Mini-loans and financial dignity

Michael Acaldo, a Baton Rouge native and national leader with the Society of St Vincent de Paul, joins Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein for an incredibly powerful conversation. The conversation opens with Jeff sharing a deeply personal story about attending the funeral of a five-year-old child, the overwhelming grief and unexpected joy he witnessed in a vibrant, faith-filled parish brimming with large families, and the way that experience sent him home with renewed gratitude for his own children. That vulnerable moment sets the tone for an episode that blends Cajun humor, Catholic culture, and a serious call to serve Christ in the poor.

Michael shares about growing up Catholic in Louisiana, where counties are called parishes and even the alligators feel sacramental. He describes powerful Eucharistic processions from the bayou to the streets of New York City.

The Dudes dig into the heart of the St Vincent de Paul Society as a spiritual movement rather than just a social service agency. Michael traces the story from St Vincent de Paul and Blessed Frédéric Ozanam to modern free pharmacies, mini-loan programs that free people from predatory lending, and 90,000 Vincentians across 4,000 conferences who are hunting souls by seeing Christ in their neighbors in need.

Along the way, there are puns about the bayou, improv-style commercials, and the beloved Beatitudes game “Blessed Are the Joke Makers.” Yet, the episode keeps circling back to one core truth: holiness looks like concrete acts of charity, done with humility and joy.

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