Montreal, Canada - Montreal Botanical Gardens celebrates their 75th Anniversary: Brother Marie-Victorin (1885-1944) was the initiator and the soul of the Montreal Botanical Gardens. From 1919 on, he was thinking about the educational interest of such a garden. At the end of 1929, on returning from a six-month trip across three continents, during which he visited all the great botanical gardens, he stated that he had come back “penetrated with the need for a city and for a university like that of Montreal to have a great botanical garden”.

What made possible what has been called the “miracle” of the Montreal Botanical Gardens, was in fact a unique combination of factors in the middle of which was to be found the personality of Marie-Vitorin. His determination, his fighting spirit, his grasp of advertising and his network of friends and influential persons would together bring him victory over the multiple and recurring opposition to the great Botanical Gardens project.

The political circumstances at the time was also in his favour. His past-pupil and friend, Camilien Houde, Mayor of Montreal since 1928, included the project in his electoral program of 1930. The Montreal Botanical Gardens were officially created on June 9th 1931. There would be several interruptions to the work. In 1936, some 2,000 men aremed with shovels and pick-axes, transformed the site. When work was again interrupted by the Second World War, the Botanical Gardens had been three-quarters completed . In 1948, a large part of the landscaping planned by Henri Teuscher were completed. The exhibition greenhouses would be completed by the end of the 1950s. Since then new layouts and landscaping have continually improved the Gardens and have made them into one of the great botanical gardens of the world.

The fighting spirit of Marie-Victorin allowed him to build up a scientific, educational and institutional body of work which contributed in a unique way to the enlightenment of modern Quebec. But among all his contributions, it is the Botanical Gardens which is unquestionably his most beautiful and best known.
^{(Extracts from an article by Yves Gingras, professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal)}

If you would like to know more about Br.Marie-Victorin and the Montreal Botanical Gardens you should consult the following two Internet sites:

Montreal Botanical Gardens:

Exhibition about Br. Marie-Victorin:

Canary Islands – Spain - FORMATION OF ANIMATORS, ARUCAS: During the weekend of October 13th to 15th, the animators in Pastoral Ministry of the Canary Islands, gathered together in the college in Arucas to receive and share formation.

Thirty two persons from the five centres came together on those days which were magnificently animated by Juan Carlos Hervás.

The contents revolved around the Youth Pastoral Project. They included aims, contents, stages, the educational process; the Christian profile of the Youth Pastoral Ministry worker and the attitudes to work on; procedures: group dynamics… - education of the emotions - the itinerary of the human group as educational work - the stages of the human group and the Leadership of the group by the youth animator – authority, demands, witness.
These days also served as an opportunity for the animators from the Canary Islands to meet each other. In addition to this period, they also share a day of meetings in the middle of the academic year and during the summer activities.

The delegates of Pastoral Ministry in the Canary Islands also found time to meet Brother Octavio in order to organize their activities for the next school year.

Animators, teachers, Brothers and the speaker, ended the weekend with a barbecue, prepared by the Brothers’ Community in the so-called “Rincón de Emiliano” behind the college. The Brothers were at all times attentive to the needs of the young people who were there ‘sacrificing’ some rest days in order to devote themselves to their formation which would lead to a better animation of the boys and girls in the groups.

^{(Animation Team of the Canary Islands)}

Colombo - Sri Lanka - Lasallian Resource Centre: Lasallian Resource Centre was opened in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 6th October 2006. Thirty two lay teachers and several Brothers participated in the inaugural sessions.

The Lasallian Resource Centre will undertake to organize regular sessions for the formation of Lasallian collaborators, to translate Lasallian materials to local languages and to develop educational tools for Lasallian Schools in Sri Lanka. Brother Benjamin Gunatilleke is its Director. Pictures show some participants on the first day.
^{(Br. Romain)}

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