HAPPY NEW YEAR Each New Year is a bit of sacred ground. We step cautiously onto it. We examine the year just past and resolve to do better or different in the year ahead. Beneath whatever partying we may do to usher in the year, there remains a seriousness, a sense of responsibility, at this opportunity to make a fresh start, to change old habits, to examine more deeply who we are and why we’re here. For Lasallians , there is something even deeper: there is a sense of infinite promise, a chance to relocate ourselves within the mystery of the divine love that has called us into being as persons and has summoned us into vocation as Lasallian educators. The new year is not our year but a year that we hold in trust from God for the benefit of our students. That is why the familiar Lasallian admonition which we speak to one another whenever we gather also bears fresh consideration as the new year starts: We say, “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.” We say it – but how, in practice, do we do it? Some of our colleagues from across the country reflect on this in a recent Bulletin published on the Web site of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools . Contributors from our own District include Brother George Van Grieken, FSC, and Rory Dorman Tira (of Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento) and Greg Kopra of De La Salle Institute. The publication is “MEL Bulletin 21: A Lasallian Practice: The Presence of God.” (“MEL” stands for “Mission Educative Lasallienne.”) Read these wonderful essays online, or download them to print, at http://www.lasalle2.org/English/Resources/Publications/PDF/Education/Cahier21.pdf
A NEW HUMANISM Well worth reading at this season of Nativity and Epiphany is the Pastoral Letter of December 2005 by Superior General Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría, FSC, addressed to Christian Brothers’ comm unities throughout the world. “By vocation,” writes Brother Álvaro, “we are called to make visible the invisible love of God revealed in Jesus, to work untiringly so that in every human face, especially those of the children and young people whom we educate, and the poor whom we serve, God’s image will be made fully manifest, and that God’s dream might become reality. Thus, as Gaudium et Spes tells us, we are witnesses of the birth of a new humanism, one in which man is defined first of all by this responsibility to his brothers and to history.” Brother Alvaro’s rich meditation on the Lasallian vocation and the Christian spirit is published in its entirety on the Institute Web site at
http://www.lasalle2.org/English/Resources/Publications/PDF/Pastoral/Past2005.pdf
Many other resources in Lasallian literature, history, and documentation are available online at
http://www.lasalle2.org/English/Resources/Publications/repu.php
Teachers of languages and cultures: You have a resource in Rome -- The Web site of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is multi-lingual and multi-cultural, with publications and postings in French, Spanish, and Italian as well as English. It’s a gateway to the wider Lasallian world.
JUST ADDED TO THE WEB SITE OF THE DISTRICT OF SAN FRANCSICO --
On our District Web site www.delasalle.org, you’ll find these new features:
• Demographics & Statistics of the District: Who are we? Who are the people, students and staff, that the District comprises? The latest statistical abstract is on the District Web site on the “Resources and Links” page at http://www.delasalle.org/resources_links.shtml
• E-HORIZONS: Twice a year Brother Brendan Kneale, FSC, gathers and publishes a fresh compilation of articles, reviews, essays, talks, poems, and reflections on religious and educational matters of interest both to Lasallians and to the wider community of Catholic educators. Recent issues of E-HORIZONS are on the District Web site on the “Resources and Links” page at http://www.delasalle.org/resources_links.shtml
NEWS BRIEFS from around the DISTRICT OF SAN FRANCISCO
TUCSON Brother Stanislaus Cam pbell, FSC, Visitor, addressed the happy throng at the dedication of the first new building at San Miguel High School in Tucson on August 30. The text of his talk is on our Web site in the latest issue of E-HORIZONS (see just above). A second building is slated for completion in February. For the latest on San Miguel High, visit www.sanmiguelhigh.com
YAKIMA A teacher at La Salle High School, Brother Jack Henderson, FSC, has been recognized as one of four “Yakima Valley teachers who make a difference.” For the article in the December 27 Yakima Herald-Republic, click on
http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/un/285032997628401
SAN FRANCISCO De Marillac Middle School will expand its services. In addition to its current 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, the school plans to offer a 4th grade next fall and a 5th grade in 2007.
MILW AUKIE La Salle High School this year has had a record number of prospective students apply for admission and take the High School Placement Test.
CONCORD De La Salle High School is well embarked on its 40th Anniversary Campaign, intended to raise $15 million for renovation, construction, maintenance needs, and endowment for financial aid. For details, visit www.dlshs.org
LOS ANGELES At Cathedral High School a promising-looking hole in the ground marks the spot where the new athletic complex and science building will rise. To see photos and architectural drawings, visit www.cathedralhighschool.org
MORAGA Saint Mary’s College of California paleontologist Judd Case has identified a new species – or rather, an ancient species – from a fossilized tooth found in the Netherlands. The hitherto unknown critter is a herpetotheriid m arsupial, a member of an extinct group “closely related to our own opossum .” For more on ancient possums, modern Gaels, and other exotic fauna, check the college Web site at www.stmarys-ca.edu
To find out what’s up at schools throughout the District, visit www.delasalle.org and click on ‘Schools and Works” for an alphabetical listing of District works with links to their individual Web sites.
Jubilees of Christian Brothers in the District of San Francisco
In 2005 we celebrated jubilees for these veteran Brothers:
60 years -- Brother Alexius Dougherty, FSC
Born in Missouri, he grew up in California, attended the juniorate at Mont La Salle, and received the habit on August 14, 1945 (the day that World War II ended). His work as a Brother has been centered on the Holy Family Community of retired Brothers at Mont La Salle, for which he was an aide and of which he has been a member since 1988. He is known for his productive vegetable garden and for his prolific penning of puns, epigrams, and other forms of adroit and pithy verbiage, a collection of which has been printed under the title "Grace Notes: A Word to the Wise."
50 Years -- Brother De Sales Benning, FSC
Brother De Sales was born in New York and educated in Philadelphia. He received the Brother’s habit in 1955, but withdrew from the Christian Brothers to enter the Brothers of St. Francis of the Poor. Rejoining the Christian Brothers in the District of San Francisco in 1975, he has taught m ostly in the Los Angeles area and currently teaches at La Salle High in Pasadena while living in the Brothers community at Cathedral High
50 years -- Brother Dominic Berardelli, FSC
A native of Pennsylvania and originally a member of the Baltimore District, Brother Dom has extensive experience abroad, as an educator in the Philippines and as a co-director of SECOLI in Rome (which coordinates worldwide aid and interdependence among Lasallians), in addition to his service teaching at District schools and developing the Lasallian Education Fund. He is currently Director of Parent Relations at Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga.
50 years -- Brother Philip Thez, FSC
A native San Franciscan, Brother Philip has been teacher, counselor, and administrator at several District schools as well as director of various Brothers’ communities. In recent years he had charge of the Russian River retreat known as St. Joseph’s Camp and was director of the Brothers' community there. While still director of the camp, he is currently in residence at Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, working on Lasallian formation of faculty and students.
50 years -- Brother Bernard LoCoco, FSC
A Brother of the Midwest District, Brother Bernard is a Missourian who has several advanced degrees and two honorary doctorates. He is currently serving as the president of the School of Applied Theology in the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
NEWS BRIEFS from the U.S./TORONTO REGION
LOUISIANA Louisiana Lasallians in Hurricane Recovery
The catastrophic effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be felt in the New Orleans area for years. Christian Brothers School, De La Salle High School, and Saint Paul’s School have all been profoundly affected. All three are back in operation, but damage to buildings and displacement of students and faculty continue to be significant. Brother Jeffrey Calligan, Auxiliary Visitor of the New Orleans-Santa Fe District, has written recently, “Words cannot express our gratitude to the Lasallian mission around the world for their great generosity to our greater New Orleans schools. Through over $300,000 collected, Brother Visitor is able to help in a significant way students and faculties in these schools.”
ILLINOIS Chicago Lasallians to Start a Charter School
As part of its Renaissance 2010 program , the city of Chicago is seeking to improve its public school system in several ways, including by granting charters to open innovative public schools under the state’s charter-school laws. The great success of the San Miguel Schools in Chicago led the Chicago Public School District to solicit the San Miguel people to set up a separate legal entity that could apply to run a charter school and a contract school in the public system. The applications were approved in November, and the two “Catalyst” schools should open in fall 2006. For more information, visit the Chicago Public Schools Web site at
http://www.cps.k 12.il.us/AboutCPS/PressReleases/Novem ber_2005/12_new_schools.htm
For more news of the U.S./Toronto Region, go to the Website of the Christian Brothers Conference at www.cbconf.org
NEWS BRIEFS from the INTERNATIONAL LASALLIAN M ISSION
MEXICO Celebration of a Lasallian Century
In December 1905, four De La Salle Christian Brothers from France landed at Veracruz and soon established their first school, La Concordia, in Puebla. Marking the centennial of this new educational epoch, the Mexican government last month presented the Christian Brothers with an official recognition of their one hundred years of service to the people of Mexico. For the full story, and for other Lasallian news from around the world, see the Institute Web site. Go to www.lasalle.org, choose your language, and find Current Events or Acontecimientos Recientes or Attualità or Nouvelles.
CAMBODIA The First Century Is Marked
The De La Salle Christian Brothers arrived in Cambodia in January 1906 to begin their educational ministry. The centenary of the Lasallian mission there was marked recently by a ceremony attended by the Bishop of Phnom-Penh. More details and more international news can be found at www.lasalle.org
LASALLIANS WEST J ANUARY 2006
A monthly newsletter
De La Salle Christian Brothers District of San Francisco
For information, contact
J. A. Gray
Director of Public Relations and Information Services
De La Salle Institute, Napa, California
707-252-3739
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