Welcome to the Autumn 2025 issue of The Record.

In the years up to 1974, The St Vincent de Paul Record, our forerunner publication, was published monthly but unlike today, when it is free, or perhaps we should say ‘priceless’, it came with a cover price, in the case of the issue on our cover, threepence per copy.

In those days, production and printing were performed at St Vincent’s Boy’s Home in the Sydney suburb of Westmead.

Historical copies of the publication, archived in the Society’s National Council Secretariate office in Canberra, make for some inspiring and fascinating reading.

The depicted issue of 1 April 1950 reported on three new Conferences being established at Wagga Wagga, NSW and the founding of a Catholic stamp collecting group. A lengthy story on port clubs for seafarers said the lonely men would appreciate male and female companionship with whom to ‘expound their views on world problems and the ultimate end of man’. Apparently, being at sea made for a gloomy disposition.

Sandwiched between these diverse stories and black-and-white ads for David Jones menswear, insurance companies and monumental masons, came an editorial headed ‘Two Men’, which recounted the lives of Saint Vincent de Paul and Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.

‘St Vincent was a priest; Frédéric a layman, who, notwithstanding the responsibilities of marriage and a brilliant professional career, found time to give abundantly of himself to his less fortunate fellow citizens… one living the full allotted span, one dying ere he reached middle age - so much different in their lives in many ways and yet so much the same in their practical expression of charity…

‘These two men left an example: let all our members study it and make an honest attempt to follow it’. Some sentiments never change, and Hallelujah! to that.

It may be noted that the Archdiocese of Perth also publishes a magazine titled The Record, which can be accessed at www.therecord.com.au. Like our magazine, it is a member of the Australasian Catholic Press Association.