Lasallian visit

Last Monday and Tuesday, we were visited by three people from the Lasallian Christian Brothers District of Eastern North America:

The visiting team with Mr. Mailloux '72

• Mrs. Maryann Donohue-Lynch, associate executive director of Mission and Ministry
• Bro. Robert Hazard, FSC, Lasallian Christian Brother from Providence, RI
• Mr. Ben Ventresca, former board chair at LaSalle College High School 

The three were visiting Trinity High School as part of our application to re-associate with the Christian Brothers.  As you may recall, we applied for association in June after many years of discussions with the brothers and their leadership.  This is a very exciting moment for me personally as I am confident it will invigorate our already dynamic Catholic identity.  It will also give our teachers and students a charism, that is, a spirituality, that is solely focused on Catholic education and human formation.  It is also a return to our roots as Trinity and two of our predecessor schools were founded and operated by the Christian Brothers.  It is important to note that we will remain a diocesan school and Bishop Libasci and our superintendent, Fr. John Fortin, OSB, are enthusiastically supportive of our application.

The group arrived in Manchester on Sunday afternoon (although Ben experienced flight delays and didn't get into Manchester until close to midnight).  They arrived at Trinity around 7:45am on Monday and began an intense two days of meetings with students, faculty, and parents.  They began their day by meeting with me and our principal Mr. Mailloux '72 and were then given a student-led tour of the school.  The three then broke up and met with various constituencies in the school.  They met with students involved in Campus Ministry and our mission trips, all department chairs, all of the various directors and administrators, the theology department, our advisory board, and a group of parents.  They also sat in on some classes and watched our choir practice for our Mass that was being held later that week.

The group wrapped up their time with us on Tuesday afternoon with a nice discussion with the administration and me about their observations and initial thoughts.  They gave some wonderful feedback on the community the school has, the strong Catholic mission and academic program, and our amazing students.  It was very affirming.

The next step is Mrs. Donohue-Lynch will compose a report and present it to the district's Mission Executive Council which meets this week.  If they agree to move forward, we will then begin a 3-year discernment process by which we both will decide if association is indeed a good fit for both sides.  We will take part in their formation programs, we will have formation for our faculty and staff, we will begin introducing Lasallian history, spirituality, and pedagogy into our school, etc.  She said that we are the first school to apply for re-association, that is, a former Christian Brothers school looking to come back to the fold!

It is quite an exciting moment for our school and we pray for the intercession of St. John Baptist de la Salle that God's will be done!