Embracing a Common Future

Edmund Rice Christian Brothers

North America

Thursday, 09 August 2007

As early as the 1820's Bishops from North America were requesting the sons of Edmund Rice to minister in the new frontier of the Church. The need was so great in Ireland at the time, that Blessed Edmund was unable to fill their needs.

Newfoundland (1876)

The first overture that came from Newfoundland requesting Christian Brothers occurred in 1831 asking for “even one brother” to direct schools that had been established by the Benevolent Irish Society. Another request was made in 1847 but the Superior General at the time, was set on establishing the Brothers in many places around Ireland.  The response did hold a hope that “before long” the Brothers would be able to respond to St. John’s needs.

In 1875 Bishop Thomas Power of St. John’s, pleaded for the Brothers.  The Superior General, Aloysius Hoare, responded favorably to the request.  Four brothers led by Luke Holland as superior headed to St. John’s.  Brother Holland, later to be an Assistant to the General arrived a few months ahead of the others.  The immediate success of the Orphan Asylum school was indicative of the growth of the Christian Brothers in Newfoundland.  Such was the approval that by 1880 the Irish Society built and opened St. Patrick’s Hall and the old Orphan Asylum building was torn down.

That same year Mount St. Francis residence was opened as the first permanent home of the Brothers in this hemisphere.   

Worcester, MA (1888)

Despite the many calls and pleas for the Christian Brothers to come to the United States by the increasingly numerous Irish-born bishops being appointed here, throughout the 19^th century only once did the Brothers respond favorably. 

Four brothers were sent out from Ireland in 1888 to Worcester, Massachusetts to open a parish elementary school, St. John’s.    As so often happened in new beginnings there were difficulties and misunderstandings, and nothing ever seemed to get put down in writing.   It seems as if one of the difficulties centered on a lack of knowledge of the situation and conditions in the United States.

In addition there were difficulties with the pastor.  The pastor assumed the brothers would accept what he provided for them, or failed to provide for them.  So, nineteen months after arriving the Christian Brothers were called back. 

All Saints, New York (1906)

The name of Father James Power stands out in in the history of the Brothers coming to the United States. He was a man of vision and of support to the Brothers.  As an old boy of the Brothers in Waterford, Father Power requested some Brothers to teach the boys in the upper grades at All Saints School.

The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Farley initially did not approve of the request.  Father Power would not take the refusal lightly.  He laid out a very clear and concise strategy about the Brothers, mentioning the offers they were receiving from Chicago and Philadelphia, as well as sending along letters of endorsement from Bishops and priests where the Brothers had schools.  And then he mentions Pope Leo XIII’s introduction of the Brothers to Rome.  “If the supreme Pontiffs themselves, find reason to laud and esteem the Irish Christian Brothers, it were strange that their admission here, or into any other diocese, would be barred.”

The permission was finally granted and four Brothers were sent out from Ireland.  As Superior of this group was Patrick Joachim Ryan. 

This group of four were determined to succeed where the former Worcester effort had not.  Within a couple of years they had legally incorporated as the Christian Brothers Institute, and taken initial steps to become citizens. By 1909 they had established a high school, All Hallows. 

By the time of the establishment of All Hallows in 1909, the Brothers were established firmly in New York, and could begin to move their horizons further as they planted the charism and vision of Edmund Rice.

Briscoe Memorial, Kent. WA. (1911)

The move from the small enclave of Christian Brothers in Newfoundland and in the New York area to the West Coast of the United States, took tremendous faith and courage.  The jump of 3500 miles to Briscoe Orphanage in Kent, Washington was undoubtedly seen as an expansion across the Canadian and U.S. continent.  Within a few short years the expansion continued into Canada as the Brothers mover to Victoria, British Columbia.

Expansions  and Missions  

Over the years, schools and communities began to be established across the continent, linking up the Congregation and its ministry like stops on a train line: Chicago, Butte, Montana, Seattle, Washington, Salinas and Montebello, California, and Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.  A similar type of expansion in the New York area and the Northeastern United States also accompanied this move westward.

The Christian Brothers of North America first moved beyond our continent in the 1950's when two Brothers who left for St. Boniface Mission in Kimberley, South Africa in 1950.

When Austin Loftus was appointed as Provincial of the American Province in 1954, he and his council immediately began to put into place a plan for unprecedented expansion and growth.  Austin was ‘a man on the move’ and definitely had a vision to make the Brothers part of the rapid expansion of Catholic education in the Americas. That vision was far reaching as it included the seeding and preparation of the eventual creation of three provinces from the one that had existed for some 60 years.  In a little over six years, Austin and his Council entered into 16 contracts for schools in Canada and the United States, as well as the West Indies.

Three From One

The creation of the three distinct Provinces of Canada (Canada was made a vice-province in 1963), Eastern United States, and Western United States in 1966, was a restructuring to facilitate the life and mission of the Brothers in North America.  It was a time to realize how much we had been blessed here in the Americas.  We were now young saplings who would hopefully take root in the rich soil of the varied parts of this Hemisphere.  It was time for us to “search for our place” and experiment with new possibilities, to transform our minds and hearts by giving control and decision-making in more local hands. 

And the various new provinces did begin to establish independent houses of formation,  open new schools and missions, and establish a whole range of ways in which they would soon develop independently of the other provinces.  With the Vatican II theme of subsidiarity, we were new branches on the Edmund Rice tree willing to think globally by acting locally.

Every new beginning ends something.  So, while there is a blessedness that resulted from this historic moment in our common journey, there were also some painful effects as well.  Some of the decisions that were made at the time were not popular nor were they viewed favorably by some of the brothers who had to make significant choices about their future in ministry.

         There were a great deal of emotions experienced by the Brothers in what, at that time, was seen to be the next step in the development of the Congregation in the Americas. To paraphrase William Bridges: “How can we make ourselves understand that our so-called present is a past that we haven’t yet let go of?”

This transition that we began to experience in 1966 had one other feature that is not often written about.  It is something we share with the Church and most other institutions.  When Vatican II met the Bishops were addressing a world that had changed - YES!  But it was even more a world that was in change, indeed, constant change.

There was separation; there was a major shifting of brothers over a few years to their new juridical provinces.  But the door never really shut tight as it did in other parts of the Congregation.  There always seemed to exist here in Canada and the United States a very semi-permeable border between the provinces.

Transition

Perhaps it was the North American way and spirit to continue the ties that had been so important a part of each brother’s life, and his ministry in schools that cut across the three provinces.  Perhaps it was because some brothers had chosen not to return to the province where geographically their family lived, there were continued opportunities to meet up with colleagues from the other provinces.

But it was mainly a pragmatic reason.  As formation programs became separated, efforts were made to maintain those ties and links that would enable new members to have the sense of the history and oneness that formerly existed.  Regular gatherings of the novices of the three provinces were arranged each year.  Formation personnel and Provincials began to meet regularly as well.  Eventually, as ideas for on-going formation programs were developed, they were carried out across province lines. Programs for men who were nearing retirement age were scheduled for each summer for a while to help them prepare for their senior years.

The pool of men from each province who began to meet at these sessions kept the bonds of unity and friendship alive and nurtured.  We were three provinces, but we were of one source.

The pool of meetings expanded over the years, Provincials brought their whole team to meetings with other Province teams.  Programs concerned about the aging brothers led to concern for the “ordinary Brother.”  A Shoot Begins to Grow programs were offered for several summers.  These eventually included Brothers from South America as well, thus broadening the global expanse and dimension of what we are about as Christian Brothers in the whole of the Americas.

Programs begun in one province began to be developed in other provinces as well.  We shared, we learned, we struggled with the same problems.  In all of this we were most likely and probably unknowingly preparing ourselves for a new way of being Congregation and province; a collaborative model was born during these times that has led us to the Cornwall Assemblies and Declaration (July, 2004).