"Reaching Out , Touching Hearts"

Brother David Brennan, FSC

Visitor

Convocation Address

October 23, 1999

Burlingame, California

Good morning and welcome. I’m Brother David, Visitor of the District of San Francisco. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to our District’s second Convocation.

As we’ve heard in our opening prayer, we—Lasallians all—are De La Salle Brothers, lay women and men, consecrated women and men from other religious congregations, and priests. We are teachers, students, parents, administrators, librarians, counselors, coaches, support staff, alumni, benefactors and board members. We are from this District, from other Districts in the US/Toronto Region, and from many other Districts and Regions throughout the world. And we are especially privileged that so many of our students are here with us this weekend. Indeed, in coming together we affirm and celebrate our calling "to give a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor, according to the ministry which the Church has entrusted to" our Institute. We come together to recommit ourselves to the Lasallian mission and to discover and share new ways of reaching out and touching the hearts of our students through the legacy of De La Salle’s vision. I hope you will enjoy your time here this weekend as we reflect together on our past, examine the realities of our present, and plan for our future.

I wish to extend a special welcome to:

1. Cardinal Thomas Williams, our keynote speaker, who joins us from the Archdiocese of Wellington, New Zealand,
2. Bishop John Cummins, from the Diocese of Oakland, California,
3. Brother Gerard Rummery, General Councillor, and Brother Ronald Gallagher, Secretary General, who are here with us this weekend from the Christian Brothers Generalate in Rome, and all of our guests from the US/Toronto Region and other districts and regions of the International Institute who have come to participate in this extraordinary gathering.

As we open our Convocation this morning, we remember the theme of our Convocation one year ago—"The District of San Francisco: Its Future and Promise." We have not stood still during these past twelve months. Together, we have made great progress in securing that future and ensuring its promise. This weekend, I wish to present each of us with a challenge: to look back and to look forward at the same time, as we build our future on the foundations of our heritage.

In reflecting on the life and times of De La Salle and his early Brothers, we recall a particularly difficult series of events in the Founder’s life. In 1706, more than twenty years after opening the first Christian School, De La Salle continued to face opposition to his work of educating the poor and working classes, particularly in Paris. As the impact of the educational system instituted by De La Salle began to be felt, the status quo was threatened. By a decree of the Paris Parliament, De La Salle and his company of Brothers were forced to close their schools in Paris, and were forbidden to live in community or constitute themselves as a religious order. The personal and social changes required by the theories De La Salle prescribed were in direct conflict with the educational practices of the time, and were cause for great anxiety, even within the Church and within the Brothers’ own communities.

Yet, De La Salle never compromised the principles he considered fundamental to the Brothers and the educational mission of their Christian Schools. This mission —entrusted to them by God himself—could not, and did not fail! Together, and by association, De La Salle and his Brothers ensured that the mission not only survived. It thrived! The spirit of faith that sustained them through every challenge remains for us De La Salle’s greatest legacy. We know that De La Salle’s vision and spirit of faith still encourages us to expand the reach of our educational ministries throughout the world.

Here in the District of San Francisco, we have been blessed with the human and financial resources that have enabled us to respond to the needs of poor students in the District and to assist in the educational ministry of the International Institute. We plan to become increasingly involved in the work of the International Institute, particularly in Asia. Our schools in the District are filled to capacity and are expanding. We are especially reaching out to the poor not only in our sponsorship of new schools and educational works, but also through substantial increases in financial aid to poor students in our elementary school, high schools and College.

For the past four years, as Lasallian educators, we have reflected frequently on our mission. We have shared our resources and our vision for the future. Together, we have set the course for our future direction. And that direction is clearly defined in the document that serves as the theme of this Convocation—Reaching Out, Touching Hearts, Context for Action/Action Plan. One of our purposes here this weekend is to work together to effect its implementation.

We Lasallian educators are creating our future every day—in every school, in every Brothers’ community, and in every apostolic work. However, we must do more than simply participate in collaborative discussions leading to the implementation of the Lasallian educational mission. As Lasallian educators, we are called every day to deepen our understanding of De La Salle’s vision and, in light of our own unique spiritual journey or value commitments, use that faith-filled vision to guide our professional development and ennoble our relationships with our students and colleagues.

As we look to the future, we know that rapid global change—technological, political, socio-economic—is inevitable, but much of the world today remains as religious as ever, despite strong secularizing trends. Given the reality of such dramatic change, I believe that we must ultimately choose between two conflicting options. We can either retreat into the fortresses of our existing institutions—and the comfort and safety they offer us in the short run—and maintain what we have achieved. Or, in response to the contrarian call of the Gospel, the Church and the Institute, we can return to the heart of our mission. We can move in this direction by choosing the more risky options of sponsoring new works or by dramatically reaching out from our existing institutions with creative programs to serve the educational and spiritual needs of young people, especially the poor and marginalized. Increasingly, these young people find themselves trapped in situations in which they have neither viable educational opportunities or hope for the future. If we choose maintenance, we—as District and as Institute—will eventually lose our soul and die as we helplessly watch our institutions inevitably take on secular values and primarily serve students from privileged families with wealth, position and power.

Choosing the option grounded in the Gospel call of the Church and the Institute will require courageous leadership from everyone serving in the Lasallian educational ministry at District, Regional and Institute levels, but especially from women and men like you.

I offer for your consideration five general principles that should guide our leaders at every level as they make these critical choices.

• First, leadership should be prophetic, especially with respect to social justice issues, and grounded in deeply held Gospel values.

• Second, leadership opportunities should be open to candidates with the highest levels of professional competence, experience and commitment to Lasallian educational values.

• Third, except for canonical positions defined by the Brothers’ RULE, leadership positions in our Lasallian mission at every level of the school, the District, the Region and the International Institute should be inclusive, open to all who possess the requisite qualifications—Brothers, women and men, lay or religious, or priests.

• Fourth, leaders must articulate a vision, instill hope, promote collegiality and listen carefully to all voices. They must also shake things up, and raise difficult issues that have ambiguous outcomes without taking rigid, fixed positions. In the end, the leaders’ decisions must be broadly supported throughout the school community or in administrative groups within the District or Institute.

• Fifth, leaders should take special precautions to understand and honor the culture, history, traditions and values of every group served within a school or sector of the Institute.

In closing, I would like to reflect on the prophetic character of De La Salle’s vision and the great opportunity we have in bringing the healing power of his legacy to a world so much in need of salvation— a world so well described in our Declaration over thirty years ago:

It is a world marked by the greatness of people and by their scientific, technical and economic progress...but it is also a world in which the life, liberty and dignity of people are more and more threatened; a world of loneliness and despair for many who are trodden down by selfishness, greed, indifference or desire for power; a world of social injustice with an increasing disproportion between the rich and the poor; a world of illiteracy and ignorance in which too many of the young are neglected.

Throughout the world—in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Oceania, and in Europe—we should make every effort to expand our educational ministries in favor of those in greatest need. Today, on the threshold of the new millenium, De La Salle’s vision calls us to bring hope and opportunity through our various educational ministries to young people, especially to those:

• marginalized by the death-dealing effects of economic poverty, discrimination, unemployment, drugs and alcohol, illiteracy, and sexual abuse,

• abandoned in loneliness,

• trapped in gangs or embraced by religious cults, and finally, those

• alienated as immigrants and refugees in hostile, but prosperous countries.

I would like to pose for your consideration and imaginative response several simple, but quite serious, questions. In 1998 Lasallian educators throughout the world served the educational needs of nearly 800,000 students. What might we do as Lasallian educators to increase the number of poor and marginalized students in our schools and apostolic works throughout the world so that by the year 2010 we might serve as many as a million and a half students? Or possibly, even two million? And what might hold us back or prevent us from reaching such ambitious goals? I would love to hear from you!