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 News of the Institute and Lasallian Family
Rome, July 29, 2003 |
 Dear
Brother Visitor, Auxiliary Visitor, Delegate, President: With these
lines I offer you warm greetings and my best wishes. I hope that for
those of you in Districts with school holidays during these summer
months, you are having a period of rest and peace, and that in the other
Districts things are going on smoothly with more joys than sorrows.
I am sending you as an attachment to this a letter
that I have addressed to our Senior Brothers. As you remember I
wrote last year to the younger Brothers
and since then I have been thinking of doing the same for the Senior
Brothers. I ask you earnestly to arrange that each Brother over 70
receive a copy of same, publishing it in the form that seems best to you
but paying attention to the size of the print so as to facilitate the
reading for them. It would be advisable moreover to publish it in your
bulletins or to make it known in other ways to communities since it
seems important to me that all the Brothers be made aware of its
contents.
Thanking you for this favour, I ask the Lord to continue to fill you
with his blessings in your important ministry of leadership.
Fraternally in De La Salle,
Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría
Superior General |
 Brother
Timothy Diener, Living Legend of California Winemaking, Celebrates
Diamond Jubilee as a Christian Brother: Brother Timothy celebrates
his 75th anniversary as a Christian Brother this summer. Still an active
gardener and occasional public speaker, he will turn 93 in November. In
May he was honored by the California winemaking community at a gala
fundraising Jubilee Dinner in the Napa Valley. Many of the architects of
the modern California wine industry were on hand, including Ernest
Gallo, Robert Mondavi, Peter Mondavi, Joseph Phelps, and Bernard Portet.
Guests stood in line as Brother Tim, seated just inside Greystone's
archway entrance, greeted each arrival. The dinner program called him "a
master winemaker, an industry pioneer, and a mentor and friend to
generations of Californians." The $1,000-a-plate event raised money for
the District's Lasallian Education Fund that supports greater access for
the poor to Lasallian schools and programs.
Brother Timothy was a young high-school chemistry teacher when he was
assigned in 1935 to be the "wine chemist" at a new, larger winery on a
property in Napa that the Brothers had purchase and renamed Mont La
Salle. To support their educational work, the Christian Brothers had
been running a small business making sacramental and medicinal wines
since the late 19th century.
 As
Brother Timothy told the Jubilee dinner attendees, "I had joined the
Christian Brothers to serve God and to help in the educational work of
the Brothers. So, I was convinced that my work in wine would also help
our schools financially. And, indeed, the making of wine turned out to
be a great help to our educational mission. For over forty years we had
a successful business that grew as the California wine industry grew and
as the Napa Valley became known for the quality and dependability of its
grapes and its wines."
Brother Timothy worked as cellarmaster of Mont La Salle Vineyards until
1987. The winery business was sold in 1989, and in that same year
Brother Tim retired to the Provincialate Community at Mont La Salle in
Napa.
As Brother Tim summed it up for his audience of winemakers at the
Jubilee dinner, "I believe that winemaking is an art and a science. I
enjoyed those winery days and all the activities, as well as the lasting
friendships made over a bottle of wine. But the sale of our wine and
brandy business freed us from many distractions and allowed us Brothers
to concentrate exclusively on our three-century-old role of teaching. I
have always been a Brother first and a winemaker second. I thank you for
honoring me with your presence here tonight and for your moral and
financial support of the educational work of the Christian Brothers."
(J. A. Gray)
|
 Blessing
and inauguration of the " Lasallian Monastery" in Iasi, Rumania: On
Saturday, June 28, a new multi-purpose Lasallian facility was blessed
and inaugurated. This is a vast building, located in the highest part of
the city, very near the airport, and is a multi-purpose facility that
will adapt well to the various needs of those who will use it.
The De La Salle Christian Brothers have wanted to reinforce their
presence here among the young and provide vocational and pastoral
service to the educational sector of the diocese. At the same time,
after a presence in the diocese of more than one century, this facility
is also meant to pay homage to those Brothers who have worked so hard
witnessing to their faith during the many years of Communist rule.
 The
ceremony and inauguration was presided over by his Excellency the Nuncio
of Rumania in Bucharest, Bishop Jean Claude Périsset along with the
Auxiliary Bishops of the Iasi Diocese: Bishop Petru Gherghel and Aurel
Perch. Attending as well were the Superior General of the Brothers,
Brother Alvaro Rodríguez, General Council member Claude Reinhardt, the
Regional of Center Europe and ARLEP, and the Provincial of Vienna and
Madrid.
A wide range of Lasallian Brothers and members of other religious
congregations of Iasi were present, as well as a number of alumni from
Brothers' schools.
The new building was designed for multiple purposes:
It will be a Community house for about five or six Brothers.
It will also be used as a formation house with Brothers, postulants,
novices and scholastics.
It will be a home capable of housing fifteen or twenty boys with family
problems where the boys can receive psychological support and
counselling.
Lastly, the facility will also be used for pastoral and catechetical
ministry for the diocese.
The central event of the afternoon was Mass celebrated by the Bishop of
the Diocese. Brother Superior General, Alvaro Rodríguez, in his address
at the end of the ceremony, recounted the history of the Brothers in
Romania, and especially spoke of the heroic nature of the Brothers who
have labored there for the last century.
The closing activity was the presentation of a commemorative ceramic
plaque that honors those who have been instrumental in allowing this
project to come to fruition.
For more photos see:
http://www.ercis.ro/actualitate/album.asp?ev=20030628lasalle
(Br. Francisco Martín) |
 RELAL
- Regional Workshop on Communication in Bogota, Colombia: Following
the Recommendations of the 43 General Chapter on Communication, and with
the support of the District of Bogotá and La Salle University of Bogota,
the first Regional Workshop on Communication was held from June
15th-22nd. The workshop was addressed to the District Communication
Coordinators and other people involved in the area of Institutional
Communications. 26 People, Brothers and lay, from 14 Districts and 3
Universities of the Region attended the event.
The main issues tackled during the workshop were:
An analysis of the Communication needs of the Region and of the
Districts.
The technologies that are at the service of the Lasallian Educational
Mission.
Internal and external Communication.
The creation of communication networks in the Region and the Institute.
As well as practical workshops on publications, multimedia
presentations, Internet and relations with the mass-media.
Participants prepared some practical projects to be implemented in their
respective Districts and some that in several cases have already started
to be developed. We expected over time to provide similar workshops to
the other Regions of the Institute.
(Br. José Antonio Warletta) |
EuForNews: European Forum News is being started as an
interactive information periodical among members of the European forum
for the teaching of religion in public schools. All members are invited
to send News and Documents relative to the teaching of religion in
schools in their respective countries: new legislation about school
systems, church and churches policy about schools, projects and
programmes of religious teaching of Catholic and of other confessions
and Religions, identity of the religious teacher, research on youth
religiosity, critical bibliography on RE, experiments in ecumenical,
biblical, inter-religious etc teaching.
In every quarter each volume will offer a systematic presentation on the
teaching of religion in a European country. The agreed languages for
writing in EuForNews are: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian.
EuForNews, in this first trial year, is being sent directly to Members
of the Forum, but all members are free to redistribute the bulletin at
their own discretion to a wider circle of friends and institutions in
their own country. In coming issues there could also be a feature in
which each Member will be able to present their own personal or
institutional activities (projects, research, publications, etc.).
We look forward to your news and also suggestions to make this newborn
Bulletin grow up strong.
EuForNews
Sede: I-00165 Roma, via Aurelia 476
E-mail: fpajer@lasalle.org
fax 39 06.663.8821 phone 39 06.665.231/06.665.23305
(Br. Flavio Pajer) |
 Web
Notes: This is the last instalment of our Current Events until
September. After returning from vacation, I will again be posting
Current Events.
(Br. Donald Johanson) |
If you have news notes that you would like us to consider
publishing, please email us: lasallew@lasalle.org |
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