Disciples of Marcellin Champagnat

In the
Footsteps
of Marcellin Champagnat A Vision for Marist Education Today Disciples of Marcellin Champagnat,
Brothers and Laypeople,
together in mission, in the Church and in the world,
among the young, especially the most neglected,
we are sowers of the Good News,
with a distinctive Marist style,
in schools and in other pastoral and social ministries.
We face the future with audacity and hope. CONTENTS FOREWORD 2
INTRODUCTION 5
Disciples of Marcellin Champagnat 7
Brothers and Laypeople, together in mission, in the Church and in the world
12
Among the young, especially the most neglected 16
We are sowers of the Good News 18
With a distinctive Marist style 23
In schools 27
In other pastoral and social ministries 33
We face the future with audacity and hope 39
Suggested questions for reflection and discussion 42
References 45
Endnotes
Commission members
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION I am delighted to present to the Brothers and to all Marist layteachers
this document entitled « The Marist Educational Mission: a Project for
Today ». This is « an official document of the General Council to orient
the educational mission of the Institute in response to a request of the
XIX General Chapter in 1993 ». It will be for the next General Chapter to
place it on its agenda to see whether improvements or adaptations may be
needed, and to decide whether it is opportune to consider it an official
document of the Institute. Acknowledgements My first thought as I write this introduction is one of gratitude to all
those Marist educators whose love for children and young people and whose
dedication to their mission as educators has enabled them not only to
prolong the spirit we have inherited from Marcellin Champagnat but also to
enrich it during the 181 years of our Marist history. It is evident that I
am thinking in a special way of those Brothers who have had to deal with
sociocultural and educational changes and who were creative enough to give
specific responses to the needs which have arisen. In a special way, I
want to thank all those who down through our history have sought to keep
alive Champagnat's founding aim: to offer an education to those who lacked
the opportunity to acquire one or who were marginalized by society. Sincere and special gratitude to those Brothers filled with apostolic
spirit, who even when their age or health prevented them from carrying on
with full vigor the work they had made their own for life, were able to
discover new ways of involvement and new tasks they could perform in the
pastoral ministry of education, inside or outside the school system. In expressing my gratitude, I cannot overlook those laymen and laywomen who
during these recent decades have committed themselves to education within
the context of a Marist undertaking. I thank them especially for their
enthusiasm and love for the educational work of Marcellin Champagnat.
Mutual confidence among the Brothers and Marist layfolk has made it easier
to discover each one's gifts and to work together in an educational
undertaking on the basis of the complementarity of our vocations. The
experiences of « shared mission » which we are currently living together,
Brothers and laypeople, have inspired the thrust of this document and have
been a source of inspiration as it was being written. The International Commission The General Council entrusted the drawing up of this document to an
international commission composed of Brothers and laypeople. I am aware
that they dedicated much time to it, carried out Institute-wide
consultations, went through moments of searching and a certain degree of
frustration occasioned by the complexity of the subject matter in itself
and by the multiplicity of lived realities throughout the Institute in the
context of its educational mission, realities which cannot always be
equated to one another. I would like to mention the members of the commission by name, as a way of
thanking and congratulating them for the service they have rendered us and
for the love they have put into the accomplishment of the work entrusted to
them. They are: Brothers Jeffrey Crowe (General Councillor), Henri Vignau
(General Councillor), Carlos Martínez Lavin (Mexico), Dominick Pujia (USA),
José Manoel Alves (Brazil), Honoré Rakatonorivo (Madagascar), Manuel de
Leon (Philippines), Mark Farrelly (Australia), Maurice Bergeret (France),
Miguel Cubeles (Spain), D. Alberto Libera (Bolivia), and Mrs. Emma Casis
(Philippines). The Stages of the Journey Beginning with the years just after the Council, the Marist Institute has
had to confront new situations which have affected it on various levels. The first stage required the Brothers, as they listened to the world and
the Church, to re-study the origins of the Institute and Marcellin
Champagnat's founding intuition, in order to evaluate our path through
history and to once again formulate our identity and hence our contemporary
mission of evangelization in a manner consistent with the inspiration which
gave rise to the Institute. All of this was marvelously expressed in the
Constitutions of the Institute, which are the fundamental text for the
Brothers and which were approved by the Vatican in 1986. I will quote from this text four articles which may help us the better to
situate the mission of the Marist Institute and the document I am here
introducing. Please keep in mind that I am quoting only certain parts of
each article: 0. « It was this attitude that led (Marcellin) to found our Institute for
the Christian education of the young, especially those most in need »
(art. 2)
0. « The Church sends forth our Institute, which draws its life from the
Holy Spirit. Faithful to Father Champagnat, it works to evangelize
people, especially by educating the young, particularly those most
neglected » (art. 80)
1. « Engaged in schools or in other forms of education, we put our heart
and soul into serving the human person of the sake of the Kingdom » (art.
85)
2. « We share our spirituality and our educational approach with parents,
lay teachers, and other members of the educational community » (art. 88) Subsequent General Chapters pushed forward this renewal of the Institute,
taking into account the major changes taking place in our society and the
various settings in which our educational mission is carried out. Let me
mention a few, by way of example: 0. The change of mentality and of structures which brought us from « the
Brothers' school » to « the Marist school » (including both Brothers and
laypeople) and then to a school based on « the shared mission » in which
Brothers and layteachers are indiscriminately called to assume
responsibility for its animation and/or administration.
1. The impact upon education of the cultural changes taking place in our
world which affect human beings in their every dimension, the stress on a
specifically youth-oriented culture, and the socio-political changes
taking place in those countries where the Marist Institute is present.
2. In days past, children and young people were, to a certain extent,
« passive subjects » of education. They came to school to receive
guidance, values, religious formation, and knowledge which would prepare
them for life. And all of this emphasized certain aspects of the
organization of the school and of the manner of acting of those persons
dedicated to education. Today, new concepts of education and
interpersonal relations require of educators a special talent for
entering the world of young people, to walk beside them as their friend,
to motivate and accompany them as they search for what they are
personally called to do.
3. I will add a fourth aspect: the educational plurality that exists in the
Institute. The fact that we are present in 75 countries implies
diversity in educational planning, in local idiosycracies, in living
together ecumenically with other religions, or in facing religious
intolerance or exclusion, in the freedom to develop curricula, or in
government financing of education. In addition, the Brothers sometimes
animate or administer diocesan schools which have their own educational
program. All of this has consequences for the Marist educational mission and we have
perhaps lacked the creativity to promote initiatives which would permit us
to be with young people in the « new cultural contexts » in which they
live. We have sometimes been rather passive in the face of the
discrimination or lack of financial assistance with which certain
governments have treated the Christian school, and in some places we have
promoted schools which are attended primarily by students from the upper
middle class and from economically stable families. Moreover, in those countries we have perhaps lacked the initiative to
develop, with help from society, other possibilities favoring the creation
of new forms of presence in the pastoral of education for students who lack
resources or who are on the fringes of society. An Historic Moment The diversity of countries, cultures and educational systems in which the
Marist Institute is present has led to a major decentralization at the
level of the Institute; however, even within that variety it is possible to
identify the fundamental elements which characterize our style of
education. The commission which put together « The Marist Educational
Mission: A Project for Today » attempted to set them in relief and the
document provides tools which will help Brothers and laypeo