May 17, 2022 - General Chapter 46

This will be a short entry, not because nothing happened, but because it was a retreat day and the public activities were few and far between. The retreat is meant to prepare the Brothers for tomorrow's big event, the election of the Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools for the next seven years.

Here's a photo from a few evenings ago.

Brs. Luke and Armin in the Den. Hmmm. Why this photo?

The day began in the Aula Magna with a talk by Fr. Jose Cristo Rey, a Spanish Claretian missionary who had taught Br. Julio, the one who introduced him to the assembly. Fr. Jose is very well know in Spain and elsewhere for his books about religious life. He is the chair of theology of religious life at the Theological Institute of Religious Life (Pontifical University of Salamanca) and provided a thoughtful set of insights about the challenges and opportunities for religious life, and our Chapter's work. He gave a 50-minute talk in the morning and a 50-minute talk at 3:00 pm, followed by questions. 

Alisa Macksey and Brs. Jorge, Michael, and Bob in the Den.

It was the answers to questions that I found most compelling and interesting. Two phrases that I particularly liked were "If you see with the eyes of God, it is impossible to be distracted." and "Creative minorities move towards a vision of interconnectedness, of integral ecology. Spirituality connects me with everything else." I won't unpack them here, but each is worth thinking about. While some of the theological input was interesting - I'm afraid that I didn't pay as much attention as I should have - it was the spontaneous responses to well-articulated questions from the Brothers that provided the most engaging insights. It's when we are compelled to speak that we speak most compellingly.

Fr. Jose Cristo Rey in the Aula Magna. Br. Julio to his right.

For the rest of the day, the Brothers were invited to pray and reflect on the major choices to be made tomorrow, the elecdtion of the Superior General. As a Consultor, I did not have that responsibility or luxury, and office matters awaited attention. There were also two other interesting and somewhat providential happenings. Br. Richard Galvin had asked me to join him in a video conference with his class of 20 freshmen at La Salle Academy in New York City that would start at 2:13 pm, our time. The topic was St. John Baptist de La Salle.

Br. Alexander in the ad hoc Communication

Office next to the Aula Magna.

All the guys had been prepped to have questions for me and to have completed an assignment about De La Salle's life. And at 1:30 pm, I was ready with my robe on and notes prepared. Then I received an email from Ilaria in the Communications Office asking if I could put my robe on and meet her and the camera team for some prep shots for tomorrow's events. Good timing. I went up there, did the shots - you'll see them later - and rushed back to my office where Br. Richard was waiting for me.

We got on line with Microsoft Teams and spent twenty minutes getting the technology in line, learning how to share screens, making sure all the kids arrived, and so on. Finally, we're settled in and Br. Rich begins the class standing next to me at my standing desk. For some reason, he seemed to think that since the kids were so far away in New York, he had to speak more loudly than usual. (He has a great high school cafeteria voice - a timbre that's a built in megaphone.) But when we finally got everything squared away, I gave a little ferverino about De La Salle, showed them the dlsfootsteps.com website for their projects, and opened it up to questions which they were to have prepared.

The first question was "What do you do when someone that you really care about dies?" Full stop; a familiar scenario for experienced teachers. Everything changes in an instant. I spoke about De La Salle's experience of losing four siblings when he was young, and suggested that he might want to think about how the person who died would respond to his grief; what he would say to him. (Later, I found out later that a student in the school had died several weeks ago.) The subsequent 30 minutes were a remote but touchingly close conversation about generosity, the capacity for perseverance, and the challenges of relationships - although not always couched in those terms. When Br. Rich ended the class, since we would have to rush to make the afternoon's 3:00 pm session, I felt as if I'd like to visit that class and speak some more with these freshmen. There are few things that compare with inner city freshmen able and willing to have conversations on very serious topics.

The sign and doorbell outside of

the Superior General's office.

The afternoon passed quietly, and the evening Mass in the sanctuary was calm and simple, with a few of us leading the singing as a small choir, and Br. Paco accompanying us on the guitar with his usual skill. I noticed quite a bit of audio and visual equipment in different places around the sanctuary that had been newly installed - taped down wires, tables with computers and chords, tripods with no cameras, etc. - in preparation for tomorrow's events. Communications were well prepped.

I was asked to provide the "Chronicle" for tomorrow, which means writing an overview of the day that is publicly shared on the Institute website. We'll see what the day brings,. The anticipation is definitely building. More tomorrow.

May 16, 2022 - General Chapter 46

Today's activities were very diverse in content, engagement, and character. What started out as a rather quiet, semi-predictable, due process day gradually became rather noisy, unpredictable, and celebratory. 

Each morning, we gather for prayer in the main sanctuary, which usually includes a welcome long period of meditation. There is something quietly profound about sitting together in prayer for 20+ minutes with those that you interact with for the rest of the day. It affirms De La Salle's stipulation that interior prayer is the first and most important exercise of the day.

The view from the translator booths.

After breakfast, the Paths of Transformation groups met for up to 90 minutes in order to finalize changes to their "Commitments" and other statements, since these would be presented to the assembly starting today. The capitulants would discuss and approve them (2/3 majority required). Our group's six original commitments became four commitments. One was subsumed into another, and one was moved to one of the other groups, since they had a similar commitment. The rest of the time we worked on simplifying the language of the remaining four. We had been advised by Sr. Leslie that "Less is more" and we followed that advise.

This shows you the voting system at each place.

At 10:30 am, the capitulants met in the Aula Magna. Before beginning our work, the Communications Office informed the assembly that they would not be filming the election of the Superior General on Wednesday, as had previously been requested and approved with an over 50%  vote, but with 26 people opposed. They would instead follow the protocols that are stipulated in the Manual of Procedures (some photos to be taken at the very beginning of the process). It was a wise decision and likely due to further discussion, feedback, and conversations with the central committee.

Next came the consideration of the statements and commitments of the six groups. Altogether, there would be over 30 commitments (seen and handled as "propositions" however) to listen to, consider, amend, and pass. Some took much longer than others, with Brothers proposing amendments or changes or questions of clarification about individual words or phrases. It was all rather arduous but also seen as necessary. Each group had adopted a name or title for its presentation. Group 1 was "Building a Fraternal World through Education, Evangelization and Promotion of Justice" and Group 2 was "The Pathway of Radical Availability to God." After an hour and 45 minutes, we stopped, having completed the consideration of 1.5 groups out of the six. This will take a while. The session ended with a straw vote for future members of the central government, with voting capitulants choosing three from a list of 35 names nominated - even if only by one person. These 35 were what remained after others had removed their names from consideration.

A photo from later that evening.

Work on the commitments resumed at 3:00 pm, but at a very slow pace. One person made an intervention decrying the fact that we had been urged to imagine and follow new pathways and processes but that we had devolved into the practice from previous chapters, minutely considering, amending, and voting on what amounted to "propositions". Polite silence ... then "Okay, let's move on." It is very difficult for a roomful of educational administrators from vastly different cultural backgrounds to leave their administrative comfort zone and its habits, despite declarations and good intentions to the contrary. It would be like asking the group to suddently walk on their hands; possible with training, practice, and determination, but unlikely otherwise.

It took another 45 minutes to finish the remaining commitments from Group 2. Then it was the turn of Group 3, which had the simple title of "Revised Structures", but had radically revised its original submission from last week, introducing two new very detailed commitments and retaining edited versions of three of their original ones. It was by far the most detailed and lengthy production among all the groups. It was quickly decided that we needed more time to read and consider this set, and it would therefore become the last set that we will deal with, after all the other groups. Having read through it, my guess is that we will probably need several sessions to adequately consider its commitments.

Group 4, "Integral Ecological Conversion", had five commitments and some helpful initial statements that placed this new category within the context of our mission and ministry. Caring for our common home, defending human dignity, and the protection of minors so that Lasallian institutions would be safe places were some of the areas addressed. There were several suggestions for improvements that were best dealt with by the committee itself, and so some from this set will come back to the floor later on.

Group 5 adopted the title "Association for Mission Guarantees a Bold and Prophetic Lasallian Family". The consideration of its commitments took us to 6:30 pm. However, it was the first group where all of its commitments, some amended, were eventually accepted with a 2/3 majority. It's first statement was a key one, passing the 2/3 approval vote with the slimmest of margins (46-18-4-0): "Recognize that AIMEL and CIAMEL are logical structures to advise Brother Superior and to set the direction for the Lasallian Mission, Association for Mission, Formation for Mission and a Culture of Vocations. Empower those structures so that they can animate and take further responsibility for the Mission." ("logical" could be translated into "natural" in the final version, so there may be further tweaks.)

As the moderator of the group, and the one who had to answer or field the many questions and comments, Heather did a masterful job, providing clear answers or accepting "friendly amendments" after looking around at the members of the group and seeing if they agreed. She was both advocate and example of the credibility of association; this is what it looks like. And that, as much as the text itself, helped the group's commitments to pass. At the end, when the entire set was voted on, the positive vote was very close to unanimous, followed by spontaneous applause. These developments meant that the revised commitments from Group 6 - the ones that I will be presenting on behalf of our group - will be considered at our next plenary session, which hasn't been scheduled yet.

Heather and Paco at 6:30 pm, after a very long session.

The celebratory part of the day commenced at this point. This evening, the RELAN group was hosting the PARC group in the Den for an "Apricena", which means a social with "heavy hors d'oeuvres". Pat Duffy had been at work most of the afternoon preparing the food and setting things up in the Den. But we still needed some supplies, and so I went to a local supermarket to get them instead of going to the Mass. Charity and hospitality prevailed.

Brs. David, Jorge, Luke, and Armin at the Den social.

People trickled in after Mass, but soon the room was full, noisy, and definitely happy. It was a really nice convivial atmosphere. There was very little ice because the icemaker in our Den refrigerator doesn't work, and the main kitchen's icemaker was down as well. But people didn't seem to mind. (We did "borrow" some ice from other locations in the house.) It was unfortunate that the general beer supply hadn't been replenished either, and we didn't have any on hand. People didn't seem to mind though, enjoying each other's company at the end of a very long day.

The RELAL hosted social on the roof of the Casa Generalizia.

This was also the evening when RELAL was hosting an after-dinner social on the roof. So we just went from one party to the next. This second one was much larger because everyone had been invited. Plus these were the Brothers from Central and South America, which meant a different variety of adult beverages, interesting food options, and a great sense of enjoyment of one another's company.

Some RELAF Brothers taking a break from the party inside.

Two Brothers, Nestor and Alberto, were playing guitars and leading the singing when we arrived. And the rest of us joined in with equal gusto. Even if you didn't know the words, many of them had repeated phrases that were easy enough to pick up. One song led to another, until we were doing Spanish, French, Italian, and American songs (Denver's "Country Roads"). They seemed to know the guitar chords for each or figured it out on the fly.

Brs. Esteban and Olavo took over later as guitarists.

In between is Br. Antxon, whose birthday it was.

The Brothers know how to work hard. We've seen that both in the conscientious way that they engage in the activities of the General Chapter and fulfill their individual responsibilities. They also know how to celebrate well, as was very much in evidence this evening at both socials.

Brs. Michael and Nick watching the party.

Toward the end of the evening, I also spent some time on the roof overlooking the city, with a large red moon hovering over it. The peacefulness of that scene contrasted starkly with the festive activities nearby. But they complemented one another rather than clashing. When I went to my room sometime later, there was no energy left to write this blog, which is why I'm writing it on the morning of the next day, our day of retreat, one of the more wise scheduling decisions that the prepartory committee for the Chapter had made.

Evening view from the roof, with a red moon.

May 15. 2022 - General Chapter 46

Today we celebrated the Feast of our Founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle. In the regular liturgical calendar, it would have been the Sunday readings and prayers. But in the Lasallian world, this day has become the day when we commemorate St. La Salle, because it was on May 15, 1950, that he was proclaimed as the Special Patron for Teachers of Youth by the Church. So today was a day when we would have no meetings (Yes!!) and could appreciate our vocation and Founder.

The first thing was the Mass in the Sanctuary of De La Salle at 8:00 am. It had originally been scheduled for 11:30 am, followed by a social and dinner, but the canonization of 15 saints at Saint Peter's square that morning made it necessary to change our Mass, since Cardinal Tagle from the Philippines would be our main celebrant and also would be at the canonization ceremonies. But the Brothers are accustomed to schedule changes, and by 8:00 am, most of them - not including the 5 or 6 who were going to the canonization and had to leave at 7:00 am to get good seats - were in the sanctuary in robes or similar formal dress. Since I was part of the choir, I came early and enjoyed some welcome quiet time there.

Cardinal Tagle, who is from the Philippines and has a very positive relationship with the Brothers, arrived about 15 minutes before Mass, having been greeted at the entrance by Br. Ricky and Br. Armin, who are both Filipino. The Mass included various musical components, all of which proceeded with the expected circumstantial adjustments familiar to any high school teacher. The opening song was Honneur a Toi, accompanied by Br. Rodolfi Meoli on the grand pipe organ, and the "Lord Have Mercy" was a Spanish version led by Br. Alberto on the guitar, a natural and gifted guitar player and singer. The readings, etc., were in Italian, English, Spanish, and French. When cardinal Tagle started the homily, our expectations were jarred by his first words: "You look tired!" Then he spoke about the challenges that most General Chapter delegates experienced and proceeded to apply to the day's readings to our work and experiences. It was unique for me to listen to a homilist with full attention, both because he was speaking without notes and from the heart, and because he had genuine insights into how to apply the day's scripture to our present experience. "God says in this reading 'I make all things new!' So it's not you, it's not your challenges and goals; it's God who makes all things new." And at the end of his homily he reminded us that we are sharing not only the "Love one another" from the gospel, but rather "Love one another as I have loved you" which is an entirely different thing.

Being here in Rome during the Chapter has already been a blessing. But I must say that listening to Cardinal Tagle, and briefly speaking with him after Mass, was an unexpected grace. It's rare that I listen to an entire homily attentively, but his homily was the kind that you couldn't ignore. During the rest of the Mass, there was music in Latin (the San Lorenzo Sancus and Agnus Dei in a Byzantine style), English - "Take Our Bread" at the offering and "We Remember" at Communion - and Spanish, ending the Mass with a song dedicated to St. La Salle (but unknown to me, although others sang it lustilly).

After the Mass, folks congratulated one another on the traditional feastday of De La Salle. Groups jostled to take photos in front of his reliquary on the back wall, and Cardinal Tagle took time to write a short message in the visitor's book in front of the Founder's relics. One Brother who was waiting the turn of his group to take a photo in front of the relics of the Founder seemed impatient, and I told him; "Don't worry. He's not going anywhere." In time, everyone had their chance. As for myself, I took the occasion to take a photo with two women whom I greatly admire, Heather Ruple Gilson and Alisa Macksey, both of whom are "Consultors" to the General Chapter.

Since the time for Mass had changed, there really wasn't much to do afterwards I did some internal business and ended  up working on a project in my room until around noon. Then I went to the Den since there would likely be folks who would show up to a pre-Sunday-Dinner social, as proved to be the case. It turned out to be a nice get-together with Brothers who had been long-time Visitors in different places.

Lunch was a very special event, of course. Not only were we celebrating the feast of the Founder, but it was also Br. Alvimar's birthdy. He is the Director of the Brothers' community here and is from Brazil. So besides the special dinner and a wine from a "De La Salle" winery in Spain, we sang Happy Birthday and once again had a cake to celebrate a birthday. 

My table group ended up being the last table to leave, mostly because we had some really good conversations about the Institute and its current realities. Br. Fahdi from Proche Orient (Lebanon, the Holy Land, Egypt, etc.) was particularly vocal about his own realities and the fact that we should be talking about the growing influences of extremism and fanaticism instead of "intentional communities" since those are the real issues in his life today. Nothing was resolved, of course, but it was good to get another perspective. I told him to make a public statement about all of this in the assembly and say that he was a "voice from the peripheries" (an emerging theme from the chapter).

After lunch, I went to my room for a brief siesta. It lasted longer than I'd suspected, waking up some 3.5 hours later. I suppose that the sleep deprivation from the past two weeks was catching up, enhanced by the liquid supplements of the main meal. Once awake, I went to the roof to take a bit of a quiet walk and found that they were setting up for a RELAL (Central and South America) and RELAF (Africa) social prior to their combined dinner at a local restaurant. I was invited to stay and did so, having a really fine conversation with the Visitor of north Mexico and Junior, the young Brother from Brazil who is involved in vocation ministry.

With the rather heavy meal at noon, there was no need to go to dinner. Therefore, after RELAL and RELAF left for dinner elsewhere, I went to the Den to prepare the place for the likely post-dinner visitors who would arrive. As expected, about ten people eventually showed up to relax after dinner, including the Visitor of France, who was much more amiable and funny than his visage and observed disposition tended to indicate (Is that sufficiently tactful?). Previously, I would have said that he was a good example of the description that the Founder gave to one Brother in a letter, telling him that his Brothers said that he bore a visage "like a prison door." Actually, this French Visitor was very gracious, fraternal, and engaging ... once he relaxed with an adult beverage.  It was a fine end to a fine day.

May 14, 2022 - General Chapter 46

Today you could begin to feel a sense of anticipation about the more popular elements of a General Chapter, the propositions - I mean, uh, the Paths of Transformation - and the start of a discernment process about who should be the Institute's leaders for the next seven years.

At 9:00 am, we met immediately with what I call our interest groups to finalize what we would say in our report, the "We recognize that ..." section, the "We are called to ..." section, and the resulting "Commitments" section - see an early version above ... it's not the final one. Something that stood out for me is the care with which individuals thought about and adjusted thelanguage in each statement or commitment. The format might have been unfamiliar, but the content was still king, and these lifelong educators would pay attention to every word. At the end of our 50 minutes of conversation, we had put together a good set of results, and we happily took a photo of the group to commemorate our time together. 

Our Paths of Transformation Group

Brs. Olavo, Jorge, Rich, William, Pie, Janusz, Mike, me, Alberto, David, and Pedro.

Everyone gathered back in the Aula Magna at 10:30 for the initial report from each group. First the entire submission was read, which was followed by questions of clarification, suggestions, or comments that may help further improve it. There were seven groups, and after five groups, two hours had passed. Groups such as New Structures for Leadership and Governance led to lots of responses, questions, and well-nuanced concerns, while others garnered less input. The "new" unfamiliar group that now carried the title Integral Ecological Conversion perked people up because this was a whole new area for the Institute to consider. The challenging aspect for all groups, in my humble opinion, was providing commitments that were clear, direct, practical, and transformative. Initial verbs that began statements, like leverage, ensure, urge, empower, etc., were less direct than those that used create, develop, assign, and prioritize. You will see all of these soon enough, and they're not yet in their final form. 

The presentation of reports from the Paths of Transformation groups.

Br. Jorge Sierra ended the session at 12:30 pm, before lunch, and we returned at 3:00 pm. I had become a bit tired during that morning session, and I took a short siesta after lunch, making sure to set my alarm for 2:30 pm because otherwise I'd siesta right through the afternoon. My group was the first to report at that session, and I was the secretary and the one that had to do it. When we did get back together, a new proposal was considered. It a request from the Communications Office to be allowed to have professional videographers record portions of the process for the election of the Superior General, so that the Communications Office could put together a collation of shot snippets that would help the Lasallian world know about how this process works. Some expressed their concern that "outsiders" would now be part of something that had previously been secret, without anyone in the room except for the voting capitulants. They were reassured that it would all be done discreetly, etc., and that this would really be good for the Lasallian Family. When the vote was finally taken, there were 39 in favor, 26 against, 3 abstaining, and 2 Juxta Modem. Therefore, the proposal passed. To me, there was something concerning about the proposal itself and the fact that a simple majority had changed a previously rather solemn occasion, surrounded by some traditional drama and curiosity, to a international communication event (although not to be shown "live"). And with that many members against it, was it right to go ahead?

Then it was time for my report, which was dutifully read. There were two questions, one of them regarding a mistranslated word into Spanish in one of the commitments, and another that asked why our submission used the plural "Lasallian Vocations." The question was confusing; of course there is more than one Lasallian vocation; i.e., the Brothers. I asked for one of our group's members to chime in, and Br. Jorge did so with a clear description of how "Lasallian vocations" referred to many other people who were not Brothers and shared our mission, etc. - pretty basic stuff, I had thought, but apparently not seen as such in all parts of the Institute. Then the assembly moved on to the last group and its report.

At 4:00 pm, an explanation was given as to how we would now begin a process of moving towards electing new central government for the Institute. The actual voting would begin next Wednesday, but today we would start to name names. Here were the steps:

• From 4:15 to 5:00 was personal time for prayer and reflection.
• 5:00 - Get together in language groups
• Make a list of qualities and names for the Institute's central government
• 5:45 - Go back to the Aula Magna to listen to the lists and see the names.
• 6:00 - Get together by Regional groups
• Do the same thing for the region: qualities and names for Regional Councillor. It was noted that Regional councillors need not be from the region.
• 6:30 - Back to the Aula Magna to listen to the lists and see those names.
• Vote for your top three candidates for the central government and the top three names as Regional councillors on paper ballots. 

The language group, ENG2, thinking about qualities and names.

The next couple of hours were very busy, with some silent stares across the room as people tried to figure out which names to name, whether the person was in the room or not. It was a bit awkward, actually, and would have worked better with nominations on paper - or via an app! - and a certain level a discreet secrecy. Nevertheless, we came up with 14 names for the central government and 11 names for a possible Regional Councillor. These were then submitted each time we returned to the Aula Magna. Meanwhile, the secretarial staff was rushing around trying to put together the lists of names into a form that Brothers could vote on. From my experience at past District Chapters as General Secretary, I knew the feeling well.

Waiting for results and reports in the Aula Magna.

It will not be a surprise to learn that we went way overtime, finishing at 7:15 pm. The planned 6:45 prayer in the chapel was postponed for another day, the ballots were filled in and submitted, and the Brothers went to dinner. After dinner, a small group of us went to the Irish bar located near the back gate of the property, where we had a lively conversation that included what our "dream team" of leaders might look like. No names in this blog, however, because that's just a bit too risky. But stay tuned to developments. I can let you know that our group pretty much concentrated around the same two people. We will find out next week whether the Holy Spirit agrees with us.

Brs. Nick, Luke (from Thailand), Dylan, Rey, me,

and Junior (his actual first name) from Brazil and now in Chile.

May 13, 2022 - General Chapter 46

This was the first full day for the "transformative paths" (interest groups) to meet and hammer out their specific proposals for the General Chapter assembly to consider in a day or two. The group that I was assigned to, Vocations and Accompaniment, met in one of the rooms in the basement of the Casa Generalizia. Since I had volunteered to be the secretary, I asked for a projector so that any texts that we created could be projected onto the wall. As it turned out, there was a projector in the room that had been attached to the ceiling, but I hadn't seen it; a good example of the fact that the things you need are often right in front of you.

At breakfast in the large dining room, a WhatsApp text was shared indicating that today was the birthday of Br. David Hawke, quickly confirmed by the spontaneously singing of "Happy Birthday" at the table where he happened to be seated, joined in by everyone in the room. Another nice indication of the positive spirit of the group and the thus-far relaxed atmosphere of our gatherings.

Br. Olavo from Brazil shared his Mate with Br. David

on the occasion of his birthday. He rather liked it.

At 9:00 am we resumed our work in small "Transformative Pathways" groups. It's good that we had a projector in the room for taking notes and sharing conclusions or draft of possible documents. It's much easier to work with a text projected to everyone than relying on oral memory.

Morning Coffee Break

For most of the morning, we shared our thoughts about the Brothers' vocation and the challenges of proper accompaniment in supporting vocational discernment, especially with young Brothers in communities. Some highlights of the discussion:

• One Brother spoke about the importance of our vocation because of its impact on our lay Partners. They value it. He had been the only Brother in a school in Europe and found that the students, teachers, and parents really valued his presence. We need to give ourselves enough credit and affirmation to embrace the vocation.
• It is important that Brothers are seen. People cannot join what they cannot see. Plus, Brothers are somewhat handicapped by the fact that they tend to embrace humility, which is also a general characteristic of teachers in general.
• In one European country, Brothers are divided about public expressions of faith, such as wearing a small cross or wearing the robe. There was the illustration of one Brother who was proud of the fact that he taught in a public school and that no one knew that he was a Brother. But students usually know if a teacher is married, etc., so why wouldn't we be witnesses to our religious vocation?
• It is important to think about the theology of religious life as Brothers. More work should be done in this area, especially in the face of clericalism and a synodal church.
• The very helpful input of Circular 475 was mentioned several times, and I arranged via email that copies in Spanish and English be delivered to the room during our morning conversations.
• Two things were finally highlighted: Brothers have to reaffirm their vocation for themselves, and Brothers have to be able to speak about their vocation to others.

There was a rather long conversation about doing something that would be a paradigm shift and would lead to Brothers and others to re-examine the nature of their commitment and priorities. In the end, the idea didn't rise to the level of a proposition, but the conversation was rich. The primary thought was well represented by one of the notes / suggestions that had been sent to the General Chapter: "Reincorporating to our Institute the possibility to receive Brothers who profess temporary vows and renew them any number of times and even Brothers who do not profess vows per se but are committed to sharing our life and mission for a definite period of time." The basic idea was not to compel perpetual, or final, vows but to provide the option for Brothers to continually renew their vows, as is the case in other religious institutes. Long discussion ... Arguments on both sides ... No clear resolutions. As for myself, I favored the idea because it would 1) compel Brothers to think about what it means to make a commitment to the Lasallian mission, 2) begin to introduce a way of being associated that does not involve "Final" vows, and 3) bring the Brothers more closely to our Partners in terms of their variety of associations, all of them serious and personal and strong. But the idea was just a bit too radical for the group, and it probably would have met stiff opposition in the general assembly. So much for "bold".

When we broke for lunch, I met up with a couple from Denver, Bill and Cherie Gilbert, who had come to Rome for a short vacation and the start of a cruise. I had met Bill at meetings of the ABC (Association of Board Chairs) in the Bay Area, and he had been helpful on one of the projects that I'd taken on here in Rome. So it was nice to see them, show them around the house, and go with them to Ostia Romana, a very nice restaurant that was within walking distance. The whole thing was a very good break from the intensity of the General Chapter activities.

I returned to our 3:00 pm "Transformative Pathways" group at about 3:40 pm, since the lunch had lasted a little longer than anticipated. But the group was doing just fine. They were working on a draft of their text, which was shaped by design around a "We recognize that ..." statement, followed by a consequent "We are called to ..." statement, followed by a set of three to five "commitments" statements, each had to begin with a verb that brought to action what had been said earlier. It took a while, but we could finally get down to brass tacks and write down what we wanted the new leadership to do in the next seven years.

It would be inappropriate - and presumptive - to share those drafts at this time, but what I can say is that they were thoughtfully massaged over a period of several hours and carefully nuanced to be as clear and direct as possible. The focus was on having ways that vocation ministry and accompaniment for both Brothers and Lasallian partners (we really do need a new word here) was intentional, well supported, fairly distributed, and intentionally executed. During the afternoon break, I wrote the initial drafts of two more commitments - beyond the three that they had begun with - and subsequently we worked on the final wording and nuances. It was interesting to me that in some cases, the Spanish versions were more clearly stated than the English ones. And even though Br. Jorge and Br. William - the de facto participant translators for us - were away at an organizational pre-planned meeting, we were able to communicate well enough to finish our work at around 6:00 pm.

Mass in language groups followed at 6:45 pm. The English group was in the Trinity Chapel just down the hall from Room 33 where we had been meeting. Aferwards, a small group went to the Den for some debriefing and socializing. Several stayed there through dinner, including me, solving the problems of the Institute, and I headed to my room at about 9:30 pm, having forgotten that there would be a musical performance in the Sanctuary. Some beautiful music, choir and organ, was echoed through the corridors, and eventually I went into the chapel to catch the very end of the performance. A good way to end the day. Applause all around.

May 12, 2022 - General Chapter 46

For those who are following the process, and who happen to enjoy complex details and puzzles, note that this morning we finished Route 10 in Phase 2, which was the second day of the Dreaming portion of our process, and moved into Route 11 in Phase 3, the first day of the Strength in Decision major section, the last of three, of the overall plan, initiated by the definition of Pathways of Transformation, the first of two steps. (I had to look all of that up. Let's hope it's not on the quiz.) The previously published detailed daily schedule is now being appropriately adapted each day, since some things took less than than anticipated - the approval of independent group statements, for example - and others took much longer - the discussion of the "values", for example, that took place yesterday.

Some things in the schedule are really quite unpredictable. When we started at 9:00 am, we continued in the approval process of each group's "process" and "results" statements. The approval for the first one - a rather long one in Spanish - was substantially changed to now include parts of the statement that had needed further refinement.The next set from the ENG1 group passed without any comment or amendments. The last set, which came from the ENG2 group (my group), was another story. For 40 minutes the assembly engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about one of the elements in the set. The conversion statement was "A journey of synodality based on trust and availability" and the hoped-for results at the end of the next seven years were "Radical availability of Brothers", "Vibrant Lasallian communities where interiority is fostered", and "Sustainable structures of governance and formation for the Lasallian Family (shared authority, reflect realities, etc.)". The catalyst was the phrase "Lasallian communities". It appears that an elephant in the room managed to squeeze itself through the mousehole of a single phrase.

At breakfast, it appears that the memo
about what to wear was read by some.

There were references to different parts of the Rule that defined what "community" meant, pitting "the Institute is open to new forms of community life." (#54.4) against how the Rule defines a Brothers community (#64) and what that means in Canon law. It led to the introduction of an amendment to remove the word "Lasallian" from the "vibrant Lasallian communities" phrase. This was eventually rejected by a large majority. Heather addressed what seemed to be the fear of some, when she said: "This does not call for all communities to become mixed communities." People seemed to relax a little after that. In the end, the whole thing passed with 63 votes out of 70, a good example of crowd wisdom on display.

There was a break, and then Sr. Leslie introduced the next phase of the process. In the next three days will be "building new paths of transformation" (which to me means getting down to business and making some decisions) and moving into "transformation" groups (otherwise known as interest groups). But first we would have to decide on what areas would be addressed. Hence, we went back to our language groups for about 30 minutes and came up with 3-5 areas ("transformative threads") that we thought were the most important. Then we returned to the Aula Magna where each group reported its recommendations to everyone.

As the secretaries met with the Coordinator and Sr. Leslie to refine all the options into a sensible list to present to the assembly, the Moderator asked me to read the "Letter to the Delegates of AIMEL III" that I had volunteered to write, along with Brothers Carlos Gabriel Gómez (RELAL), Alberto Gómez Barruso (RELEM), Christopher Soosai (PARC) and Rodrigue Toeppen (RELAF). The others had provided input, and I had written the final copy. It was a rather long letter and took a while to read out loud. Since this was read in a roomful of educators, it wouldn't leave the room without recommendations and group edits. Such was the case, with each paragraph considered separately via the Moderator, but the result was definitively improved. Changes were made, and it will be re-introduced tomorrow (I think).

The secretaries at work with the Coordinator

At 12:25 pm, the secretaries group returned and provided their consolidated list of "pathways" - interest groups in pedestrian English. We were released for lunch and resumed at 3:00 pm to consider and vote on each one. For the next ninety minutes, each of the seven "pathways" were considered, with some being approved without a ripple while others experiencing more of a riptide, amendment following amendent - almost all of them finally rejected. In the end, and a fine testimony of the work of the secretaries from the language groups who consolidated them, the list was exactly the same as they had first proposed.

• Evangelization in service to education for the poor (Justice and Peace) [Sailed through]
• Spiritual life: Return to the Gospel, radical availability of the Brother [Amendment to leave out "Spiritual life" failed]
• New structures of leadership and governance. [Sailed through]
• Integral ecology [Two attempts to join it with another one on the list failed]
• Association for a bold and prophetic lasallian family. [Attempt to join it with the next one failed]
• Vocation and Accompaniment [Sailed Through]
• Solidarity, viability, and sustainability [Attempt to combine it with another one failed]

The final set was passed with 67 out of 70 votes. So those are our groups, and we were invited to go online and choose our first and second preferential choices, which we did. Another huddle in the back room then occurred  with the secretaries and the Coordinator, assigning Brothers to the groups according to their preferences. The rest of us hung around in the Aula Magna until at 4:30 we were told to go and have our afternoon break.

The waiting game.

When we returned at 5:00 pm, the distribution lists and locations for our meetings were put on the screen, and after some final instructions and reminders, we were sent to our rooms to organize ourselves and get the job done. We are to develop a global statement for our area that includes no more than five lines of action, and this will be brought back to the assembly for consideration and adoption. There were four principles to keep in mind: broaden the limits of the status quo; challenge suppositions or common routines; base the actions on what has worked in the past; transmit positive images of ourselves. My group was also my first choice: Vocation and Accompaniment.

Our group was in the basement in Room 33. When we got there, the door was locked and no one had a key. I finally found Br. Nestor who knew where the key was located and gave it to me for safe-keeping. Pretty quickly, we decided that we could work with English and Spanish as our main languages, but that we would need interpretation. Luckily, Jorge Sierra was also a member of the group, and he was the translator for this first session, although we asked to have a translator assigned to us for our other meetings.

Between 5:45 pm and 6:40, we chose a Moderator, Br. William Fernando Duque from Bogota who is bilingual and at the University there, and we chose a secretary, yours truly. Then William highlighted the importance of Circular 475 and urged us to read it again, if we could. He then invited us to share our background and reasons for our interest in this topic. With Jorge Sierra's help in translating, each person did so. It was evident that all of those in the room were used to this sort of setting and did what was asked with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of rich information. We finished about 10 minutes before the 6:45 pm Mass and will resume our work tomorrow morning, working all day on the topic that has been entrusted to us.

The contemporary holy water font.

May 11, 2022 - General Chapter 46

If you thought that voting could not be dramatic, read on. Today we moved into the next phase of this rather unique General Chapter, facilitated by Sr. Leslie and determined to introduce a new means of coming to decisions that breaks with the past. The phase we moved into today was called "The Audacity of Truth." (I'm really suppressing the temptation to make spontaneous comments.)

(Our dining hall during lunch.)

The day began with the sharing of the "values" that were finalized in the last sessions from yesterday.  These were presented by each group, and the central commission helpfully provided a summation of the most prominet ones: Audacity and Solidarity. The goal was to settle on three to five of these values. The list from the various language groups included Interiority, Solidarity, Boldness, Culture of Encounter, Integral Ecological Commitment (Is that a value?), Authenticity, Vulnerability, Perseverance, Conversion, Justice, and Unity. The discussion that followed allowed participants to highlight and explain specific values. I spoke up to emphasize the importance of interiority, especially in light of thet other two general preferences. Here is a sample of comments from the floor:

• Values call to each other and relativize each other. You can’t have a culture of encounter without vulnerability - to allow ourselves to be moved. You could not have a culture of encounter without daring or audacity. These values are not absolutes; they are in relationship and have synergy.
• There is a great brainstorming of words here. Choosing is difficult. In the end, we should keep some. In the final list, we will have 3 or 5, but the other topics should show up also. All of them follow paths of transformation.
• I’m happy with this intellectual map. I will go home with a backpack filled with these values, not just three.

The discussion was rich and filled with some great insights. People realized the rich relationships between all of these values, and it would be very difficult to choose only three. The way that we were asked to prioritize our choices was to use menti.com and choose our top three. This would give us a sense of where we were. After a couple of false starts, we did the menti.com survey and found that three of them has risen to the top: solidarity (26%), audacity or boldness (23%), and interiority (23%). The others were 8% or less and therefore not really at the same level. But in the approval voting of the top values, the Coordinator and Moderators had chosen to vote for the top five. I don't know why this was done, since clearly the top three were way ahead of the next two. But "Culture of Encounter" (8%) and "Integral Ecological Commitment" (6%) came to be included in the list; it would be hard to vote against them, since who would choose to not do those things? To my way of thinking, these two latter "values" were of a very different kind than the top three in terms of popularity.

Now things became very interesting, because an amendment was introduced, which required only one other person's support to be considered in the assembly, to change "boldness" (the word equivalent to audacity) to "prophetic boldness." Several people spoke against that change - different interpretation in Muslim countries, removes the simplicity of a single word, etc. I also spoke against the amendment, mentioning that the single word by itself would provide maximum impact and the least misinterpretation. When the vote for or against the adoption of the amendment was taken, the results mauy be seen at the top of the photo below, in the red numbers.

There were 33 votes in favor and 33 votes against, with one abstention and one Juxta Modum. But the Juxta Modum vote is counted as a positive vote, as indicated in our adopted rules, and therefore the amendment passed. I was sorry to see this happen. I was also sorry that there wasn't a vote to determine whether we would stick to three top values or include five values. I thought that "boldness" was confined when "prophetic" was added to it. What does that word mean anyway? The simplicity and power of "boldness" was religiously domesticated when an adjective like "prophetic" was added, because immediately the phrase could be easily dismissed as irrelevant or limited to only one kind of boldness. In my estimattion, our final list had lost a foundational clarity, simplicity, and impact when it moved away from the direct and originally contemplated list of Audacity, Solidarity, and Interiority. Be that as it may, we have to trust in the Holy Spirit, and I'll try my best to do so.

The next step in the process was to move toward the "dream." (Is it because I'm American that I'm becoming a little impatient with having to go through all of these flooty-floaty words and exercises?) The question now became: What process of conversion are we being asked to enter into as an individual, District, Region, or Institute, and what are we hoping to be the result after the next seven years? For the next couple of hours - through lunch - we were invited to take time by ourselves to discern and write down our thoughts on cards that we would share later in the day. A quiet period of about an hour followed, and I went out to sit on one of the benches in the garden to think things through, making some notes along the way.

When we resumed our meetings at 3 pm, it was in our ENG2 language group, going through the Philips 4, 4, 4, process once again to share what we had written down and come to a consensus. Those converstions, I must say, were fruitful exercises and enjoyable, requiring active listerning. By the end of our time, a small sub-group put  our thoughts together to share with the large group at 5:00 pm.

In the Aula Magna, the secretary from each of the six groups spoke about their unified single "conversion" and three "results." Our group's conversion statement was "A journey of synodality based on trust and availability." and the hoped for results were "Radical availability of Brothers", "Vibrant Lasallian communities where interiority is fostered", and "Sustainable structures of governance for the Lasallian Family (shared authority, reflect realities, etc...)".

Each of the sets were read, discussed, and voted on in the large assembly. The original intent to combine all of them into a single set was abandoned, and each one was considered, with some amended, and then voted on. (Although I don't know where that decision had come from.) It was a bit of a tedious process, with word-smithing and nuanced explanations, but the proces was helpful becuase it allowed a wider consideration of implications among the other sets. This went on until 6:30 pm, when we called it quits because Mass as going to begin soon and the Archbishop in charge of the discastory for Catholic education was going to be our celebrant. We will resume the process tomorrow.

The Mass was in French, and the pulled together choir would sing in French. I found the music quiet engaging and participated in the choir. The only thing that was predictably difficult was the fact that archbishop spoke for 25 minutes during the homily... in Italian ... to a congregation among which perhaps 14 Brothers understood what was being said. I'm sure that he was full of good intentions, but I can't say that he was a genuine educator.

Afterwards, the RELAN group had arranged to go out to dinner, and this we did at Casseruola, a favorite restaurant of a number of Brothers, although a bit of walk from the Casa Generalizia. It was worth it. We had a grand evening there, and it was good to relax a bit after a rather arduous day. We also took time at the end to thank Br. Tim Coldwell for his service to the region as the regional councillor, complete with some short speeches and response from Tim. It was fine way to end the day.

(Photo by Br. Chris Patino)

May 10, 2022 - General Chapter 46

Today we moved into a new phase of the discernment process at the General Chapter. The "Challenges" that were combined last evening by the Secretaries of the language groups would be revealed, and a hushed anticipation reflected our interest. The statement was projected on the screen behind the dais, along with the "Conditions" that had been similarly combined.

(This is just a nice photo of a Brother making a phone call outside.)

The task now was to consider, discuss, amend, and approve these statements separately. This was a challenge because the approved process for doing so was cumbersome, limited, and not very user friendly. We were told that we could only ask questions for clarification, which was to be expected, and after that - and right after that - to propose amendments, each of which required a second by a member of the asembly, and each  of which would be immediately voted on after questions of clarification. There was clearly a time element at play. But before I could sufficiently read the run-on sentence to make some sense out of it, we were required to amend it and vote on it. There was really little or no time to reflect on the statement, sit with it a while, and perhaps suggest some elements for change.

There followed a painful (my assessment) 90 minutes during which the Moderators bravely followed the established protocols. There was no general discussion of concerns or amendments, because the time did not allow for this, and any amendments were hardly introduced before they were voted on. The saving grace ws the fact the Brothers in the room were "street smart" when it came to rapidly changing circumstances, and where five amendments were proposed, only three of them passed. The final statement of the "Challenge" was this: "We Brothers of the Christian Schools, called by God and challenged by various forms of poverty and injustice in our world, embrace the founding, prophetic intuition of the Lasallian Family and commit ourselves to witness communion through educational and evangelizing service among those who are impoverished."

(A welcome break in the middle of our session.)

I appreciated the fact that Br. Robert Schieler, our current Superior General, made an intervention indicating that the first word of the original text (Revitalize) didn't seem to be very helpful or positive, and that "We Brothers" would work better. When asked by the Moderator whether this was an amendment, since little else was allowed, he said, "Why not?", and it it was quickly approved. After a number of these amendments had taken place, the Moderator said, "We should move on to the conditions. We’re not approving the ten commandments here." And so we did.

The "Conditions" in their relatively final form said the following (although don't quote me because they still have to be finalized by the Coordinator and the Central Commission, based on subsequent email input):

• As Brothers, beginning with initial formation and continuing throughout our life in community, deepen our vocational identity by responding to the call of God in Jesus allowing our hearts to be touched and converted by those who are poor.
• Our various communities re-imagine, together and by association, our way of living, in order to be fraternal witnesses committed to those most in need.
• At all levels of the Institute we will ensure structures of governance that generate co-responsibility, sustainability, transparency and solidarity to creatively ensure the animation of the Lasallian educational mission throughout the world.

The entire set - Challenges and Conditions - passed with 59 in favor, 5 against, 1 abstaining, and 4 Juxta Modem. Applause all around, probably both because folks were glad that it had passed and glad that this arduous process had been completed. One Brother later called it a very poor example of classroom management. Some of us were just frustrated that after so much talk about a new process, we'd gotten bogged down in word-smithing, as helpful as this might have been. A good alternative would have been to discuss the text, provide input orally or via email, and send it back to the Central Commission who could return with a second version.

After a welcome lunch and a break, at 3:00 pm we moved on to step number 6 (or was it 7?) in the process: World Cafe. After some instructions, we moved to one of the dining rooms where ten tables had been prepared (4 English, 4 Spanish, 2 French). The task was to articulate our "dream" for the future - the main thing that we want to work on, using evocative and motivational language. While those overseeing the process facilitated coffee and cookies all around, we met at the tables and came up with our dreams for the future, moving three times to share and rediscuss and refine it at different tables. I volunteered to be the Secretary/Moderator at one of the tables, but I guess I didn't understand the instructions clearly because my table never did come up any clear "dream" statement. 

After the excercise, those anchoring each table, including me, got together in language groups to combine their results into a single language-based statement. Ours was "Create One LaSalle that invigorates life and mission through Gospel fraternity." The French ended up with "Un Institut renouvelé générateur de nombreuses nouvelles vocations lasalliennes comme levain d’un monde plus fraternel. (A renewed Institute generating many new Lasallian vocations as leaven in a more fraternal world.)" and the Spanish had "Una familia en salida al encuentro de Dios en los empobrecidos y la promoción de la justicia. (One family in search of a meeting with God in the impoverished and the promotion of justice.)" Are you getting interested yet?

After comments from the floor, the group leaders left the room to see if they could put all of that into one statement. During this interim time, the rest of us heard from the representatives of the Guadalupanas Sisters and the Lasallian Sisters from Vietnam who were there. Both were refreshing, short presentations about their realities and the various challenges that they were facing, and both received sincere, sustained applause.

When the "combined" version of the "dream" returned to the floor, we went through a similar process of consideration of statemements, amendments, suggestions, etc., and ended up with our final statement of the "dream" for the future: "We are one renewed Lasallian Family of different vocations, leaven for a more fraternal world, sent forth to encounter God in those who are poor and to promote justice." For the very first time in our voting process the acceptance of this statement was 68 in favor and 2 Juxta Modem, which meant that everyone in the room voted for it. It was unanimous, with a couple of folks indicating that they'd like to see some slight modification which they would submit later.

The last piece of today's activities would happen in the regional groups. We were asked to meet and determine the "values" that would strengthen, reinforce, inculcate, and prioritize this recently articulated "dream". In our RELAN group, Br. Robert Schaeffer did a clever thing, asking us to split into four sub-groups and determine the attitude, behavior, or action that would ensure that this dream never comes true, followed by the values that we need to transform those negative ones. These were then shared in the larger group, and the list was "voted" on by going around the room and choosing the top three in our estimation. The final ones that we will submit tomorrow at our first general meeting were Audacity (or Holy Audacity from Med 96.2), Vulnerability (the willingness to take risks and to fail, and to be honest about having participated in the structures that got us here), and Perseverance (Faithfulness).

Because we pretty much regulated ourselves at the end of the day, we were able to end at around 6:00 pm and not the 6:43 pm of the previous days, just before Mass at 6:45 pm, giving us the rare luxury of some free time. After the liturgy, the RELEM and RELAF groups went out for dinner, leaving the RELAN and RELAF groups in the dining hall - a much smaller group. Afterwards, some when to the Den for some welcome relaxation.