Vinnies College Conference

Vinnies College Conference 2020

‘Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve’

With the words of St Eugene to inspire us, we endeavour to model his great works.

It is timely that at Mazenod College this week we commemorated the Anniversary of the Approval of the Oblates on the 17th February 1826 when Pope Leo XII formally approved of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and endorsed the first Rules and Constitutions of the Oblates written by St. Eugene. Back then, the Mission of St. Eugene was simple: ‘to bring the Good News of the Reign of God to those who are poor, forgotten, tossed away and rejected’.

We know that at a similar time in another region in France, Frederick Ozanam, a university student, became deeply moved at the hopeless state of many families living in Paris. During a debate on the situation, he was challenged by the accusation that as Christians and Catholics they were not doing anything to help the people in need. Ozanam drew inspiration from a French priest, St Vincent de Paul, who had shown charity and compassion to the people of France two hundred years earlier and he founded a society of like minded individuals who wished to put their faith into action.

This compassionate outlook, enthusiasm and vision continues today in Australia through the members of the St Vincent de Paul Society. There are thousands of people who every day share their time, concern and energy to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged people all around Australia.

Secondary school members of the Vinnies Society meet in groups called College Conferences to make the connection between ‘seeing’ the needs of those amongst us, ‘thinking’ about the ways that we can be of service and ‘doing’ the good works to assist people within our school, parishes and wider community.

In August 2019 Mazenod established our College Conference, drawing on the strong links developed over many years by staff and student conferences in the past with our local Parish Vinnies Conferences. We worked tremendously to achieve our goals for 2019, with the Year 10 Winter Sleepout being our main project, which was an outstanding success. We thank the students, staff and families who supported our initiatives last year.

As the year begins, I would like to introduce our first formal committee, the committee of 2020.

President - Gajindu Rajapakshe

Vice President - Mateo Acosta-Fernandez

Secretary - Anthony Vassiliadis

Treasurer - Anthony Fernando

Committee Member - Niko Tambakakis

Committee Member - Mathew Jameson

Committee Member - Connor Samaras

Committee Member - Thierry Dubois

In 2020 we intend to formalise and expand our objectives and look forward to working closely with each year level in a variety of initiatives conducted throughout the year.

Inspired by St Eugene de Mazenod, the members of the Vinnies College Conference aim to ‘leave nothing undared for the Kingdom of God’

Gajindu Rajapakshe

President