Hurricane Wilma is now history: Last October 21, 2005, the State of Quintana Rooj, Mexico, suffered the most intense natural battering ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean – Hurricane Wilma, a category five storm that left a series of disastrous aftereffects in the diverse municipalities of the State.

The municipality of Benito Juarez was no exception. Wilma razed houses, buildings, flora, fauna, and educational establishments. With regard to La Salle University, Cancun, the damage was significant, in spite of the fact that we took adequate precautions and carried out our contingency plan for weather emergencies.

Once the emergency had passed, cleanup work began, which included removal and building reconstruction. This work was done by more than 400 students, teachers, and collaborators from our University.

The main building damage included: the loss of the chapel's stained-glass windows, two office complexes were totally destroyed, walls collapsed in two assembly halls, sports areas were destroyed, waterproofing was rendered useless, anticyclone mesh was lost, bulletin boards were torn to shreds, stairs were rendered useless, air conditioning units were lost as were doors, windows, high-tension electrical equipment, fence posts were destroyed, trees were uprooted, and other electronic and electrical equipment was partially destroyed.

Facing such a scene, several Lasallian institutions from the interior of the country offered financial support which was very valuable for our University. We are exceedingly grateful for this help which was channeled, among other persons, to the collaborators from our University who were most affected by this natural disaster.

Vouchers, also received as gifts, were exchanged for supplies for more than 400 families in the different communities located on the outskirts of Cancun. These supplies were delivered by Lasallian students and various collaborators.

La Salle University, Cancun, also supported other social institutions, such as the Red Cross, and the Integrated Family Development Fund (City DIF), daily sending out one-hundred fifty student volunteers to unload, pack, and distribute supplies.

Thanks to the efforts of state authorities and to teamwork, Cancun is back on its feet working so that 2006 is replete with achievement.
^{(Ángel Elizondo López, Rector)}

News from the District of San Paulo, Brazil: The end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 brought good news for the District of San Paulo. On December 31, 2005, the new Visitor, Brother Paulo Petry, and his District Council took office.

At the end of the annual retreat, on January 5, 2006, Brother Moysés Romero made his perpetual profession and six novices made their first vows. That same day, five Brothers renewed their vows, and Brothers Benno Brisch, Hyldeu Bressane, and Alberto Sgarbi celebrated their golden jubilee of Lasallian religious life.

On February 10, in the La Salle Postulancy community in San Paulo, there was a celebration to welcome 8 entering Postulants. Besides the new members, five second-year postulants and five young men in the pre-novitiate, a program begun this year also in San Paulo, are continuing their journey of vocational discernment.

On February 12, five young men joined the Lasallian Aspirancy program in the city of Toledo, Panama. Along with these are another three who began with us in 2005, and so we have 8 young men in the process of formation in this community.
^{(Brother Roque Amorim)}

In Rome the National Convention of the Young Lasallians of Italy on the meaning and value of the “Fare casa” welcome, a recipe for sharing: “Dove c’é La Salle, c’é casa” (Where there is La Salle, there is a home). This was the call of welcome heard by 150 youth participating in the 4th National Convention of the Young Lasallian Movement which was held between March 9th and 12th at the Generalate of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Rome. These were four days of intense work reflecting on the theme “fare casa” (building a family spirit) for putting at the centre (of our efforts) the young and the poor, starting out from the experiences of ‘rupture’ lived by St. John Baptist de La Salle, patron of all teachers, who chose to ‘fare casa’ imitating the style of God by selling his own home in which relations were based around privilege and power, in order to give life to other “homes” where service and welcoming the needy were the first rules.

On Friday morning, Sister Paola Paoli, who is in charge of the Masseria Raucci in Naples, a house for persons who are HIV positive, and Anna Chiara Gambini, a young mother involved in parish work, shared with the young Lasallians their experiences of “fare casa” with the most needy. Some Italian Young Lasallians also presented diverse after-school projects in which they are involved, on the outskirts of some Italian cities, in the educational service of children.

Br.Matteo Mennini, who is in charge of the Italian section of the movement explained: “The fact that in recent years many young people have becomes involved in community experiences of service in education for the most needy, a theme of great complexity and great present-day relevance, is a signal from the Church of today, which sees recent generations as protagonists in an imaginative ‘dream’ of charity. The theme of the home tries to hammer home strongly the prophetic role of the young in dreaming up and constructing a world in which the globalized space of the planet will not be the dramatic result of differences in color, sex, culture and religion but rather the beautiful and courageous experience of recognizing ourselves as brothers and sisters because we are sons and daughters of God.” The convention was also the occasion for the Young Lasallians to prepare for the big event of this coming summer. From July 25th to 31st, in fact, the Second International Symposium of the Youth Movement will take place in Rome, just one year ahead of the General Chapter of 2007.

The first such symposium took place in Quebec with the forming of the International Council which for the past four years has been reflecting on the identity of the Young Lasallian, based on faith, community and educational service of the poor. In his talk, Br. Enrico Muller who is in charge of the commission on the Rights of the Child, said, “Our young people are embodying a movement which is liberating and ‘Exodus like’ because in the essence of their history and in the history of their generation they keep up a missionary tension turned towards the socially and educationally marginalized. At the world level, attention to the poor and the forms of common life among young people, are generating fruitful experiences of religious living in common. Many, in fact, are the young people belonging to different religions who are coming together to share their daily lives in the educational charism of La Salle.”
^{(Gianluigi De Palo)}

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