Marking a century-and-a-half of continuous service, St. Vincent Medical Center celebrated the feast day of its patron St. Vincent de Paul with a standing-room-only Mass in the hospital chapel Sept. 27.

In his homily, Cardinal Roger Mahony contrasted the world's materialistic values with the altruistic values practiced by St. Vincent de Paul among the sick poor in impoverished neighborhoods and prisons of France back in the 17th century.

"A special freedom takes place in our lives when we are at the service of others, especially the poor and the sick, because we empty ourselves of our self interests and self concerns and focus on the needs of others," said Cardinal Mahony. "And the more that we do that, the more peacefulness and a wonderful feeling of the presence of God comes over us."

He pointed out that St. Vincent de Paul regarded the sick poor as a "great gift" to those who care for them. "Because of [the sick person's] total dependency upon God, they are blessed in a way we are not. And so, when we reach out to them, we are really placing ourselves in deeper contact with God," the cardinal explained.

St. Vincent de Paul and members of the religious communities he founded such as the Daughters of Charity, the cardinal noted, not only served the poor directly, but advocated for their welfare.

"As St. Vincent de Paul fought very hard for the rights of the poor," said Cardinal Mahony, "so we too, in our own time, we need to do that. We need to be supporters, for example, of minimum wage being increased. We need to support having benefits for people who work so that they have health care and other means to assist them with their needs. It means that we, too, stand with immigrants and are unafraid to be the voice of the voiceless and to point out the rights of human beings."

Catherine Fickes, St. Vincent Medical Center president/CEO, told The Tidings she appreciated the cardinal's recognition of the 150-year service of the Daughters of Charity to Los Angeles.

"It is a very joyful day for all of us to celebrate the works the sisters have done teaching in schools, [administering] healthcare, and providing service to the poor. If the hospital wasn't here, people wouldn't find a place for continuity of care, and they would progress to a critical point where they would have to access the system while very ill with possibly irrevocable consequences," said Fickes.

Daughter of Charity Sister Caridad Tatayon, who provided nursing care to St. Vincent Medical Center's first kidney transplant patients 30 years ago, said her ministry has been a privilege.

"I joined the Daughters of Charity after I read a book on St. Vincent about his life and aspirations in serving the sick and the poor," said Sister Tatayon. "The reason we serve the people is because we are serving Christ in the poor. That's exactly what St. Vincent told us --- in serving the poor, we're serving Christ himself."