Lasallian World

The International Institute: The Lasallian Mission Around The World

When De La Salle founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1680, he was concerned primarily with establishing schools to provide a Christian and human education to the children of artisans and the poor. At the time of his death nearly forty years later, De La Salle's fledgling community was comprised of about 100 Brothers serving in 37 educational institutions throughout France.

Today, the Founder's vision is alive and well. It is given life by nearly 70,000 Lasallian educators (6700 of whom are Brothers) serving over 800,000 students in 80 countries around the world. Education in secondary schools is the focus of nearly half of these works, while those who serve in colleges number nearly the same as those teaching in primary schools (together comprising about one-third of all Lasallian works). And those who minister to special needs and court-adjudicated youth are about twelve percent of the total.

The Lasallian mission continues to be at its essence a faithful reflection of the educational mission of the Church. That is to say, we seek "to promote the welfare of the whole life" of our students "in virtue of their dignity as human persons." To that end, we strive in our schools and institutions to create a climate that fosters a young person's spiritual, intellectual, social, and physical growth. It has been our experience that at the crux of this dynamic and God-centered process is the relationship between student and teacher. Thus do we come to a fuller appreciation of De La Salle's notion that teachers are "ambassadors of Christ" and "ministers of grace".

Finally, the Lasallian mission makes manifest the Church's preferential option for the poor. Rooted in the Gospel and the Church's contemporary call to be attentive to the poor, the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools has sought to rededicate itself to its founding purpose: "service of the poor through education". While defining "the poor" has been at times a source of creative tension, and while we are right to be concerned about the many who suffer deficits of a more spiritual or emotional sort, the Brothers' Rule makes clear that among our chief aims must be educate "the economically deprived victims of social injustice, delinquents, and those neglected by the rest of society."

This Lasallian enterprise is truly vast and all encompassing, and yet has deeply personal implications. Our mission is a sacred one that inspires educators to view all things with the eyes of faith: To appreciate our yearning to be in association as a vocation, to perceive our work as a ministry, and to look upon those entrusted to our care as being in the image and likeness of God.