All Brothers Meeting

The role of Brothers within the life of the People of God is not well understood and the Hospitaller Order of St John of God played an important role in promoting a Vatican statement on “The Identity and Mission of the Religious Brothers in the Church”.  Consequently, members of the Order belong to “Tutti Fratelli” which is a group of Religious Brothers in Rome.  They come from a number of different congregations of Brothers.

Recently, the 3rd Meeting of Religious Brothers, organised by the “Tutti Fratelli” Group, took place in Rome.  Amongst the 64 Brothers from 35 different countries belonging to 14 Congregations who took part in the meeting were St John of God Brothers Leopold Faye from Senegal, Eric Folly from Togo, Elias Reales from Argentina and Yimer Rodriguez from Colombia.

Discussions at the meeting focused on the words of Pope Francis to the effect that “Jesus is calling us to die to our selfishness, our individualism and our pride,” which will enable us to allow “the spirit of brotherhood to triumph, a spirit in which everyone can feel loved because they are understood, accepted and appreciated for their dignity”.

Reporting on the meeting our Brothers tell us that there was a wide-spread agreement that the vocation of the Brothers is part of the response which God is making to fill the lack of a sense of brotherhood which is damaging our world today.