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 District of San Francisco
1999 Convocation
"Reaching Out, Touching Hearts"
October 29, 1999 |
On Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24, De La Salle Christian Brothers and their colleagues in Lasallian educational works throughout the District of San Francisco gathered for a second District Convocation in Burlingame, California - "Reaching Out, Touching Hearts". 720 participants were in attendance, including Christian Brothers, students, lay colleagues, and other religious who serve as trustees, administrators, teachers, and support staff in District educational works in Tijuana, Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington State, and at Saint Mary's College of California.
Forty De La Salle Brothers representing the Brothers' International Institute attended, as well, from Rome, India, Pakistan, Spain, Australia, Colombo, Bolivia, Great Britain, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam, along with twenty Brothers from other Districts in the United States and Canada. Bishop John Cummins of Oakland, Catholic school superintendents from various West Coast locations, and other area leaders in Catholic education also participated in the extraordinary event.
Cardinal Thomas Williams, D.D., Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand, inspired participants with his key note address, stressing the critical role of Catholic education. Williams defined the task of the Catholic school as the formation of "young men and women who are prepared to put principle before expediency, who will live by unchanging Gospel-based standards, and who will not seek excuses for moral U-turns that will enable them to live more at home in the de-Christianized society about them." A special liturgy celebrated by the Cardinal on Saturday evening included an outstanding District Choir of students and faculty members, under the direction of Jesse Manibusan.
The two-day event focused on implementation of the Context for Action and Action Plan, which articulates expansion in the San Francisco District of the 320-year-old mission of the De La Salle Christian Brothers to educate young people, particularly the poor and marginalized, a plan notably conceived at a time when many Catholic religious congregations are struggling to survive. Developed collaboratively by Brothers and colleagues over a four-year period, widely discussed at the first District Convocation in October 1998, and ratified by the Brothers' District Chapter in Spring 1999, the District Plan calls, in part, for local educational communities to increase their accessibility to the economically disadvantaged; for the District to establish new works to meet unmet educational needs of the poor; for a specific focus on the needs of the increasing Hispanic/Latino population of the West Coast of the United States; and for expansion of District support to educational institutions and programs of the Brothers' International Institute in other parts of the world, especially in Asia and Africa.
Convocation workshops and general sessions resulted not only in individual and communal re-dedication to the core principles of the Lasallian tradition, but in specific commitments to implement the District's Action Plan at the local level. Brother David Brennan, FSC, District Provincial, called upon every educational community to "dramatically reach out beyond present commitments" and create a vital Local Action Plan to be implemented beginning in the 2000-2001 school year, stressing that every community must show a solid commitment to increased financial support for students who cannot afford full tuition. Brother David noted that in 1998, Lasallian educators in over 80 countries throughout the world served the educational needs of nearly 800,000 students. He challenged Brothers and Partners to increase that number - especially the number of poor and marginalized students served in Lasallian schools - to as many as one and a half million by 2010.
Evidencing the commitment of the District to its plan for the future, the Brothers in 1998 opened La Salle High School of Yakima, a Catholic, Lasallian, coeducational high school in Yakima, Washington. That same year, the Brothers re-opened Saint Joseph School in Sunnyside, Washington, a thirty-year-old elementary school that serves a prominently Hispanic Catholic population. The District is currently planning to establish a secondary school in North Portland, Oregon, and a junior high school in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, to bring Catholic Lasallian education to young people and families in these economically depressed areas.
The De La Salle Christian Brothers are the largest non-clerical group of religious men in the Catholic Church, and are dedicated exclusively to education. Approximately 1,100 Brothers are involved in about 100 educational institutions in the United States alone, seventeen of them on the West Coast. More than 5,600 lay faculty and staff serve more than 67,000 students in the Brothers' U.S./Toronto Region; more than 7,000 of that number are students attending Lasallian schools on the West Coast.
Shared Mission between the Brothers, their lay colleagues, and members of other religious orders who work in Lasallian education - collectively known as "Partners" - is key to the implementation of the Action Plan, and has become increasingly realized over the past several years with the inclusion of lay men and women in District leadership positions and in the administration of Lasallian schools. Shared Mission has provided for the continued vitality of the Order and its educational mission to young people, to which it has been committed since its founding by Saint John Baptist de La Salle in 1680 France, and the founding of the District of San Francisco in 1868.
"Throughout the world," challenged Brother David in his opening address, "in Africa, the Americas, South and North, Asia, Australia and Oceania, and Europe, we should make every effort to expand our educational ministries in favor of those in greatest need." He continued, "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 those to whom it is least accessible."
Information and photos of the 1999 Convocation are available on the District web site at www.delasalle.org |
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