History

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

The Aftermath of Vatican II: 1967 to the Present

The events of Vatican II and the 39th General Chapter of 1966-1967 are well known and recorded elsewhere. Suffice it to say that, despite attempts to interpret the changes proposed as a process of evolution, they did in fact amount to a revolution for which the New York Brothers, among others, were poorly prepared to understand or to implement. The result was confusion and divisiveness at district and regional chapters, traditional structures dismantled without suitable replacements, personal choice and fulfillment valued more than the authority of superiors or community consensus. Wholesale departures from the Institute followed while the sources of vocations began to dry up. The houses of formation were the first to feel the effect. The juniorate program at Barrytown was terminated in 1968, and the novitiate in the following year. The scholasticate in Washington followed suit in1970, some of the faculty transferred to Manhattan College with residence in the community on the Chapel Farm property owned by the College. In the schools, as the numbers of Brothers declined and the average age increased, it became the policy to place the few available Brothers in administrative posts and leave the classroom teaching to the lay faculty.

In due time, however, some more positive signs began to emerge. The revised formation process yielded more mature candidates and a good percentage of those who finally committed themselves by vow have persevered. The concept of shared mission and the opening of national Lasallian programs to lay persons gave hope that they could well be entrusted to carry on the Lasallian mission with or without the Brothers. The Brothers began to understand better and affirm their identity as Brothers. They began to see the need to take more seriously their vowed commitment to the direct or indirect service of the poor, while striving to deepen their experience of religious and community life.

Such was the situation facing the leadership of the District after Vatican II and the General Chapter of 1966-1967. Since all of the Visitors from 1967 on are still living at this writing, and since the memory of their personalities and administration is fresh in the minds of the Brothers at least, it will be sufficient for the purposes of this concise history simply to list their names and then summarize the important developments in the last years of the twentieth century. Brother Augustine Loes was Visitor from 1967 to 1972, Brother John Martin from 1972 to 1981, Brother William Spellman from 1981 to 1984, Brother Timothy Wentworth from 1984 to 1990, Brother Jerome Sullivan from 1990 to 1996, and Brother Michael Corry from 1996 to 2002. Brother Frank Byrne has been the incumbent since then.

Experimentation with various programs of formation was characteristic of this period. One conviction was that the novitiate should come at the end rather than the beginning of initial formation. After using the facilities of a national novitiate for a time, the New York District decided in 1974 to open a novitiate of its own on an historic property facing the lake at Skaneateles just west of Syracuse. This lasted for 25 years until it finally had to be closed for lack of candidates.

In 1978 a new venture was undertaken led by Brother Edward Phelan who opened, directed, and established on a sound financial basis the Highbridge Community Life Center at Melrose in the Bronx . Now staffed by a Lasallian community composed of Brothers and resident lay volunteers, it continues its mission to involve the entire local community in educational and social projects. As part of a felt need to return to elementary schools, in 1979 the Brothers took over the Blessed Sacrament school on Staten Island, but personnel problems resulted in the departure of the Brothers after six years.

In 1978 the Provincialate was moved from Riverside Drive to Lincroft N.J. With the sale of Barrytown a new home was needed for the retired Brothers. Since the residences rented at Scarsdale and Garrison proved unsatisfactory, it was decided to build a new facility on the Lincroft property. In 1980 De La Salle Hall was dedicated as a retirement and nursing home for the elderly Brothers of the District.

A long-festering dispute between the Brothers and the trustees of Lincoln Hall came to a head in 1980-1981 and was resolved only when Brother John Martin decided to withdraw the Brothers after 40 years of service to the institution and its disadvantaged clientele. Some of the Brothers involved tried to find another outlet for their zeal for the education of the poor. The most successful of these ventures has been De La Salle Academy, founded by Brother Brian Carty in 1982 as an endowed middle school for the education of bright and promising minority students. In the same direction, by 1995 enough Brothers were willing to volunteer so that the District could take over the direction of the grade school of Resurrection parish in East Harlem.

Meanwhile the District continues its commitment to the 14 schools where there are still Brothers. The schools are operating well and the hope for the future is that, with or without the Brothers, the Lasallian mission will continue to provide a human and Christian education to young people, especially the poor and disadvantaged.

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