A Brother is a man who has dedicated himself to God and the Church by deciding to join a group of men who have the same goals as he does. When a Brother joins a Congregation of Brothers he takes the vows of Poverty, Celibacy and Obedience. By doing so he is a vowed, lay man called to Brotherhood for the mission of the Church.There are many different groups of Brothers in the United States. Right here, in Bergen County, there are a number of different Congregations: the Brothers of the Christian Schools who taught at Paramus Catholic Boys’ High School, the Xaverian Brothers teach at St. Joseph’s, in Montvale, and the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers teach here at Bergen Catholic High School.

But teaching is not the only thing that Brothers do in the United States. Some serve in hospitals, orphanages, AIDS patients or Social Services. The common denominator for all Brothers, however, is that they serve the people of God wherever they are found.

A Brother is unlike a Priest as he does not serve in a Parish nor does he receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. A Brother is not a “cleric”, but rather is considered a “lay man” by the Church since he does not receive Holy Orders.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers who serve here at at Bergen Catholic High School are part of what is called a province. A Province usually serves a special area. For example, the province in which Bergen Catholic is located is known as the Eastern American Province. From this you can tell that it serves in the eastern part of the United States. In this Eastern American Province there are a number of communities, or places where Brothers live and work. In this province we have many communities of Brothers. These communities are located in the following areas: Rhode Island – 1; Massachusetts – 1; New York – 17; New Jersey – 1; Florida – 4; and Peru – 5. You are probably asking yourself: Peru is not part of the Eastern United States, so why are the Brothers there? A number of years ago the Holy Father, Pope Paul VI, asked all Religious Congregations (of both men and women) to send members of their communities to Mission areas of the world. We decided that there was a need for the presence of the Brothers in Peru and have been working in that country since 1967. Presently there are 350 communities of Christian Brothers working in 13 different Provinces throughout the world working in different ministries in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Cook Islands, England, Fiji Islands, Gambia, India, Ireland, Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Liberia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of South America, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, West Indies and Zambia.

In 1954, The Most Reverend Thomas A. Boland, STD, DD, Archbishop of Newark, invited the Christian Brothers into this Archdiocese to open and staff Bergen Catholic.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers was founded in Ireland in 1802, although the work of education was started by Edmund, and his associates, in the latter part of the 18th century.

Edmund Rice