Bishop Daniel F.Walsh of the Diocese of Santa Rosa with (from left) Brother Thomas Jones, FSC (incoming Auxiliary Visitor), Brother Stanislaus Campbell, FSC (incoming Visitorl), and Brother David Brennan, FSC (outgoing Visitor).

At Mass in the Chapel at Mont La Salle in Napa, before a gathering of De La Salle Christian Brothers and their associates, family, and friends, Brother Stanislaus Campbell, FSC, and Brother Thomas Jones, FSC, were installed as the new Visitor and Auxiliary Visitor of the District of San Francisco. Their four-year terms commence on July 1. Brother Stanislaus Campbell succeeds Brother David Brennan, who has served two consecutive terms as Visitor.

Presiding at the Mass on Sunday, June 29, was Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of the Diocese of Santa Rosa. The feast was the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and in his homily Bishop Walsh praised these saints as men of faith whose reliance on the Lord was total, and said to the Christian Brothers, "In the life of your founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle, we see the same faith and reliance on the Lord. Once he became convinced that teaching the poor was his divinely appointed duty, he threw himself wholeheartedly into the work, left home and family, gave away his fortune, and reduced himself to the level of the poor to whom he had consecrated his life."

Bishop Walsh observed that this same faithful fortitude underlay the successful leadership of the very first provincial of the De La Salle Christian Brothers on the West Coast, Brother Justin McMahon, who established the District of San Francisco 135 years ago. The District of San Francisco now sponsors one middle school, ten high schools, one college, and several other educational and pastoral programs serving well over 10,000 students.

In his address following the Mass, Brother Stanislaus praised outgoing Visitor Brother David Brennan for "his vision, pastoral care, patience, risk-taking, and perseverance," and said, "As we look to the coming years, I offer the hope that we, Brothers and Partners, can continue those activities and projects already in motion that make our educational work more accessible to the poor and marginalized. We have made great progress in that respect, especially in undertaking a number of new works." He urged the Brothers "to focus more intensely on the consecrated dimension of our life, understanding it, appreciating it, and living it more deeply, always integrated with the communal and apostolic dimensions," and said that "vocation ministry must become a priority with all of us if we wish to see our Lasallian mission continue."

Addressing the many lay partners who work in Lasallian education, he said, "The extraordinary dedication of more and more of you has enabled our work to expand and its quality to increase at the same time that the number of Brothers has diminished." In closing, he cited the pastoral prayer of the twelfth-century abbot, St. Aelred of Rievaulx, which asks in part: "'Let all be used, let all be spent for those for whom you did deign to be spent yourself. Teach me your servant, therefore, Lord, teach me, I pray you, by your Holy Spirit, how to devote myself to them and how to spend myself on their behalf….May my words and teaching build them up, and may they always be assisted by my prayers. Amen.'"

Brother Stanislaus, a native of Oakland, California, is a graduate of Saint Mary's College in Moraga and holds advanced degrees in theology and liturgy, including a doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. He has been a teacher in high school and college and is a former director of both the scholasticate and the novitiate for the Christian Brothers of the District of San Francisco. Since 1995, he has served the District as Auxiliary Visitor and Director of Formation.