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THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE OBLATE BROTHER

Pope John Paul II to the 1986 Oblate General Chapter:  “Be vigilant also to call not only to Oblate missionary life in priestly ministry but equally to the well prepared and very precious service of Oblate Brother.”

Jean  Bernard Ferrand is not a “household name” in the annals of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.  Most would not know who he was or how significant he was in Oblate history.  Yet he holds the honored position of having been the first Oblate to pronounce vows as a Brother … in 1828 … ten years after the first Oblate Rule was penned by St. Eugene de Mazenod.

The invitation for Jean Ferrand to join the Oblate community was not some sort of afterthought of St. Eugene de Mazenod, the Oblate Founder.  In fact, since the Founder wanted the Oblates to replace and imitate the older Orders, he seemed to assume that there would be Brothers in the community.  They are mentioned already in the 1818 Rule.

Yet the role of the Brother has undergone much transformation and development in the course of the centuries, not only within the Oblates but in the Church as a whole.

A number of contemporary vocations web sites define the Brother’s vocation in these words: 

The religious brother is a man who chooses to live the brotherhood of Jesus with all people, particularly those suffering, oppressed or who are in special need of compassion and love. Therefore, being Brother means working among people in ministries of service which encourage and empower individuals to develop their human potential and which also support them in creating environments where justice, hope, peace, understanding and unity are signs of how people can live in harmony as brothers and sisters.

Contrast that definition with one found in an early 20^th century edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia: 

Religious occupied solely with manual labor and with the secular affairs of a monastery or friary. … Lay brothers are now to be found in most of the religious orders. They are mostly pious and laborious persons, usually drawn from the working classes of the community who, while unable to attain to the degree of learning requisite for Holy orders, are yet drawn to the religious life and able to contribute by their toil to the prosperity of the house or order of their vocation.

What a difference the past 30 to 40 years have made in the understanding and practice of the Brother’s vocation.

When the United States Oblates came together in 1999 to form a new province, it was clear that the history of Brothers in all five of the former provinces had taken many diverse turns.  Expectations of Brothers, their recruitment, their formation, the nature of their assignments, and even their living conditions have varied from one part of the country to another and from one era to another.  Even the way they might view themselves (e.g. in the way they dress or refer to themselves) still varies from one place to another. 

This variety of expectations and experiences is true in all parts of the Oblate world and throughout Oblate history.  Fr. William Woestman, OMI, wrote, as his dissertation for a doctorate in Canon Law, The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, A Clerical Religious Congregation with Brothers (1984).  In it, he gives an interesting history of the Brothers in the Oblate Congregation.  It is noteworthy that questions about the identity, the responsibilities, the attire, and even the title of the Brothers has been discussed by many and on the agenda of General Chapters for over 150 years.

Just in the past 50 years the way Oblates named the Brothers has changed: “Lay Brothers,” “Coadjutor Brothers,” “Oblate Brothers,” and simply “Brothers.” 

Many of the Brothers currently active in the United States Province and who joined the Oblates 40-50 years ago were expected to assist in the mission of the community by taking care of “domestic” chores: gardening, maintenance, bookkeeping, running printing presses, driving school buses, etc.  Until the late 1960’s, even their formation was significantly different from that of other candidates.  They had their own “Little Office of the Blessed Virgin” and in some houses, they sat at their own table in the dining room and even had their own chapel and rec hall.  In formation communities, priesthood candidates were told not to fraternize with the Brothers.  How ironic, given the etymology of the word “fraternize!”

Times have changed.  Not only did Vatican II lead to major new insights into the nature of religious life, the priesthood, and the Brotherhood (in the universal Church and in the Oblate congregation) but there have joined us as Brothers men who have obtained advanced degrees and who have been able to take on roles much more directly linked to traditional ministries of the Church.  While some Brothers still make generous and loving contributions in domestic services in various communities, there are others who are administering “priestless parishes, ” coordinating various Oblate ministries, and leading retreat house teams.  Some have served on Provincial Councils in the former provinces.

Key to our mutual understanding of the role of Brothers today is a significant article in the Oblate Constitutions: 

C 7. As priests and Brothers, we have complementary responsibilities in evangelizing.

 Rule 7c  clarifies and makes more explicit the Brother’s role: 

Oblate Brothers share in the common priesthood of Christ. They are called to cooperate in their own way in reconciling all things in him. Through their religious consecration, they offer a particular witness to a life inspired by the Gospel.

 

 Brothers participate in the missionary work of building up the Church everywhere, especially in those areas where the Word is first being proclaimed.  Missioned by the Church, their technical, professional or pastoral service, as well as the witness of their life, constitute their ministry of evangelization.

The roles of a priest and a Brother are not interchangeable.  Nevertheless, both priest and Brother are called to be embodiments of the same Oblate charism.

Brothers, exercising their baptismal participation in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, collaborate with Oblate priests and the lay faithful in the mission of the Oblates.  Oblate priests, exercising not only their baptismal participation in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, but also their further participation in that unique Priesthood through Holy Orders, collaborate with their Oblate Brothers and with the lay faithful in the mission of the Oblates. 

That mission is the total evangelization of the poor.  The Oblate mission, in itself, helps to define what the late Superior General,  Fr. Marcello Zago called, in 1992, “The Priestly Character of the Congregation.”  (OMI  Documentation #185) 

He states: “For us the priority of proclamation is a consequence that flows from the priestly character of the Congregation, according to the manner and example of the Apostles whom the original Rule presents as our first fathers.  Through the activity of the Sprit and its acceptance in faith, the Word constitutes Christian communities and attains it fullness in the celebration of the Eucharist.  Establishing and caring for Christian communities are not opposed to evangelization but are a consequence thereof.” (p. 7)

Evangelization does not, in other words, reach its fullness until a Christian community is formed around the altar at the liturgy of the Eucharist, “the source and summit” of all Christian life.  Evangelization is not complete until the Priestly People offers to the Father the unique sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in conjunction with and through the ministry of the ordained priest.

Oblate Brothers, collaborating with Oblate priests and the Lay Faithful, help fulfill Christ’s call to total evangelization.

Furthermore, the Brother has the special vocation of giving witness to the fact that all are called to a common “brotherhood” in Jesus Christ.

The 1986 Oblate General Chapter pointed out this cultural reality regarding the  Brother’s vocation: “In our world, which is sometimes hostile to the  Church and careful to keep its distance from the institutional Church and from those who exercise authority over it Oblate Brothers will often have a gospel influence which the priest could not have.” (Missionaries in Today’s World #50)

It is no wonder, therefore, that the late Superior General, Fr. Fernand Jetté, OMI, reminded the Oblates of the need to continue to foster the Brother’s vocation in the worldwide Oblate Congregation: “Not to show an interest in such a vocation (Brotherhood), not to foster such a vocation, would bring upon the Congregation an impoverishment and would constitute a failure in fidelity to correspond to our history as well as to the grace of God.”   

by Fr. James Allen, OMI

THE BROTHERS OF THE UNITED STATES PROVINCE