We religious leaders of the De La Salle Brothers of the Americas at an historic meeting in May 2001 at Laval, Quebec, Canada, express our pride in the efforts made throughout our Districts to reach out in new ways to young people through the Lasallian ministry.

On this 350th anniversary of the birth of John Baptist de La Salle in Rheims, France, we are hopeful about young people today because we see their concern for justice, their search for spirituality, their volunteerism in favor of the least fortunate, and their openness to people and new cultures. We are passionate about our Lasallian mission to evangelize the young people of our time and see ourselves cooperating in a new awakening of spirituality and Gospel values.

At the same time, we are concerned about our young people and the society in which we live. We continue to see people oppressed by poverty, enduring injustice, suffering violence and being deprived of rights and quality education. We see the rights of children ignored and the children of immigrants deprived. We are concerned with the emphasis on ego-centrism in the global society and its effect on children and the challenge it poses to Gospel values.

So, with hope in young people, but with concern about the effect of society on them, we make the following calls to the Lasallian Family, and to the leaders in the church and government.

We call on the Lasallian Family in the Americas and those engaged in the ministry of education to continue to respond with creativity to young people today. We ask those in the Lasallian ministry of education to continue to find new ways to reach out to the young and the poor, those without rights or resources and those blinded by the materialism of our cultures.

We call on our Lasallian Associates to continue their strong support and heroic efforts in the Mission and invite them to continue to recognize the gift of their lay vocation even in the clerical church.

We call on our Brothers to live authentically our vocation and encourage young Brothers to sustain their commitment to the young and each other. We ask the Brothers to endorse this Lasallian vocation lived out by Associates and our District leadership to create structures of dialog which bring Brothers and associates together as we explore the possibilities of the Lasallian Family.

We call on Lasallians in all the nations of the Americas to press governments to defend the rights of all, especially the young, to protect the environment and work for a just peace among nations.

Finally we call on young people to accept the challenge of John Baptist de La Salle to give their lives to minister to the young and the poor and the building up of a better society by listening for a possible call to join in the Lasallian Mission as Brothers or Lasallian Associates

We pledge ourselves to a new solidarity among the districts of the Americas to bring about the changes needed in our ministry, our Church, our nations and ourselves so that we may break the boundaries that divide us from each other, divide the young from the hope they need and the poor from the justice they deserve. We trust in Providence knowing this is God's work indeed.