LASALLIAN STUDIES NO. 18 The Fragile Hope of a Witness The Itinerary of Brother Michel Sauvage (1923-2001) Michel Sauvage, FSC and Miguel Campos, FSC With the collaboration of Robert Comte, FSC Paul Grass, FSC Diego Muñoz, FSC BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS ROME 2014 © Brothers of the Christian Schools International Council on Lasallian Research and Resources Lasallian Studies No. 18 Via Aurelia, 476 00165 Rome, Italy Translation: José Martínez, FSC Paul Grass, FSC Léon Lauraire, FSC Cover and illustration: José David Berbesí Botero, FSC Layout: Luigi Cerchi ISBN: 978-99920-70-08-6 DL: AND.173-2014 Published by: Publicacions Universitat Oberta La Salle Av. del Través 31, L A-2 AD400 La Massana, Andorra You can access the digital books published by La Universitat Oberta La Salle at: publications.uols.org The editor and publisher are not liable or responsible for the accuracy or completeness of any information provided in this book and we assume no liability or responsibility for any damages arising from the use of this book. By accessing the information in this book, you agree that the editor and publisher shall not be liable to you for any loss or injury caused in procuring, compiling, or delivering the information. The editor and publisher are not respon- sible for anything whatsoever on internet sites that the book links to or provides links to and its use is entirely responsibility of the user. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives International Public License 3.0. 300th anniversary of the Letter of the Principal Brothers to John Baptist de La Salle Paris, April 1, 1714 For the celebration of the 45th General Chapter of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools Rome, Generalate, May 2014 I was not attentive enough to those near me who were hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, and naked. I do not know how to love enough. I surrender myself to the infinite mercy that I infinitely need. I ask those whom I disappointed in any way to pray for me when they think of the harm I did to them. I wish those of my family and friends who survive me to understand that only love matters, that is to say, forgetfulness of self, the true gift to others, forgiveness. Having known illness, I want to thank the doctors and the nurses —especially the staff of the community of Saint Jean at Annappes— who supported me in the fight for life. They were close and effective signs that our God is the God of life who heals and who saves. At this moment when I take up my life to give it to the Father, a humble offering united with the Passover of his Son, I wish to reaffirm my faith in the human, the image of God. I wish to express my joy in having shared the human condition here below. In this period of creation in which we see the first outlines of a new world, a child-bearing with all its promises and risks, but threatened by the fascination of the powers of death, I declare my hope in the ultimate victory of the God of Life. Words of welcome, read at the funeral of Brother Michel Sauvage, Annappes, March 28, 2001 Letter of Presentation In the year 2000, when I was elected Superior General, I thanked a num- ber of Brothers from various Districts and Regions who had been part of my life at different stages. Among them I expressly mentioned Brother Michel Sauvage, who introduced me to the passionate itinerary of the Founder. Now, at the end of my term in the ministry of leadership that the Lord, in his mysterious designs, has confided to me through the inter- mediary role of my Brothers, I thought that the book you have in your hands would be the best gift that I could give to the Brothers at the General Chapter of 2014 and to all Brothers and lay Lasallians. The book’s title expresses its purpose, to relate the itinerary of Brother Michel from 1923 to 2001—in other words, the most recent stage of our own history, about which we already have at least some insights. This book recalls the memory of the Spirit’s passage in the life of one of our Brothers and invites us to a personal reading that recognizes the Lord’s presence in our own itineraries. As we face the future, we can understand and live more specifically what it means to be a Brother today, beginning with our own experience, as Brother Michel did in his life, of the fragile hope that inspires and sustains us in faith and in our association for the educational service and the evangelization of poor children and, with them, other children and young people. I am convinced that reading this book will allow us to understand more clearly the Institute’s history in recent decades, based not on theory but on a life marked by hopes and by crises, a life that, as Brother Michel himself points out, is necessarily seen from a subjective viewpoint that cannot be impartial, for it has not yet passed the test of time. “Reread this page of history that is mine”. What a beautiful invitation it is to take another look at our own history in this time of transition that we are experiencing. This book is not only a history to be recalled; these pages also share the profound wisdom of a man who wanted, with his limits and his weak- 6 LETTER OF PRESENTATION nesses, to live authentically the life of a Brother, always aspiring for some- thing more in an attitude of continual discernment of reality in the light of the Word. This wisdom, born in his native France and strengthened by his respon- sibilities as Brother Assistant and at the International Lasallian Center (CIL), expands to a worldwide dimension. History and wisdom, as well as prophecy, are involved, for the insights we can find here invite us to open and to reinvent new paths, creative and incarnate ones, in response to the needs of the poor and in the way we live our lay vocation as Brothers consecrated to the Trinity for the life of the world. We are open to the challenging reality that we are experiencing in union with our lay brothers and sisters through shared association, mission, and spirituality. I wish to express my profound gratitude to Brother Miguel Campos, who brought this narrative of an inspiring itinerary to completion by his inter- views with Michel and by his faithful friendship with him, and to Brothers Paul Grass, Robert Comte, and Diego Muñoz, who together worked effectively as a typical Lasallian team to achieve these results. I also extend my profound gratitude to the community of Brothers at La Salle University, Philadelphia, who welcomed the team during their long work sessions; to Brothers Francis Ricousse and Pierre Petitjean, of the Service of Lasallian Research and Resources at the Generalate, who worked on the research and on the digital production of the basic docu- mentation for this project; to Brother Richard Buccina, Director of the Jeremy House Community in Philadelphia, and to Brother José David Berbesí Botero, of the District of Venezuela, for their artistic contribu- tions to the final design of the book; to Brother José Martínez, for coor- dinating the translations, and to Mr. Luigi Cerchi, of the Communication Service at the Generalate, for the layout of the book. I wish to end this brief presentation by returning to Brother Michel’s recurrent theme during his final years, one that also has accompanied me in my ministry of leadership in the Institute in recent years. I am thinking of what Brother Michel calls fragile hope. I do so while recalling the words of Bernanos at the end of Diary of a Country Priest, which, I can imagine, LETTER OF PRESENTATION 7 Michel would make his own and which I think all of us ought to make our own: “It is easier than you think to hate yourself. Grace means to for- get oneself. But if all pride were dead in us, the greatest grace would be to love oneself humbly, like any other suffering member of Jesus Christ.” 1 Fraternally in De La Salle, Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría Superior General 1 Bernanos, 1954, p. 231. Foreword – A “NARRATIVE” THAT EMERGES FROM A CONVERSATION Brothers Miguel Campos, Robert Comte, Paul Grass and Diego Muñoz This book is one of the last publication projects of Brother Michel Sauvage. During his final years, he spoke of it as Mon Projet. As deter- mined as he was to complete it, he was unable to do so. It is important to note that this project occupied his complete attention from 1997 until his death. Its originality, like its complexity, lies in the method he chose to use in writing it. Fearing that his increasingly unsta- ble health was making it impossible to work at the rhythm and with the passion that he ordinarily devoted to his publications, he turned for assis- tance to Brother Miguel Campos, who suggested that they conduct “interviews” to provide the basic content of the book. The idea was to avoid an extensive research project. Instead, they decided to “narrate” the events, so that in the resulting story, they could interpret the facts by highlighting the essential aspects. As far as possible, they would try to identify the central axis of an experience. The interviews began in 1997 and concluded, at an accelerating pace, after twenty-two sessions.