vinnies (for primary school students), and food hampers at Christmas time. The schools have a very good curriculum on social justice so the question we’re asking and want to engage more on, is: as those students leave school, how do they see their engagement with social justice? We want to invite them to a conversation to explore that. Not to join or volunteer for Vinnies necessarily, but to explore how they see themselves participating in bringing about a greater sharing of life’s resources.
“If there’s something they feel St Vincent de Paul Society could facilitate with them, then we’d be open to exploring that, and to support and accompany 18 to 30 year-olds in their search and in engaging more?”
Geraldine says this is undergirded by work Vinnies is doing through the national arena in terms of what it means to be a lay Catholic organisation.
“It’s about developing deeper awareness and engagement with the Gospels. Those amazing stories of justice and peace and the way Jesus moved around and related to people, especially those who were rejected or overlooked by society,” she says.
Geraldine was particularly inspired by Archbishop Leonard Faulkner.
“I worked with him, and he was a man who cared deeply for ‘the other’.
“He was full of humility and his motto was ‘as one who serves’. He had a deep love especially for people who were struggling with life and living on the edge and he would spend time with them, listening to their story. He demonstrated what was important in leadership by loving simply and caring for those struggling with life.”
In the Society’s 140th year in SA, Geraldine is ready to walk in the footsteps of others.
“I really am in awe of those Vincentians who have done this work for years and years; being companions to others,” she says.
“Some people have done 50 years or more of this walking alongside people through St Vincent de Paul Society. It’s very inspiring and I take great encouragement from them.”
Jump to next article
