In the context of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the Bull of Approbation of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Universidad La Salle Victoria, in Mexico, has launched an exhibition commemorating this important milestone, when “in 1725, the small Society made up at that time of barely 100 Brothers, distributed in 22 communities in France and with one Brother in Rome, received official recognition from the Catholic Church from the hands of the Pope of the time, Benedict XIII, by means of a Bull entitled: In apostolicae dignitatis solio“.
This was explained by Brother Diego Muñoz in his speech at the launching of the exhibition, which was attended by a large group of Lasallians including Brother Guillermo García López, President of the University.
“The exhibition we have prepared to celebrate this event offers, through eight panels, basic information about the historical process lived by the Brothers, firstly, with John Baptist de La Salle, their father and founder, and then, secondly, by the Superiors of the Institute who had assumed responsibility for the future of the schools and the communities once De La Salle had departed to the Father’s House”.
In fact, as Brother Diego has detailed, “when De La Salle died in 1719, the Brothers did not yet have legal recognition allowing them to own property and administer resources as a Society with legal personality”. Faced with this situation, Brother Timothy, the second Superior of the Institute, began in 1721 to take steps to obtain pontifical approval.
In his dissertation, Br Diego referred to various conditions of the time that had to be overcome before King Louis XV of France granted Letters Patent to the nascent Institute in 1724, “This circumstance greatly helped the Brothers to obtain from the new Pope Benedict XIII the Bull of Approbation the following year, in 1725”, he added.
Well-deserved recognition
With this background, Brother Diego invited people to visit the exhibition which “aims to display some key moments in this pathway of recognition of the discreet and humble work of the Brothers, constituted as a community of lay people consecrated to education and evangelisation, in schools for the poor of the time”.
Three centuries later, the work has spread throughout the world, in a “dynamic lived in association and fidelity to the God of life“, taking part in which more than 92,000 educators serve more than 1,5 million students in almost eighty countries.
During the launch event, Brother Diego expressed special thanks “to Maestro Amando Aguayo, who with his art helped us in the adaptation of this exhibition born at the Generalate in Rome“.
“Finally, we thank God and so many men and women who over three hundred years have allowed us to dream of the power of the school to transform the world. May this exhibition be a small tribute to all of them,” he concluded.
