5 April 2011

Bro Michael Jacques: Bro Thomas Lavin, Visitor has kept us well informed of the death and funeral celebrations for Bro Michael Jacques, former Assistant Superior General for Asia. We know so well the extraordinary contribution he made in the District of Penang, to the Institute in Asia and also his work with the La Salle Sisters of Vietnam who esteem him as a “co-founder”. I recall when the current model of the General Council was instituted, Bro Michael wrote to me saying this was the model he proposed when he completed his term as Assistant. May our Brother Michael rest in peace.

Welcome Bro Alberto Gomez: Bro Alberto, General Councillor who accompanies Signum Fidei is in the Philippines as part of the celebrations of 30 years of Signum Fidei in the country. Several members from other countries in PARC have travelled also to Bacolod for a seminar marking the occasion. Bro Alberto will visit also the Signum Fidei group in Manado.

Intercapitular Meeting: Brothers from the PARC Region who attended, apart from their full participation in the programme over two weeks, were involved in moderating the assembly, giving various presentations and leading the prayer. The Institute website gives comprehensive coverage of the proceedings. We took the opportunity for the Brothers who will constitute the newly revised membership of PARC to meet and determined that PARC 35 will be of three days’ duration which will include the La Salle Novitiate Board meeting. Brothers Joseph Fernando and Mark Murphy will attend for one day only as consultants. The meeting in addition to the usual business will also have an issues focus where all present will have an opportunity to share more deeply on their respective roles in the Districts and Delegation of PARC.

PARC 35 will take place at De La Salle University in Dasmarinas and be an opportunity to celebrate 100 years of the Lasallian presence in the Philippines.

The following two items on the Intercapitular Meeting and the Revision of the Rule are taken from “In the Loop”, the weekly newsletter of Bro Ambrose Payne, Visitor of ANZPPNG.

Rome Inter Capitular Meeting: The Inter Capitular Meeting concluded on Saturday with a liturgy presided over by Archbishop Tobin CSsR the Secretary for the Consistory for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.The program had been structured around the various Chapters of the Documents of the 44th General Chapter.Thus the themes and material each day concentrated on aspects such as the Vow of Association, Interior Life, Fraternal Life and Accompaniment, One Family One Mission One Spirit, the Educational and Evangelising Mission, Sharing Resources for Mission, the new model of Institute Government, Lasallian Heritage and two full days devoted to the consideration of the proposals for the revision of the Rule.As a result of the evaluation of the previous Inter Capitular Meeting a great deal of emphasis was placed on securing input from the participants themselves.These are they who are really at the cutting edge of what is really happening as a result of the 44th General Chapter. The result was a great deal of input and less time for processing the information that was available in abundance. There was a consensus that the opportunity the program offered to become aware of much creativity in approaches to issues that may have had different expression in different cultures. At base these are much the same for the Institute as a whole. Mark McKeon presented the evaluation report on behalf of PARC.The PARC Region members agreed that a Gospel paradigm was indeed the road to Emmaus because we had felt that Christ had walked with us and certainly at the end of the time our hearts “were burning within us”.PARC members were encouraged by the sense of brotherhood that they experienced, that the experience of association throughout the two weeks had resulted in one Spirit becoming very evident in this group of the current leaders of the Institute.There was a greater appreciation of the complexities of Mission both in our own sector and in the Institute as a whole.The challenge to form Brothers and Partners became a central issue and linked to this was a greater appreciation of what “association” has to offer to so many. Whilst some of the implications of the financial and resource “futures” that face the Region and the Institute are confronting the overall sense that was most encouraging was the atmosphere of confidence that the meeting has engendered.This sense of confidence was augmented by the goals which the General Council has set itself for the remainder of its term. One of these is the nurturing of the consecrated life of the Brothers.The closing address of the Brother Superior was inspiring in the manner in which it so clearly delineated the nature of our consecration and the grounding of our spirituality in the integration of Love of God and Love of our neighbour expressing the driving force of our various vows in intelligible and recognisable terms.

Revision of the Rule: Two full days were devoted to the Revision of the Rule in a program in which the most one could generally expect would allow no more than two hours for a topic.The present situation is that five Chapters of the Rule have been redrafted as a result of the Consultation over December January.These are regarded as “nearing completion” and the overall position agreed to at the end of the first day was that they provide a useful base upon which to proceed.There are still many aspirations expressed but very few major omissions in either treatment or approaches were surfaced during the meeting.Formation and Government each had a half day devoted to them.The process varied from responding to position statements describing the consequences of accepting propositions about the challenges and propositions arising from the formation of the young persons with whom we deal and account being taken of the necessity to form associates as well.With Government an analysis was offered of a series of articles in the current Rule and the questioning of consequences arising from the reality of shared mission. Most answers concerned the role of the Brother Visitor.There was general unanimity that not enough time had been made available and the Commission is confronted with a very difficult task in meeting a deadline that currently includes no further consultation with the Institute generally.

Schedules: David: 6-17 April, India, Canonical Visits, Vows Chapters, Council Meeting, Formation Commission Meeting; 19-24 April, Philippines, Holy Week Retreat and Ritual Closing of District.

Mark: April 7-30, Myanmar.

Fraternal greetings

David Hawke FSC

General Councillor for PARC Region