Assistant Director of the Secretariat ?Brothers Today?

The General Council has appointed Br Tony León, of the Province of Australia, assistant director of the Secretariat “Brothers Today”. From the beginning of this year, Br Tony forms part of the Secretariat team, composed of the Director, Br César Rojas, and the Br Councillors Eugène Kabanguka, Ernesto Sánchez and Josep Maria Soteras. The Secretariat can also count on the collaboration of an international team, which met for the first time last July. This group is composed of Brs Hipólito Pérez, James Pinheiro, Daniel O’Riordan, Juan Carlos Fuertes, Norbert Mwila, Albert Nzabonaliba, Saul Placious, Peter Rodney and Jean Marie Batick.

A reflective biography: Br Tony Leon

I was born on 9 May 1962 in the city of Hong Kong. At the age of 6, my father Raymond, bravely sacrificed much comfort and security to move to the new land of Australia with a new job with less pay.  However, this move to a new culture accessed greater opportunities for his nursing wife, Helen and for the three young children, Tony, Richard and Angela.

Educated by Marist brothers since Grade 5, I graduated secondary education at Marcellin College, Randwick.  After leaving school, the invitation of work in the hospitality industry attracted me, yet, after several months of training and placement, I was disillusioned by what had attracted me in the first place and felt called to another form of hospitality: to be brother for others.

I entered the Postulancy in 1981 and took my first vows in 1983 and made my full profession in 1990.

I have been blessed with a rich variety of ministry from Primary School Education to Coordinating senior students; Dormitory supervision in boarding school and residential care for youths at risk.  From 2007, I worked in Vocation and Marist Life Ministry, which graced me with working with our young people throughout Australia in school presentations, senior student retreats, leadership camps and post school ministries.  In 2013, I joined the Sydney Marist Mission and Life Formation team, who worked with faith formation of our Marist colleagues.

Now in 2014, I find myself similar to what my dad experienced 45 years ago.  That is, the call of a compelling invitation to a new land, which demands the awkward forfeit of familiar faces and assuring language to embrace something different for the sake of greater possibility for growth.  It is with such uneasy excitement and enthusiasm that I enter into this new role in the ‘Brothers Today’ Secretariat.  I pray that the lesson of my father’s courage to move into foreign territory for the sake of new life will echo in 2014, in advancing the good work already established in the Brothers Today Secretariat towards greater opportunities.