Holy Father:

It is with profound joy and thanksgiving that I have the pleasure of presenting to Your Holiness the Capitulants, Consultants and members of the staff of our 43rd General Chapter. As I thank you for having found time for us in the midst of the Jubilee Year which is so filled with activities for you, I want to thank you also for your letter of encouragement on the occasion of the centenary of the canonization of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and the 50th anniversary of his being proclaimed the Patron of Christian Educators.

Our holy Founder always encouraged us to have a profound love for the Church and in one of his meditations he tells us: "You must also show the Church what love you have for her and give her proof of your zeal, since it is for the Church (which is the body of Jesus Christ) that you work. You have become her ministers according to the order God has given you to dispense his word" (Meditation 201.2). Here before you, Holy Father, we want to renew this commitment of our origins.

Holy Father, the 43rd General Chapter which opens the new millennium for us is also pointing out some lines of action for us which are not only clear but they are also challenging and creative. First is the theme of association which opens up the Lasallian charism to the laity and those who want to participate in it. Clearly in recent years we have followed this path. The theme of shared mission with our lay partners in the ministry of Christian education has developed in an extraordinary way during these past 7 years. What is different about the current Chapter is the boost and the recognition of what has already been lived and the encouragement to strengthen present experiences or to open new ones. The Chapter has also specified the traits common to Lasallian association which will allow different groups to be recognized as such. Lasallian mission and spirituality lived out based on different identities are called to gather strength so that together we Brothers and Associates can respond to the challenges of the 21st century from the point of view of the world of Christian education based on our educational service to the poor. This is precisely the central theme of our Chapter.
The second line of action is, in fact, the educational service of the poor. The Chapter is inviting us to make a serious review in this sense so that what gave birth to our fourth vow of association for the educational service of the poor continues to be the center of our interest and programs. From our vantage point of working with the poor, we are open to all, but they, the poor, must be the point of departure. And if in the time of the Founder they were the means by which our charism was born, the poor, young people of today must rekindle this charism and give new enthusiasm and meaning to our mission.

The third strong line of action of the Chapter is our own identity as persons consecrated to God in community for the educational service of the poor and, based on them, we are open to the world of young people. We are called to live an alternative and prophetic lifestyle based on a community mystique. This has always been our greatest strength and richness. At the same time, as consecrated laymen we feel able to understand the laity in the Church and to share our charism with them for the building up of the Kingdom by means of Christian education. In this sense the Chapter proposes that we strengthen Institute commitment in four areas that are especially urgent: The rights of the child, educational renewal, the explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ and our presence in multi-religious societies.

Holy Father, as our Chapter draws to a close we are encouraged by great hope - a hope that springs forth from faith and from the certainty of the gratuitous love of God who is always close and who guides the history of humankind with wisdom and love and to whose work we are committed. We are sure that your words will be a source of inspiration and blessings for us, for our Chapter, for our Institute and for our Associates. Know that you may count on our affection and on our prayers.