Indianapolis resident becomes first woman elected national president of St. Vincent de Paul Society

Sheila Gilbert recently became the first woman elected president of the national council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Here, she poses for a photo at the society’s Client Choice Food Pantry in Indianapolis, where she greets hundreds of people in need every Tuesday morning. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

Sheila Gilbert knows there will be major changes in her life since she became the first woman elected president of the national council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul on Sept. 3.

Still, the 71-year-old Indianapolis resident hopes to continue the commitment she has made each week to people in need in Indianapolis. Every Tuesday morning, the grandmother of seven personally greets the hundreds of people who line up to shop at the Client Choice Food Pantry of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Indianapolis.

“This is where I get my life, being with the people who are coming here to shop,” says Gilbert, a member of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish in Indianapolis. “You see the same people every week, and you can build relationships with them, get to know them a little bit. To me, this pantry on a Tuesday is like a party with 800 of my best friends. I go home exhausted, but I’ve had a good time.”

Before being elected as president, Gilbert served 12 years as the national secretary of the national council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul that has its headquarters in St. Louis. As she begins her six-year term, Gilbert plans ambitious changes for the Catholic lay organization that’s committed to helping the poor—an organization of 4,500 conferences nationwide that serves more than 14 million people in need each year.

The Criterion recently interviewed Gilbert about her landmark election, her commitment to the poor and the changes she plans for the national organization. Here is an edited version of that conversation.

Q. What does it mean to you to be the first woman to become president of the national council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul?

A. “Well, to be the first woman, in some ways, feels like a heavy responsibility because if I blow it, it could be a long time before there’s another woman. But it’s also what other people have told me, ‘It’s time.’ It’s a landmark moment for the society. Because the way the thing is done, the 4,500 conference presidents across the country actually elect the national president.

“I tend to put most things down to the providence of God. In God’s provident time, this was it. And it was me for whatever reasons. I look at the job sometimes and think, ‘You can’t do this. You’re too old. You’re too tired.’ But God put me in this position, and he will get me through it. If I listen to what God tells me, we will move the society forward.”

Q. In your platform statement before the election, you included a call for “No More Poverty.” Talk about that.

A. “I realize that’s one of the things that humanly is probably impossible. But if, with God’s providence, it’s time, I believe we can work to make that happen. It’s going to require the society to go places it has never gone and do things it’s never done.”

Q. When you say, “Go places it has never gone and do things it has never done,” what do you mean?

A. “The St. Vincent de Paul Society has traditionally been a very quiet society. We work in our parish quietly. We work in our councils quietly. We’re not very often engaged in the life of our community and in the decision-making processes of the community. Part of my vision is for us to do that in every community.

“In most communities, we’re not huge, but we can be the mustard seed that begins to pull together all the people in the community who care. That’s the government, the business people, the education people, all the social services people. We need to find ways to pull them together to really think about the people we all care about, and how we can make things better for them.”

Q. You have been involved in the St. Vincent de Paul Society since volunteering at Christ the King Parish in Indianapolis in the early 1980s. What is there about helping the poor that drew you to volunteer and keeps you volunteering?

A. “I really believe that my path to holiness, my way to be in a relationship with God, is serving people who are in need. And the St. Vincent de Paul Society, with the council and the conferences, gives me a faith community where I can do that, where I can grow in understanding what God is asking of me.”

Q. Who were your influences that led to your involvement in helping people in need?

A. “My mother was always helping. Until she was 85, she would answer the telephone as a pick-up line volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul—to help get the donations so we would have something to give to people. She did that right up until she couldn’t see. My grandmother inspired me in a different way. My grandfather had a stroke, and I watched my grandmother care for him at home with such love and devotion for so many years.”

Q. Being national president involves travel nationally and internationally as well as spending time at the national headquarters in St. Louis. Talk about that commitment.

A. “I thought about that seriously. I’m a gardener, and another place I get life is in the soil. My garden this year is a sin and a shame. It’s awful because I have not been home to really tend my garden. To me, that’s a pulling and a sadness. Also, for probably 60 of my 70-some years, I was really trying to learn to play the piano. I was taking lessons again. I’ve had to stop because you can’t practice on the road. So those are things I’ve had to say, ‘I can’t do this.’ I’ve had to learn I have limits.”

Q. Could you share a personal situation of how your work with the society has made a difference to someone?

A. “I had done home visits for about 15 years. But then a woman moved into my neighborhood, and I saw her sitting on her front porch crying. So I went over to her and asked her what was wrong. She said she was homeless, she was working and she had spent everything she had to get into this house. And she had no money left for anything else, and she wasn’t going to get paid for another week.

“That contact was the start of a journey I’ve walked with her for eight years. I have watched her grow and change. And I’ve watched myself grow and change. Because I’ve been in a real relationship with her, I have a very different understanding now of what it means to struggle every day of your life and there’s very little hope that anything is going to get better. Out of that has come what I believe the society is all about—giving hope to people who don’t have any hope.

“That’s why I’m so interested in systemic change. As a society, we have been very good at meeting the immediate needs of people, and that gives them the ability to survive another day. But I think it’s time for us to move beyond that. We need to help people to thrive. We need to change the conditions that keep them where they are forever. That’s where I want us to go.” †