Founder's Day

To the SJI International community:

I wish you a Happy Founder’s Day, and extend to you a special blessing from Pope Leo (see below).

Yesterday, at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV addressed the De La Salle Brothers on the 15^th of May, the solemnity feast of St. John Baptist de La Salle, in one of the first audiences of his pontificate.

Brother Armin Luistro, Superior General, and members of his Council, Brothers from our Generalate in Rome, and over 135 members of the Lasallian family were in attendance. They presented the Pope with a gift, including a first-class relic of Blessed James Miller, a De La Salle Brother who was martyred in Guatemala in 1982, and beatified in 2019.

The Holy Father noted that the day marked both the 300^th anniversary of the promulgation of the papal bull “In apostolicae Dignitatis solio,” which recognized the Institute of the Brothers as a religious order, and the 75^th anniversary of the declaration of St. La Salle as patron saint of educators.

Pope Leo reflected on two aspects of the Brothers’ history: attention to current events and the ministerial and missionary dimension of teaching. He spoke about how De La Salle began a new teaching system of Christian schools that were free and open to all, and how the saint introduced a “pedagogical revolution” — teaching in the vernacular, instructing in groups rather than individually, involving families and holding lessons on Sundays.

Considering this, “what, in the world of youth today are the most urgent challenges to be faced? What values are to be promoted? What resources can be counted on?” the Pope asked. He commended the Brothers for the attention paid to their schools, the training of teachers and the creation of educational communities where all are invited to contribute.

“I encourage you to continue along these paths,” he said.

Pope Leo quoted De La Salle who said to the Brothers, “Your altar is the classroom,” and thus unknowingly promoted a future reality in the church, that of “lay teachers and catechists, invested in the community with a genuine ‘ministry’ in accordance with the principle of evangelizing by educating and educating by evangelizing.”

“The charism of the school, which you embrace with the fourth vow of teaching,” he added, “still appears today as one of the most beautiful and eloquent expressions of that priestly, prophetic and kingly ‘munus’ (office) we have all received in baptism.”

“Thank you for what you do! I pray for you and I impart the apostolic blessing, which I gladly extend to the Lasallian family,” the Pope said in closing.

Happy Founder’s Day, and enjoy the weekend.