Volunteering is an apparently simple concept that turns out to be rather slippery. For example, volunteerism is often associated with altruism, but altruism does not have much to do with why a person volunteers.
Take the charity sector. The Society of St Vincent de Paul, better known as “Vinnies”, operates op shops that have no obvious connection to the Catholic Church except for a small slogan on their sign saying, “Good Works”.
This connection to Catholic doctrine is a very small…
