History

History of New York District by Br. Luke Salm (PDF)

The Last of the Glory Years 1946-1967

The nine years during which Brother A. Victor served as Visitor might best be described as a holding pattern. The General Chapter of 1946 had little impact on most of the Brothers. The notion that now that the war was over the Institute could return to its restrictive practices and policies proved to be illusory. In the District the approach was to accept in theory but to ignore in practice the attempts of the distant Regime to regain control. The Brothers concentrated their efforts on running good schools, living a reasonable community and religious life, and doing everything possible to attract vocations to the Institute. The major event at this time was the celebration in 1948 (deferred from 1945) of the centenary of the first Brothers schools in the United States. Brother Athanase Emile, the Superior General, came to the States, toured the country, visited schools and formation centers, and was feted everywhere, including ceremonies at the Metropolitan Opera and Manhattan College in New York where Brother E. Victor was his companion and Brother A.. Victor the host.

In 1950 a new school was opened in St. John’s parish in the Bronx in the hope of attracting quality vocations. In 1952 the Brothers took direction of St. Gabriel’s parish school in East Elmurst in Queens. Forced by the visit of the Middle States Association to Manhattan College in 1951, the District had to change its policy of sending scholastics to community prematurely, leaving them to complete their degrees at Manhattan after doing most of the course work at Catholic University. This decision, plus a new influx of vocations, resulted in overcrowding at the Washington scholasticate. In 1949 the freshman class had to be housed in the recently vacated juniorate building at Ammendale. The next year the Baltimore District withdrew from De La Salle College and moved the scholastics to a new facility in Philadelphia. Beginning in 1954 until 1967, the New York scholastics took the freshman courses at the former Hillside School in Troy. Meanwhile, in 1953 a juniorate program for day students was opened at St. Bernard’s High School on 14th Street in 1953. In 1955 the Provincialate was moved from 77th Street to 330 Riverside Drive. In dealing with these developments, Brother Victor relied heavily on his two Auxiliary Visitors, Brothers Antony John and Charles Henry.

Brother Antony John (Halpin), appointed in 1955, took a more vigorous and single-minded approach to the office of Visitor. The first item to be addressed was the size of the District. With some 700 Brothers in 44 communities, it had become unwieldy. The problem was where to draw the dividing line. A split between New York and New England would make logical and geographical sense but at the time New England had no schools owned by the Brothers and none that were productive of vocations. It was eventually decided to draw the line through the East River, ceding Bishop Loughin (vocations) and Oakdale (revenue) to the new Long Island/New England District. Brother John was successful in opposing a last minute move by the District Council of the new District to have the institutions in the Albany area attached to LI-NE. Beginning in 1958, the two Districts undertook a joint commitment of personnel to a new missionary venture, opening schools from Eritrea and Ethiopia to Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa.

As Visitor, Brother John had implicit faith in the Directors of the houses of formation and supported them in their attempts to adapt the formation of their young subjects to contemporary trends in psychology and sociology. To bring quality to the welfare institutions, he established a policy whereby young Brothers, upon completing the work for a master’s degree, would be assigned for at least a year or two to Lincoln Hall or La Salle School. He favored Brothers with a reputation for piety and seems not to have had a very high regard for the level of religious observance in the school communities, doing what he could to correct what he considered abuses.

Convinced that the District had no future in the elementary schools, he consistently refused requests from pastors for more Brothers and began to close them one by one in order to supply personnel for the High Schools. During his tenure the Brothers took direction of St. Joseph’s parish High School in West New York N.J., Queen of Peace High school in North Arlington, N.J. as also the boys’ department of Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, a co-instructional archdiocesan institution. In St. Raymond’s parish the Brothers took over the new High School as the grade school was gradually phased out. De La Salle Institute on 74th Street was closed to make way for the opening of Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, N.J. A drive was set in motion to raise the funds for the construction of a new wing and a chapel at De La Salle College. In 1963 work was completed on a thorough renovation of the novitiate chapel in Barrytown to have it conform to the latest liturgical and artistic standards. Meanwhile word from Rome indicated that the Institute was asking for input from the Districts for a new Rule that was in preparation to be presented to the next General Chapter. Brother John took a keen interest in this process both by consultation in the District and at national meetings of the American Visitors.

This process was barely underway when Brother John’s term as Visitor came to an end and he was succeeded by Brother Bertrand Leo (Kirby). Brother Leo came to office in 1964 after years of experience with the young candidates in Barrytown and Washington where the winds of change stirred by Vatican II, which was still in session, were blowing strong. But his attention had to be given first to requests for the Brothers to take over the direction of schools. In 1965 Sacred Heart parish High School in Yonkers and the diocesan High School in Paramus, N.J. were added to the District roster, as was the Msgr. Kelly school on 83d. Street in Manhattan, giving the Brothers a new opportunity to serve the urban poor.

Brother Leo, who was determined that the District make its contribution to the revision of the Rule, expanded the District Council to include Brothers with special expertise. In this way Brothers Gabriel Costello and Luke Salm came to prominence that led to their election in 1965 to serve with the Visitor, who was ex officio, as delegates to the upcoming General Chapter. All three participated in the national meetings aimed to assure an active and informed role for the American delegates to the Chapter, despite their longstanding numerical and linguistic disadvantage in general chapters traditionally dominated by a disproportionate number of French delegates. One result was the election of Brother Charles Henry as Superior General. He was a native New Yorker, former Director of Scholastics, Auxiliary Visitor of New York, Visitor of LI-NE, and American Assistant. He was the first Brother not a Frenchman to be elected Superior. Incidentally and ironically he had earned a PhD degree in Latin. The Chapter of 1966-1967 also established subsidiarity as a principle of government in the Institute, promulgated a declaration on the Brother in the modern world, and prepared radically revised texts of the Rule and Book of Government. When Brother Leo was elected the American Assistant, he was replaced as Visitor and delegate ex officio by Brother Augustine Loes, who was a potent advocate in the Chapter for a strong statement on the service of the poor.

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