At the end of the last General Chapter, the capitulants lamented the fact that there were so few young Brothers in attendance at the Chapter. As a response to this, several Districts made it a point to elect young Brothers to represent them at the 43rd General Chapter. Also, Br. John Johnston appointed thirteen young Brothers as delegates and consultants to the Chapter. Today, the General Assembly set aside some time to listen to the younger Brothers. For more than an hour, these Brothers presented their ideas to the assembly.

There was a strong sense of unity that emerged around the issue of service to the poor. Almost every young Brother who spoke, asked the Chapter in one way or another to return to the original charism of our Founder and look to the poor. They said to be faithful to the Founder, we must attend to the poor. The problem of the poor is not a problem of words but a problem of action. Each Brother must ask himself, "What am I doing for the poor?" "We must start again in small communities dedicated to the poor." "Vocations will come when there is no ambiguity between what we say and what we do."

They called for our partners to become more involved in the pastoral ministry of vocations. One of the Brothers from Africa asked, "Who will form us?" They reiterated the oftentimes quoted phrase that the need for our Institute is great. "Young people are waiting for us."

After thanking the young Brothers for their words and for being a part of the Chapter, the General Assembly turned to the final business of the day which was to describe the Commissions that would be in place during the third phase of the Chapter. The presentation and discussion concluded the next morning with the commissions in place. The Brothers then divided into Regional groups to discuss which commissions they wished to join.

The commissions for the third phase of the Chapter, all of which undertake their work keeping in mind the central theme adopted for the General Chapter: "associated in the service of the poor through education as the Lasallian response to the challenges of the 21st century", are centred on the following themes:

The Identity of the Brother
Formation of the Brother
Urgent educational challenges
The challenges of ageing
The integration of the work of Phase 2
Government
Communication

The Commissions of Phase 2 will submit revised recommendations to the "Integration" commission for later presentation to the General Assembly. This will allow for the combining of any duplicate or overlapping recommendations. The other commissions will continue to work on issues that are specific to the Brothers. As these commissions report, we will give you as much information as possible about proposals to the 43 General Chapter that pass the General Assembly.

During the next few weeks, most of the time of the members of the Chapter will be spent either in commission work or in General Assembly. The Process for the election of the Superior General is scheduled to begin at the end of the Month.