Epilogue
So I finally come to the end of my work.
During over some 20 years, I have been venturing on the streets in searching a response for the vital question : “ Is it reasonable the Institute of the Brothers be struck off the Congregations list in Viet Nam ?”
Surely no. The objectives for which the brothers aimed remain there, visibly on each of my steps, the poor, the illiterates, ignorants, neglected people, victims of social scourges …whom we must take care of generously and with boldness” [i]. Furthermore, on the one hand the ethic trivialization of Youth, the degradation of human and professional qualities , on the other hand the instructors, are the deep causes of strong pains : problem of trivialized ethics, human qualities at fault in society.
The education of human qualities always has an important place at school to contribute partly to the reduction of social scourges, the crimes of minors in society. However, It seems that schools haven’t been taking of this primordial side. It is sufficient to mention a figure of last year : there were “ 7000 cases of violating Laws by the young under 14, be 70% of crimes done by teenagers under 18 : students who rob, fight, sell, receive and use illegally heroin, trouble the discipline and public life, and even rape, assassinate”[ii]…How many children belong to this category ? Throughout this number, we must take a conclusion confirming that crimes done by minors are being alarmed and schools do not take or not execute its responsibility of education, or do neglectfully this duty. If the students studied seriously ro if the instructors taught well and seriously the civic education at school, the students once left school would have got a sufficient “ equipment “ to fit into life.
The working field is immense conformably to the ideal of the Brothers’ Institute, which is “ the educative service of the poor´, the neglected people “ : abortion, street children, sexual rapers, health, physical and mental hadicapped, alphabetism, the work of children, children and armed conflicts, young violence, the refuse of the childhood children, the infraction of the young, the respect of the human rights, the new poverty, the defense of the children rights according to the Convention: Rights to survival, rights to be developed, rights to be protected, rights to participate in society…. All these topics were analysed by the brother Superior John Johnston in his Pastoral Letter of 1987-1999.
The time at which De La Salle lived was also that of the Society transition from the Middle Ages to the industrial revolution. It was in this social context that de La Salle discovered a new social class and a new concept of poverty: the origine of all poverties is ignorance : “ the majority (of parents ) are not enlightened enough about what (education) concerned them and the ones being busy with their wordly affairs, and the care of their family and the others in their constant sollicitude to earn for them and theirs what are needed to their life, they were not be able to teach themselves what concerned the duties of christians. ”[iii]
In other words, the poverty put people into a vicious circle : It brings them to the marginalization, to be excluded from society: thus abandoned, they cannot educate themselves, go to school, integrate in society: It is still then the ignorance which pushed them to the poverty. And It is really hard to go out of it. To solve radically this problem, de La Salle proposed his contemporains 3 essential elements, specific products of Monsieur de La Salle :
- To outface against the poverty, childen must be instructed.
- To fight against the exclusion of the society, he believed that education must be based on the Faith and on the Gospel spirit.
- To promote the apprenticeship of the poor children, education must be free.
Thus, “ grasped by the situation of abandon of “ children of workers and poor”, JB de La Salle discovered, in the Faith of God, the mission of his Institute”. [iv] The solution of de La Salle responded to the needs of poor children of the society of his time and, up to now, “ This Institute is of a very great necessity. The young, the poor, the world and the Church need the ministry of the Brothers ” [v].
Today, in this socialist situation of VN, the brothers must “ comprehend the situation of the poor and abandoned children “ [vi], as Saint John Baptist de La Salle “ grasped by” the miserable situation of the children of his time and “ do not take in vain the name of de La Salle”[vii] to be able to “ avoid attentively and spare no efforts, an interpretation of our lasallian heritage, either partial or splitting” [viii]. As de La Salle answered with creativity to challenge the young, the brothers must open eyes as well to be “ attentive particularly and close to the young and children today” [ix]. The advice of Jean Lliorin about “ let be held “ is a nice illustration : “ My son, you worry of those who are hungry in the world, millions of people who are starving and you wonder what to do : give one of them something to eat. You worry of the homeless : offer one of them a shelter. You worry of those who are isolated and you wonder what you can do : give one of them courage. Remember this, my dear son : 2000 years ago, the world was filled with people in needs, all like today, and when the abandoned and hopeless people asked me to pity, I sent them a Savior…Hope comes only one and one only”[x].
Thus, being conscious ot this necessity of creativity, by several ways, I “ acted” to get my official place first and show the possibilities to make concrete our mission to the brothers. New creations appeared : a professional formation Center in 1989, classes of affection for street children in 2000, a professional formation Center at Tram Chim (South VN ) in 2003, a primary school in 2004, a new community in Cambodia in January, 2006, a Center for drug-addicts in July 2006, a professional formation Center for the handicapped in Nha Trang in December 2008 (photo, p. 488, 489, 490 ).
However, after the fighting years full of difficulties and personal experiences, to get all of these official authorizations, I realize that the true difficulties though they are so big, have no comparisons with these encountered in the inside of the Institute. From this prayer fo Sufi Bayazid, I am fully awaken :
“ I was revolutionary when I was young and my prayer to God was the following : “ O God, give me the Force to change the world “.
“ When I went to my middle age and once realized that the half of my life was spent without changing any soul, I changed my prayer like that : “ O God, give me the Grace to change every thing occurring to me. Only, just for may family and friends, I will be satisfied fot that “.
“ Nowaday, I am old and my days are being counted, my only prayer is then : “ O God, give me the grace to change myself. ”
“ If I prayed like this at the beginning, I would not waste my life “ [xi]
All the brothers are not conscious of the complex situation of the reality to be able to accept a hidden life in this region or to work humbly under the direction of a lay person, or in a word, they are not yet well prepaired for this mission in a socialist society concerning the domain of identity and profession.
In other words, they dream more or less to “ a country where flow milk and honey” of the past. Numerous are those who appraised an action after the immediate results, forgetting then the advices of Mrs Didi SUDESH [xii], an indian lecturer : “ the flower would be in bloom easily but to become a fruit it needs lots of time. The success is never a miracle. We must be like a gardener, knowing just the moment to sow seeds, by working hard, patiently in order to get good fruits. ”
Thus, the first priority consists of the solid formation of the person of the Brother because “ to form oneself is to get to formulate a pertinent response to the question “ What for ? “,, . (Patrick TAERNOUX). Without this strong taking conscience of one’s identity , the necessity of the Institute to serve the young particularly the poor in education, they will lead a passive life, nonchalant, which makes lose all energy for initiatives and creativity, and impossible to attract the young on the way of their vocation, essential factor for the survival and continuity of a congregation. Being seriously formed, the mission for the service of the poor must “ flow finally in the blood vessels “ of the Brother. In the relationship with the young and the poor, the disabled and abandoned children …his first worry is to help them promote their human qualities hoping to “ reanimate the Dream of John Baptist de La Salle to be called Hoping Witness nearby the children and the young who are poor, abandoned or disoriented “[xiii] with lots of FAITH and ZEAL.
And to finish, may I repeat these words of the former Superior John Johston, which show well the need of Creativity to be able to live the mission of the Brothers Today, in the situation of such a socialist country, and this first by ourselves : “ we must be ready to change what it must be changed – and we must start by OURSELVES. Let’s not play the victims. Let’s not condemn the others, nor simply let’s not “ blaspheme the night “ for the problems to which we had to face up. We must take responsibility of our lives. We must be disposed to take our upside down lives, if necessary, to restart from Zero. We must be disposed to do a U-turn, if this is needed and to depart in another direction. ”[xiv]
[i] John johnston, Pastoral Letter 1997, p. 72
[ii] Newspaper Vietnamese laws, April 4th 2007
[iii] Meditations of JB de La Salle for time of Retreat, 193, 2
[iv] Rule of the Christian Brothers, art. 11
[v] Idem, art. 141
[vi] John Johnston, Pastoral Lette 1999, p. 29
[vii] Idem
[viii] Idem, p. 30
[ix] Idem
[x] Nicollas Capelle, I want to go to your school! The Lasallian Pedagogy in XX e, Salvator, 2006, p. 160
[xi] Translated from English by Nguyen Van Tan.
[xii] Mrs Didi Sudesh, an indian woman, 65, travelled about 76 countries only to help people to discover and recover the potential force in everyone in order to get a life more confident in oneself and more optimist.
[xiii] Prayer for the 44th General Chapter.