A 65-year Christian Brother legacy is celebrated

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

There is a daily, 20-minute block of instruction at Christian Brothers School in City Park that, in essence, is a homily lived out through the life of Christian Brother John Mai.

The middle-school boys come to the chapel, where Brother John, who also plays the flute and other instruments, talks to the students about living as a Christian.

“In the chapel, I try to encourage my students to become good Christians, good children in their family and good people throughout society,” Brother John said Aug. 24 before a Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church celebrating the Christian Brothers for their 65 years of service at the school.

More than smarts

“To be smart is not good enough. We must learn to be nice to other people. I teach them to respect each other, to love each other. We must be peacemakers. God wants us to be peacemakers.”

Brother John, 75, is one of three Christian Brothers still living at the City Park campus – Brother Laurence Konersmann, 80; and Brother Gale Condit, 82, are the others. 

Those three men will continue to live at the school until the end of the academic year in May 2025, when Brother Gale and Brother John will relocate to the brothers’ community at St. Paul’s School in Covington, and Brother Laurence will retire to the congregation’s residence in Napa, California.

Brother Laurence and Brother John still serve at the school. Brother Laurence is the longest-tenured Christian Brother to serve at Christian Brothers School. He joined the faculty in 1967 and has missed only one semester (for a 100-day retreat) and the COVID year of 2020, when he relocated temporarily to Napa.

“As you can probably expect, I have mixed feelings,” said Brother Laurence, who founded the school’s highly decorated Academic Games team in 1978 and has taught religion, science and math. “I’m sad I’m leaving, but I’m anxious to get to California. I’ve gone through so many hurricanes, and I get nervous every hurricane season.”

Brother Laurence said he enjoys seeing his students grasp a difficult concept after struggling with it for a few days.

“I love that light going on in the kids’ eyes and they start to understand,” he said.

Brother Gale has been engaged in work with the San Francisco-New Orleans Lasallian Christian Brothers Foundation.

“It’s a little bittersweet, but on the other hand, three of us are getting up in age,” Brother Gale said.

Doug Moreau, a literature teacher since 1998, said the brothers always made lay teachers feel welcome.

“They call us lay partners, and they’ve opened their doors for us and embraced us,” Moreau said.

Moreau also is the unofficial school historian. He said 22 Christian Brothers are buried at St. 
Patrick Cemetery No. 3. 

[email protected]