By Father William J. Byron SJ | Catholic News Service

In the early 1960s, while the Second Vatican Council was still in session, a De La Salle Christian Brother remarked to me, "We're trying to figure out whether the brothers are the taillights of the clergy or the headlights of the laity."

An answer to that question came down these many years later from the Vatican in December 2015 when the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life produced a document on the "Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church."

And the answer is: Forget about the lights -- head or tail -- and focus instead on the spirit of fraternity.

The document makes the important point that "the vocation of the religious brother is, first of all, a Christian vocation." And it adds that the identity and mission of the religious brother is summarized in the concept of fraternity, which is a gift that the religious brother receives from God.

He shares that gift with his brethren in community and offers it to others in the world. Just how that fraternity will be expressed is a matter of choice.

The De La Salle Christian Brothers express it in the schools. They are schoolmasters, great teachers, developers of human potential, who impart learning skills and readiness for career success. Founded by St. John Baptiste de La Salle, who was an ordained priest, none of the LaSallian Christian Brothers is ordained to the priesthood.

Other communities of brothers, notably the Alexian Brothers, care for the sick. Still other religious communities, like the Jesuits, Franciscans, Marists and Marianists, have memberships that include ordained priests and brothers. The brothers tend to take care of practical matters in the community, leaving direct sacramental and spiritual ministries to the ordained.

Retired New Orleans Archbishop Francis Schulte, himself a graduate of a Jesuit prep school and former superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, often remarked, without prejudice in either direction, how much more pleasant it sounded to hear someone say that he was a "Brothers' boy" rather than a "Jesuit product."

The spirit of fraternity in the Christian Brothers' schools carries over into the lives of the students who are being educated there. Although it is also true that an observable "spirit of brotherhood" characterizes many of the Jesuit prep schools around the world.

Just as the world today surely stands in need of more love and considerate care, it is clear that there is room in the ranks of all men's religious communities for more brothers.

The appearance of a 50-page Vatican document on the identity and mission of religious brothers -- better late than never -- is an acknowledgement that the church should be speaking out more clearly and more often not only on the need for more brothers, but on the dignity and intrinsic value of this special vocation.

Jesuit Father Byron is university professor of business and society at St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia. Email: [email protected].