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 News of the Institute and Lasallian Family
Rome, August 20, 2004
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 The Inter-Regional Vocation Congress; July 28 to August 2; Guadalajara, Mexico: From twenty countries, 23 Districts, Sub-Districts and Delegations, Brothers, partners and young people, Visitors, Vocation Directors, Pastoral ministers, priests and students met in Guadalajara, Mexico in response to General Chapter Proposition 26 to hold a Congress on the topic of the Brother today. The Regions of RELAL, Francophone Canada and the USA and Toronto came together to learn from each other and dialog with each other. The Superior General and Brother Claude Reinhardt, General Councilor joined the group to make presentations.
On the evening of July 28, the Congress opened with a prayer service calling forth each District to the Congress by Brother Alvaro and a placing of a lighted candle in the form of a star, the sign of faith, on places an a gigantic map of the world. This ceremony was replicated several times during the Congress by the placing of dirt (the earth fertile with vocations), seeds planted in the earth (as God plants the seeds of vocation), watering the earth (as a sign vocations need to be nurtured) and finally the appearance of plants on the map (new life flourishing).
Each of the Districts in the Regions participated in a process prior to the Congress exploring what is the need for Brothers today, what are the signs of hope and difficulty in vocation ministry and suggestions for invitation. While the vocation picture differs from Region to Region, and District to District, the reports stressed the need for Brothers to serve as spiritual companions to the young and to be the face of God to the poor. The reports found young people interested in service to others and on a quest for spirituality. In RELAL, these factors lead to a positive vocation picture in many Districts; in Canada and the United States, these factors do not lead to vocations to brotherhood very often, but to more temporary forms of service such as volunteering. Hence, there is both a commonality among the Regions, yet a difference in how these things are lived out among the Regions.
 Brother Superior spoke to the Congress on the first full day, taking note of the fact that the three Regions are not a homogeneous reality. He told the Congress that the days of vocation recruitment are over and that a new form of vocation ministry must be an outgrowth of pastoral ministry to the young and include the notion of many kinds of Lasallian Vocations. He also said that vocation ministry and the lives of the Brothers must give attention to relationships instead of the “world of work”, the thirst for spirituality and the experience of community.
Using examples from four variously different places of the world, Brother Claude spoke on July 30 to the Congress on the idea that the Lasallian vocation arises from the needs of the young. He proposed that religious life today does have much to offer the modern world today. He proposed that religious life offers a brotherhood in the face of individualism; in the face of war and social exclusion, religious life offers God as a source of peace, and that religious life offers a framework and structure in which the young can make spirituality concrete and focused on service.
On the third day noted Canadian theologian, Father Gilles Routhier, told the assembly that he did not think new techniques for vocation ministry such as internet are as important as a new image of the missionary project. “This means that we need new projects and new means of carrying them out, even in a small way, rather than managing the assets of the past or attempting to perpetuate them.” He also said that young people must be engaged now in the projects and that religious orders should not wait until they are candidates to involve them. “We are to involve young people and guide them in mission projects and then the vocations will come.”
 Through the creative leadership of Brother Michael French, Director of CIL, the Congress was guided with group processes and even films. The Congress concluded with the building of a dream and a pledge to make it a reality in each of the Districts. The entire group joined the scholastics and postulants of the two Mexican Districts in a prayer vigil for vocations.
The Congress was made possible by the generous hospitality of Brother Salvador Valle, Brother Jose de la Torre and the District of North Mexico providing a fraternal and joyful atmosphere with experiences of the Mexican Culture.
(Br. Thomas Johnson)
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