The double garage at the rear of the Our Lady of Mercy Church affords a large storage space, thereby enabling the Conference to meet increasing needs more effectively.

The preparation of Christmas hampers is greatly assisted by many donations at the church, and by a most generous effort by the Staff and students of St. Francis de Sales School.

Visits to the sick, house-bound and isolated continue to be a vital aspect of the Conference and a
tangible realisation of our Parish Vision.

The collaboration of the Vinnies Family Centre with the Conference has been a significant boon to the members and their apostolate. For this the Conference is especially grateful.

Where necessary, Families are referred to a Financial Counsellor who comes from Murray Bridge Anglicare. This counsellor works at the Vinnies Family Centre every Thursday. 

The Vinnies Family Centre provides good second-hand clothing, furniture, bric-a-brac etc to families who are struggling in this economy. Families referred through the conference with vouchers can select clothing and manchester. The Conference also provides furniture to families when necessary.

In 1832 an epidemic of cholera swept through Paris killing up to 1200 people each day. Large slums areas were forming in Paris; thousands of people lived without work, some without clothes, and many alcoholic. Homelessness, disease and starvation were common.

A young student, Frederic Ozanam, had to walk through the poorer suburbs on his way to university lectures each day and he soon became deeply moved at the hopeless state of families who had been left without the support of their breadwinners after the epidemic.

It was the taunt of an anti-religious opponent in a debating society founded by the students that stung him to action:

“You are right Ozanam when you speak of the past! In former times Christianity worked wonders, but what is it doing for mankind now? And you, who pride yourself on your Catholicity, what are you doing now for the poor? Show us your works”