I.         AT THE SERVICE OF THE CHILD AND OF YOUTH - By Philippe Richard¹ and Br. Othmar Würt

A History

In Mr De La Salle’s day there was no talk of “Human Rights”, and still less “Rights of the Child”. In the language of the time there was an idea of particular attention to the poor. Such attention was fleshed out in observing the realities of XVIIth century society. Everyone knows that this society suffered from very great social inequality, an inequality of which proof lay in the catalogue of complaints drawn up in the following century, a few years before the great Revolution of 1789. John Baptist De La Salle’s special concern for the poor denotes a spiritual attitude first of all. It emphasises the strong, loving regard for a section of the population which was in need. Today we would say that it is “humanitarian”, meaning that it is interested in humanity in distress. In this respect, it is following the Christian tradition of love of one’s neighbour, which is itself an image of God: “what you do to the least among you, you do it to me”. It also reveals the Lasallian spirituality of relationships with oneself, God, others which one is aware of in the formula “Faith, Service, Fraternity”. Special concern for the poor is no more nor less than a mission which does not arise out of us, but is “a gift of God”. Deep concern for the poor does not come by itself. We need to be called in various ways, to rub shoulders with the poor, and going so far as to dare, gradually, to be immersed in the world of the poor. This is precisely what John Baptist De La Salle did. This step, spread over a period, caused it to become for him not only an intellectual fact, but a moral obligation of conscience as well.