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Part Two of A Prophetic Call to a Quest for Justice
(Part One is listed below)
The following are suggested action steps that may be taken if we desire to move the congregation in a response to "a prophetic call to a quest for justice." They all follow on the insights made within the chapter document, The Heart of Being Brother.
1 Engage the brothers of the congregation in theological
reflection and faith sharing on the issue of justice and peace starting with
their own personal attitude for justice. This could be done around the
congregation as a reflection for Advent 2003. A periodic schema of related
reflection papers could be worked up for Lent if they are deemed useful to
the brothers.
2 To engage the congregation members on whether there would be a prophetic purpose served in establishing a central commission of the Congregation that would focus on the single issue of the rights of children. At a time when accusations of abuse are still levelled, would this be a prophetic stance.
Questions to Individual members -
What is your involvement in social justice issues?
If you are involved in a specific project, give a short description.
What spirituality sustains you in your involvement in social justice issues?
Any suggestions for how the central congregation can set up a commission on justice and peace that focuses on international issues aligned with our ministry to youth?
Questions to Leadership -
Outline the work for justice that is happening in your province, region or area?
What organizations have you for social justice at the province, region, or area level?
Any suggestions for the formation of an international commission focussed on international issues aligned with our ministry to youth?
3 Bring together a group of brothers who are involved in justice and peace issues around the congregation. At this stage the priority should not be geographical representation but expertise in the area. Have them brainstorm what could be a possibility for a commission on justice, peace and integrity of creation for the general congregation.
4 Just as we have an RRG (Renewal Reference Group) and a CRT (Congregational Renewal Team) to foster renewal around the congregation, this new commission would have as its mandate a focus that is immediately connected with our charism and ministry among young people. Thus, for example, the focus might be to assist the whole congregation on issues around the rights of children that may need to be addressed through networking with groups on the local level, through advocacy, through engagement and developing relationships with workers in the field, as well as through our network of educational outreach.
5 This focus as a congregation might lead to a network/program that would provide to the members of the congregation that dislocation that comes with regular contact with poor and marginalised people. The particular justice issues around the rights of children could be such as the following (taken from JPIC manual, Rome):
child labour - an estimated 200 million children are forced to work.
child prostitution - one million are forced into prostitution each year.
street children - over 100 million under the age of fifteen.
commerce of children’s organs.
half the refugee population are children - there are estimated to be about 30 million refugees and 100 million displaced persons.
one child in three in the developing world is undernourished.
each day over 40,000 children die fro want of food and inexpensive medicines.
The list goes on and on. And the list in not limited to developing countries and regions. For example, ‘child soldiers’ exist not merely in war zones in Africa, but among the gangs of developed world cities.
6 The importance on selecting one issue to focus on is to be able to offer some strong advocacy as a congregation that is international and has spent numerous lifetimes in ministering among young people of the world. It would be a natural development that the rights of children and issues of children at risk would hold a preferential option for us as a justice issue. And it would be prophetic for us to take it up at this time in our history.
So, where do we go from here? Do we move on the proposal of looking towards some congregation wide centre/commission/office that would take up the mantle of this chapter insight and move forward with it? If that is to become an real option, there are a number of questions and ideas. They revolve around where, who, cost and focus.
Where?
The ‘where’ question seems easy enough. If something new is being created, the dynamics of the thing being formed must motivate the ‘where.’ The where should not be someplace we already have because we have it. If an international commission is set up in the future it should be set up where its focus would most likely have the greatest impact and service. International NGO’s and service organizations locate themselves close to other international organizations. We mustn’t go down the road of setting up in Rome, for example, because it is the centre of the RC Church.
Who?
The who question should also be easy to answer, namely who would best have the energy, knowledge and passion to create something new for us that would touch all regions of the congregation, and commit us to speak out on the issues that we as Christian Brothers should feel flow from our living vowed religious life in service. It bears mentioning that the ‘who’ should not determine the ‘where’. There is also an auxiliary question about the ‘who’, namely whether the spearhead of this new entity should be lay or religious.
Cost?
The ‘cost’ question is a real one, and must be faced squarely and not assigned some pious explanation about providence. Setting up an office or commission will cost money. Perhaps it is necessary that we look closely on how we already spend money as a congregation, right across the board, from central headquarters to the local groupings of people around the world. We need to ask these questions of ourselves,
"Do we have resources to establish something as fundamental as this?"
and then,
"Where can we cut back on our expenses in order to fund this new entity of a renewed and restructured congregation?"
Focus?
The ‘focus’ question is something that we need clarity about. We are Christian Brothers. We brought a history to the Chapter of 2002. And that history should help us to determine how best to focus the whole congregation on issues of justice. As we have often said in the past, no matter how many needs are around us, we can only begin to deal and help on a few of them. Compared to other religious organizations we are a small operation. Therefore, should we focus our resources and energy on one board justice issue congregation-wide? This is where the bringing together of ‘voices’ from around the congregation would be needed. We need an issue that is not a developing world issue or a developed world issue, but just a global, human issue.
Conclusion
This proposal is hopefully on the table for the consideration of the leadership teams, and all the brothers and ERN people to consider. This website is offered as a means to foster Brothers and ERN people to contribute to a discussion of this issue and how to respond congregationally to this challenge to a prophetic call to justice.
January 2004
Part One
As we stand today as Christian
Brothers almost forty years after Vatican II we realize that we have only just
touched the surface of changes in thinking, attitudes and structures that will
continue our congregation's being sent on mission in a contemporary, focussed
way.
What do we find in our roots as a congregation that helps us to see some of the
directions and focus for our mission? How can we as Christian Brother disciples,
respond positively to a world where injustices and violence abound, as Jesus
himself did in his world, and as Edmund did in his? Our Chapter of 2002 called
us to a prophetic call to a quest for justice.
Even in the days before he founded the congregation, the question of justice was
a matter of considerable concern to Blessed Edmund. We were often reminded that
Edmund could have exercised great local influence as a possible money-lender.
Edmund's listing of texts against usury on the flyleaf of his bible was
"Edmund's preoccupation with his responsibilities as a moneyed person in a time
of widespread poverty" (O'Toole). As a result there was general recognition of
his high moral character; he maintained an ongoing role as the executor of
dowries, benefices, and trusts for the poor, widows and indigent all his life.
The commitment to seek to undo injustices led Edmund to commit his life to
uneducated poor boys of the streets.
Thus our foundation frames for us the commitment to justice and the prophetic
call to a quest for justice that we see emerged even more sharply these past
twenty years. Our recent Constitutions and congregational documents since 1984,
enlarge the call to a quest for justice in new ways:
● In our 1984 Constitutions, the call is constant and ever
present, and must be reflected upon as change takes place in society and the
world. ( C # 40)
● In the 1990 Chapter, we saw our schools and other
institutions as avenues to raise justice issues in the formation of young
people. But there was an additional thrust to work against injustices as they
were being experienced around us in society and the world. (1990: Document on
Brotherhood, Foundational Aspects of our Brotherhood # 5, #8, #11;
Document on Mission and Evangelization #3; Basic Challenges of Christian
Brother's Mission of Evangelization #2, #3.)
● The thrust of a call to quest for justice became clearer by
the 1996 Chapter: challenging structural injustices, maintaining a global
perspective in relation to how we distribute our resources as a congregation, a
willingness to consider apostolic mobility in relationship to significant crises
on a global level, and networking globally on justice issues. (Statement of
Internationality and The Call to People at the Margins of Society)
● By 2002 we now were at a new stage. We see the quest for
justice as a prophetic call reflected in the heart of brotherhood in the world
today: right relationships to God's creation, assisting in reflecting
theologically on experiences at the margins and ministering with the poor, and
even opportunities for dislocating experiences that move us beyond past methods
of teaching justice. We now seem to be calling to live justly and to foster more
a role as advocate. (A Prophetic Call to a Quest for Justice)
Since the time of renewal, the Congregation has began to see that what we have
done in our classrooms and in our caring institutions and other centres of
learning have been a working for justice. "We acknowledge the immense
contribution over the last two hundred years that Brothers and their colleagues
have made to the liberating education of the young." (Chapter 2002) Like
Jesus and Edmund, we Christian Brothers and those we minister with were sent
"to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the
downtrodden free." (Luke 4.18)
As we face a world in which our youth must face choices both personal and
communal that can lead to life or to death, how do we who have been committed
for over two centuries to the evangelization of poor youth respond? To what are
we saying yes to in our church, society and world?
What is a possible direction we may see as an international congregation in this
third century of our lives? The direction is to take seriously "a prophetic
call to a quest for justice." There are numerous actions that have taken
place and are taking place in many parts of the congregation as regards this
quest. Provinces and regions are into ethical investing of resources, peace and
justice offices have been established, we have men and ER network people
speaking out in advocacy roles on numerous issues.
All of this is what I believe are indications and signs of the direction that
the congregation has been moving as it faces the challenges placed before us by
our past history. But what has been done on the congregational level - across
the boundaries of every province, region and area - to foster this prophetic
call to a quest for justice. Do we move as a congregation to see justice and
peace issues within the confines of our missions, institutions or do we see
beyond to the larger world view and see issues that call to us Christian
Brothers in a special way.
In the world around us today there are so many issues of injustice and cries of
people, and of creation itself, to be remanded and healed, that it would be
impossible to address them all in an adequate way. Local justice and peace
groups can tackle and deal with issues that touch them more closely such as
refugees, trafficking, the issue of war.
As a congregation can there be one focal point, an issue that we might address
and speak upon because of who we are as an international congregation dedicated
to the evangelisation of young people, and living the charism of Edmund Rice. I
believe the focus for us is the issue of the rights of children and those areas
that touch on the injustices done to children globally: abuse, child soldiers,
street children, indentured slavery, prostitution, child pornography; the list
seems endless. In reality it would be all those areas that deal with the rights
of children enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It would be a prophetic move for us at this time to establish a central
Commission (Office) that would focus on the single justice issue of the rights
of children, since we are in many parts of the congregation reeling from abuse
cases and accusations. As one brother wrote a few years back, "our (current)
problem will not simply go away or disappear. I believe that we must be
pro-active in this regard." To stand for the rights of the child, to become
attuned to the many issues that would come under that justice umbrella area,
would be to affirm again for ourselves and for all those who have come to know
and love Blessed Edmund that we walk with young people in their struggles for
justice in every part of this world.
Br. Nick Morris (Rome)