LASALLIAN
NOTES
BR R OTHE OTH R S OF THE CH RIS T IA N S CH OOLS
DISTRICT OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA
Winter 2020 • VOL. 6
Global Spiritual Leader Tours Our District With the title Superior General, Br. Robert Schieler, FSC, is the worldwide leader of The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, which spans eighty countries and serves one million youths annually. This fall, as we celebrated 300 years since Saint John Baptist de La Salle went to his heavenly reward, we could unofficially say that we were celebrating 302 years since he named his first successor, or the first Superior General. Br. Robert, who has been in this role, based in
Rome, for five years, is a graduate of our own West Catholic High School and La Salle University, both in Philadelphia. Once during each seven-year term, the Superior General makes a Pastoral Visit to each of the Brothers’ Districts around the world. For two weeks in November, Br. Robert traversed through seven states and a Canadian province, visiting nearly thirty schools, Brothers’ communities, or Lasallian leadership groups as part of his Pastoral Visit to the District of Eastern
Conversation with students at La Salle Academy, Providence RI Answering student questions at The De La Salle Freeport School in NY
Getting to know his tour guides at Christian Brothers Academy, Albany NY
North America (DENA). He met with Brothers, Lasallian partners, donors, and friends, Mission Executive and District Councils, Lasallian Volunteers, and most importantly, Lasallian students. In receptions and Community meals, informal gatherings and formal meetings, school tours and student assemblies, Br. Robert shared his vision for the future of the mission, and listened to how the mission is being lived out here in DENA. The Superior General sat in on La Salle University’s annual poverty simulation, a role-playing exercise that gives students at the School of Nursing and Health Sciences a greater understanding of financial instability, and prepares them to treat patients and clients who are living at or (continued on page 4)