 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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