MIAMI
| Although he died more than 50 years ago, the good works of Lasallian Brother
Victorino Arnaud Pages continue to yield fruit in Miami.
Photographer: JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC
A bust of the venerable Brother Victorino de la Salle was unveiled at a ceremony at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami Feb. 9. Members of the group Accion Catolica Cubana en el Exilio and alumni of Brothers of the Christian Schools (Lasallians) in Cuba were present for the celebration. Brother Victorino was a Lasallian brother who founded Acción Católica in Cuba. His cause for canonization is underway.
For
that reason, exiled members of Cuba’s Catholic Action (Acción Católica Cubana) and
alumni of the Brothers of the Christian Schools — better known as Lasallians — in Cuba gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of
Charity Feb. 9 to unveil a bust of their founder and teacher, who has been
declared venerable by the Vatican.
Father
Fernando Hería, rector of the Shrine, blessed the bust in the presence also of
Lasallian Brother Rodolfo Meoli, postulator of the order’s canonization causes,
who came from Rome for the occasion.
After
the unveiling ceremony, those present celebrated Mass at the shrine to mark the
anniversary of the foundation in Havana — by Brother Victorino — of Cuba’s Catholic
Action, which took place Feb. 11, 1928. Catholic Action was an island-wide lay movement
for youths, university students, laborers and eventually married couples. Its
goal was to form them in the faith and move them to Christian action in society.
A
few days earlier, in Homestead, Brother Meoli took part in another celebration
that demonstrated the reach of Brother Victorino’s legacy as a great evangelizer of Cuba's youths.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Signing the papers that transfer the La Salle Educational Center's relationship from the Lasallians' Antilles-Mexico South district to the Eastern North America district, from left: Brother Pedro Alvarez Arena, Brother Rafael Ceron Castillo, Brother Dennis Lee and Alan Weyland, director of mission for the Lasallians in Eastern North America.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Posing after the ceremony, from left: Lasallian Brother Dennis Lee, superior of the Eastern North America district; Brother Rodolfo Meoli, general postulator for the Lasallian Brothers, visiting from Rome; and Monica Lauzurique, director of the La Salle Educational Center.
The
center serves low-income families who work in the agricultural fields of
southern Miami-Dade County. It cares for children after school as well as on
school holidays and during the summer, helping them with homework while
providing them with extracurricular classes in art, science, computers and even
sewing. It also provides them with opportunities to play sports, receive vocational
training and religious instruction.
The
center offers their parents English, computer and parenting classes as well as information
on health and nutrition.
“This
center is a dream,” said Father José Joaquín Espino, who spearheaded the center’s
founding more than 25 years ago. At the time, he was pastor of St. Ann Mission in Homestead, looking for a way to reach out and provide catechesis to the families
in the area, most of them agricultural workers from Mexico.
He
asked for help, and the ones who responded were the exiled alumni of the Lasallian
schools in Cuba. As a child, Father Espino had briefly studied at a Lasallian
school on the island before fleeing Cuba with his family.
“It’s
a dream that flowered from the Lasallian spirit,” said the priest, who is now
pastor of San Lazaro Church in Hialeah and president of the center’s board. The
goal of that spirit, or charism, is “the formation, the education of young
people that they might have a bright future, and a future full of hope,” he added.
The
center’s relationship with the Eastern North America district, which began Jan.
1 of this year, is a nod to geographic reality. At the same time, it’s a formal
commitment to continue educating the students in the Lasallian tradition and spirit.
That
will benefit not only the center but St. John Paul II Academy in Boca Raton,
until now the southernmost extension of the Lasallians’ Eastern North America
district. The high school’s students will have opportunities to visit the
center and help with its programs, thus familiarizing themselves with the families
— and the realities of life — of agricultural workers.
The
center also adds diversity to the 32 ministries associated with the Lasallians
of Eastern North America, which include 20 high schools, two universities and
several San Miguel middle schools serving 26,000 young people. The La Salle Educational
Center is their first association with an after-school program.
“You
are helping us break new ground together,” said Brother Dennis Lee, superior
for the District of Eastern North America.
Photographer: JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC
Father Fernando E. Hería, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, blesses with holy water the newly unveiled bust of the venerable Brother Victorino de la Salle.