2020-04-17 GENERAL HOUSE

What teaching does COVID-19 bring to us as Marists? (2)

COVID-19 is a global challenge which mainly affects the most vulnerable. The Marist Institute, a global charismatic family that works to accompany thousands of children and young people in their educational journey, is actively involved with educators and students at this very special time.

We invited the superior of the Marist Administrative Units to share with us what they are learning with such a situation.

Read here more about the COVID-19.


Br. Pat McNamara – United States

We Marists are reminded to place our confidence in Mary’s care and protection in this crisis as we do in other challenges and anxieties that confront us.  Our simple brotherhood endures in spite of our physical isolation; we are still together to support and encourage each other in new ways.  And after this crisis, we will be together in better days and ways.


Br. CanĂ­sio JosĂ© Willrich – District of Asia

What we are experiencing and seeing around the world is hard to describe. This pandemic is changing the world permanently, and so it can be for us brothers and lay. It makes me rethink about what truly is a “life or death”, and beckons reflection on fundamental issues of humankind, and see it more from the Divine perspective.

In this painful time, Easter comes with its full meaning, perhaps now more than ever. In the scriptures we see what Jesus did in such situations of suffering and darkness, and finally after three days in his “locked in”, light emerged! Hope became alive!

Comes to me the call of the general chapter: “To be a beacon of light and hope in this turbulent world.”


Br. Robert Thunus – West Central Europe

Faced with this situation, we can feel helpless and powerless. Nevertheless, I believe that it is a privileged opportunity to develop two attitudes: fraternity and prayer. In this way we can spread another contagion, that of kindness.

As Pope Francis emphasised in recent days, “
 it is together that we shall come out of this situation, moving forward with hope”. I think of all the little gestures of care that we can show to each other, looking to a new way of living with those close to us: fellow Brothers, family, friends, colleagues, the young people in our care. We can also do this from a distance, using modern means of communication – telephone, e-mail, Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.

Reach out to others, ignoring self, simply to show an interest, to listen, to encourage
 It is also taking the time to contact someone who is alone and needs support
 It is creating a re-laxed and calm climate, with sometimes a touch of humour. It is stressing the positive that I see, even in the media, in the acts of solidarity that people are capable of
 It is a way of “rubbing elbows” during a time of trial, a way of living “with a little more love than usual” as Francis Cabrel sings.


Br. BenĂȘ Oliveira – Brasil Sul-AmazĂŽnia

Ir. Bene Oliveira - Maristas Brasil Centro-Sul

I believe that the most important lesson we can learn from our suffering the danger of coronavirus pandemic should be the trial of replacing fear by hope. I greatly appreciate the message Cardinal Tolentino Mendonça, in charge of the Apostolic Archives and of the Vatican Library, gives us in his book “The strength of hope — the hands that support the soul of the world”.*  He tells us that we need hands, religious and non-religious hands, holding the soul of the world. He means people who testify that hope is the very first global prayer of our century, able to save humankind.

We can conclude that our keeping the quarantine restrictions must be seen as an opportunity, as a gift, as a new time for us to overcome fear, to increase hope and to meet again people as a community, as a common home, as a global family. According to our XXII General Chapter, it is time to “move away from a culture shaped by ‘ego-s’ and adopt that of the ‘eco-s’ (ecology, ecosystems, an economy of solidarity, 
) to reduce the scandal of indifference and inequality”.

Let us remember that Saint Marcellin Champagnat experienced that kind of attitude in a high degree when he had to stimulate his Brothers in the hard first times of the foundation of our Institute. Think of the 1830 Revolution when he faced a group of soldiers in l’Hermitage. He simply said to his Brothers, “Don’t be afraid“, as an echo to Jesus’ words to his disciples “In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world”  (John, 16, 33).

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