Profile of a Religious Brother in Rhode Island: Brother John
Brother John Norton, F.S.C.
(From the De La Salle Christian Brothers)
What an inspiration. Whether working or counseling students at Ocean Tides, Tides Family Services or ruminating on his favorite topic, the Boston Red Sox, Brother John Norton, F.S.C., at a young 83 years of age looks like he could put on a baseball cap, grab a glove and play today.
Brother John still works full time. At Ocean Tides in Narragansett his devotion to teaching and working with disadvantaged and adjudicated youth is unparalled. Essentially, Ocean Tides is a residential/educational program for boys who are in trouble with the law. They are referred to the program by the courts instead of being incarcerated. Brother John works with the boys, counsels them and goes to court with them as their court liaison.
Brother John also works at Tides Family Services, a program for young men and women from difficult family situations. There, he works mostly with the families, also doing counseling.
Born in Milford, MA in 1922, he served his country in the US Air Force. Brother John has been a disciple of Christ for over 45 years as a De La Salle Christian Brother.
Well educated, Brother John received his undergraduate degree from Catholic University of America. He also has two Masters Degrees from St. John’s University and Manhattan College.
In forty-five years he has served at Tides Family Services, Ocean Tides, St. Bernard’s High School, La Salle Academy, Mater Christi High School and Bishop Loughlin High School.
Brother John came from a family of eight and, if his parents were alive today, both would have smiles from ear to ear. Manny, watch out! Brother John is still in town and he doesn’t want to be traded.
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Siempre Hay Esperanza – There’s Always Hope A Profile of Brother Charles Kitson
Brother Charles Kitson, who graduated from CBA in 1966, today lives and works in one of Providence’s toughest neighborhoods, a largely Hispanic area of the Rhode Island capital, riddled with crime, drugs and extreme poverty. He works to make a difference in the lives of the people there.
As a member of the teaching order founded by St. John Baptist de la Salle, Brother Charles is committed to ministering to the poor, a mission that gives his life real purpose. The ministry of giving “a human and Christianeducation to the young, especially the poor,” has been a central focus for the Brothers of the Christian Schools for more than three centuries.
In Providence, Brother Charles works at this ministry in two jobs simultaneously.
Passionate about his work as coordinator of the Latino Outreach Program at Tides Family Services, a Rhode Island social service agency run by the Christian Brothers, he is also a social worker at the San Miguel School in Providence.
Brother Charles with students from the San Miguel School in Providence, R.I.
Addressing the needs of many of Rhode Island’s most at-risk children, Tides Family Services works with theneediest youths and their families to promote family preservation and youth support through outreach, tracking, home visits, education, court advocacy and other non-traditional services. One of Brother Charles’s major responsibilities at Tides is counseling young people in prison, some who have committed horribly violent crimes. He also leads three support groups for adults dealing withvarious life challenges, such as grief over the death of a child lost to homicide. As well, he works with abused children, and with youth involved with drugs and gangs.
“Brother Charles’s faith and his belief in Jesus empower him to carry out the work that he does every day,” said CBA’s Brother Ralph Montedoro, who has been a friend of Brother Charles since the two first met during their initial year at the De La Salle Christian Brothers’ novitiate in Barrytown, N.Y.
After making his vows, Brother Charles joined about 200 other young Brothers at De La Salle College, the Christian Brothers’ scholasticate at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He majored in Spanish literature, spending his junior year summer working with the Christian Brothers in Guatemala, where despite hardship and unpleasant working conditions, he “fell in love with the place because of the country’s people.”
Brother Charles was graduated from Catholic University in 1971 and immediately began teaching at St. Raphael Academy, the Christian Brothers’ high school in Pawtucket, R.I. He taught at St. Raphael’s for the next six years, while also completing his master’s degree in communication arts from the University of NotreDame. He began his next assignment, as vocation director at the De La Salle Christian Brothers Center in Narragansett, R.I., in 1971.
By 1983 he found himself at a crossroad. He had been in vocation work for six years and, as he put it,“ I was beginning to get burned out.”
“Brother William Mann [currently the De La Salle Christian Brothers’ assistant superior general in Rome] encouraged me to look for a new ministry that would rekindle the flame and energize me, too,” recalled Brother Charles.“ What took place after that was definitely God’s work. Part of my burnout doing the vocation ministry was that, while I was learning more and more about De La Salle in the founding years, I felt less and less in touch with the charism in my current situation.
“I felt a bit hypocritical inviting others to join an order that championed the poor when I was so comfortable and secure. I felt ‘pushed’ into soul-searching by a God who was saying, ‘OK, Charlie, you’re 34 years old and it’s time to be bold, time to step out, time to listen and time to live more simply among the poor.’ I sensed a call to lead.
“This was new for me since I had always seen myself as a really good and supportive ‘follower.’ I was being called to fashion a response to the same God who called me over 17 years earlier. What took place after that was definitely God’s work.”
When Brother Charles decided in 1983 to undertake the position of coordinator of campus ministry at La Salle Academy in Providence, R.I., he was given the opportunity to renew a failing Christian service program for seniors. As pastoral counselor to nearly 1,000 students, he became the creator of (and lead player in) the nationally acclaimed dramatic troupe “LaSalle Fools,” a group of students who “preached the Gospel through mime, dance, music, special effects and boundless energy to tens of thousands of viewers.”
“Through the mime shows, he would take passages of scripture and make them come alive,” said Brother Ralph.“Charlie was no stick-in- the-mud. He was always fun and a great dancer in the shows, which he used, along with his great spirit, to make the Gospel relevant to life today.
“Everyone knew about ‘Brother Charles Clowning for Jesus.’ [as one of the groups wasnamed.] He had about 30 kids in each show and would use the music of the time to touch the hearts of young and old alike. It was his way to bring kids closer to Christ and it was a success from the start. He also brought his “Lasalle Fools” to CBA for annual performances over the next several years.
Brother Charles put it this way: “I had come from a family of dancers; my father is an exceptionally good dancer. As a young boy, I was often embarrassed to do things but even during my shyest days, I was a good dancer. When I joined the Brothers, it was like, ‘Christian Brothers don’t dance!’ After awhile, I had to say, ‘well, this one does,’ he explained, with a laugh. Teaching brought out the performer in me and when I remembered the words of St. Paul,who said, ‘we need to be fools for Christ’s sake,’ I was willing to look foolish for His sake.
“I started using dance as part of my ministry. I would put together a script and make a 45-minute program and pull kids from all groups — from honor students and varsity athletes, to kids who seemed to be on the edge. I just picked kids to perform, and they learned that they could all work together to produce something really great. When we first performed for the school, we hit the [news] papers and became an instant success. The show became a reflection of what it meant for me to be a Brother.”
Surprisingly, while he was a student at CBA, Brother Charles didn’t perform in any of the school plays. It was not that he didn’t want to, “but I didn’t have the guts then to do something like that.”
“My family was deeply Catholic,”he said. “I went to all Catholic schools. My mother was president ofthe Rosary Society and in fact, my father [Charles Kitson Sr., retired owner of Kitson Chevrolet in Eatontown], was one of the founders of CBA. He was one of the delegation who met with Bishop Ahr to obtain diocesan approval of the planned school in Lincroft.
“He went door-to-door asking for money to get the school off the ground,” said Brother Charles. “He is one of the few surviving members ofthe committee that originally helped to start CBA.”
“The Brothers at CBA believed in me before I believed in myself,” said Brother Charles. “In my early days, I wanted to become a priest. Then I met the Brothers. I thought that they were the greatest. I had never met Brothers before and I was so impressed with their dedication and the sense of community that was there from the start.
“What fascinated me most about them was how they interrelated with each other when they weren’t in front of the classroom. That was the reason I joined. I thought these men who were dedicating themselves to me were just happy, regular guys doing God’s work.”
Through the 1980s, while Brother Charles continued his work as campus minister at Lasalle Academy, he was seriously reflecting on the direction his life was taking. What God enabled me to accomplish at LaSalle Academy paled in comparison to what changed in me as I moved into a turn-of-the-century, ill-repaired, small house in South Providence. Curiously, the street was named Potters Avenue,” Brother Charles recalled, alluding to “Potters’Field,” the traditional name given to burial grounds for indigent people.
“With two other Brothers, we formed a community not only among ourselves but with the people of our neighborhood. Our ‘Potters Community’ became a place of welcome in an extremely poor, drug-ridden and crime-infested area. Walking the streets, talking to neighbors, playing with kids and worshiping in the local parish changed my life forever.
“God transformed me into a new kind of Brother. It was palpable in my prayer, in my heart, and in my daily interactions. I don’t know if it was the original fire rekindled or a brushfire that came out of nowhere. All I know is that I felt seized by a new passion.”
In 1989, things came full circle for Brother Charles when he was walking through the neighborhood with Brother Lawrence Goyette, a seasoned middleschool teacher. They realized the need to start a new kind of school.
“Just like Saint John Baptist de la Salle, who was walking through a poor neighborhood when he had the idea to set up schools where the poor could go and learn, that’s how we walked through the neighborhood and decided to help the poor,” said Brother Charles.
It was largely through the efforts of Brother Lawrence Goyette that the Christian Brothers founded the San Miguel Schools, which exist today in 16 cities across the United States. Named for the Ecuadorian Christian Brother, St. Miguel Febres Cordero, whose extraordinary spirituality, simplicity and devotion to his students led to his canonization in 1984, the San Miguel Schools are small, Lasallian, elementary or middle schools serving a predominantly at-risk population. They are not tuition-driven and are open to all faiths and cultures.
Meanwhile, Brother Charles continued to prayerfully reflect on his own vocation. Following an interval at the Christian Brothers’ spiritual renewal center in Sangre de Cristo, New Mexico, he spent three years living in the village of El Estor in one of the poorest areas in Guatemala —indeed, one of the poorest areas in the world.
There, Brother Charles once again did what he does best — touching the hearts of those in the community by bringing them the gospel. He found his new neighbors “the most generous, loving people you can find, but living with norunning water or electricity, in the most desperate of situations. If the weather is bad one year and the corn does not grow, there is no food. I mean that literally, no food.”
In 1994, Brother Charles was called back to Rhode Island to work at the Tides Social Services Agency and later at the San Miguel School of Providence, which had been established for grades six to eight in 1993. There he continues today. He lives in a residential and spiritual community composed of Brothers and lay Lasallian Volunteers —single people and married couples who live in Lasallian communities and work in the Lasallian ministry for periods of one or more years.
San Miguel 2006 Graduate Chris Sepulveda with Brother Charles.
Asked to comment on the reasons why so few young Catholic men are choosing to become Brothers today, Brother Charles is characteristically positive and forward-looking. ”In many ways it is an exciting time to be a Brother,” he says.”There is new life everywhere, with many lay people who have made commitments to the Lasallian communities. It is a new way of looking at our community life. A commitment to Lasallian spirituality can include not only men who have made lifetime vows, but also young Catholics whose lives may be going in another direction, but who join with us for a time as they proceed on their own spiritual journey.”
Brother Charles is “a man on a mission” — a Lasallian mission. He sees Lasallian spirituality as a spirituality that is “downright practical.” Each day, he and his colleagues pray “to find God in the kids,” and they do.
“We are equal with those we meet,” he believes. “We are at our best when we are serving together. We can bring hope to the poor if only we let ourselves be known. Once we are known by them, we will be needed. Once we recognize their faces and call them by name and open our homes and schools to them, we can’t help but to love them.”
Note: Further information on the LasallianVolunteers can be found at www.cbconf.org (click on “Volunteers.”) and on the San Miguel Schools at www.miguelschools.org. Brother Charles can be reached at brocharleskitson@gmail.com.
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Education Ministry
By Stefanie Gutierrez
Stefanie Gutierrez Photo
YOU CAN DO THIS is the teaching motto of Brother Charles Nuzzo, right,
with two of his students.
“You can do this!” is the classroom motto of the only religious brother left teaching on the elementary school level in the Brooklyn Diocese.
On a recent Thursday morning, Brother Charles Nuzzo, FSC, of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, stands in front of his fifth-grade classroom at St. Gabriel’s, East Elmhurst, and tells his students the plan for the day. He explains that he has a meeting, so the principal, Brother Edward Shields, FSC, will be teaching the morning’s religion class. The students put away their math books and prepare for the change of subjects.
While watching the scene unfold, one can see that Brother Charles has great respect for his classroom, even in the way that he subtly addresses his students.
When first talking with him, he is a little reserved and almost surprised that there is going to be a story written about him. He prefers the article be written about the school or vocations. He is humble.
When asked why he joined the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1983, he sums up his experience in one sentence: “I wanted to be in education, and I wanted to be a brother.” That same year, he was placed at St.
Gabriel’s.
Brother Charles relates, “I think St. Gabriel’s is a special place. I like the way the students and teachers interact. I like the family atmosphere. The teachers are concerned about the students.”
His past 24 years at the school have been peppered with colorful students and different highlights. The two highlights of his career that stand out are also highlights he finds every day that is spent in the classroom.
“When the students learn something from me and I learn something from them… It happens more often than not.”
His second highlight, he says, is “when students who don’t work well or behave well, start to work harder or behave better. I think I must say it a thousand times a day: ‘You can do this.’ And when they do, that is the best.”
Brother Charles speaks of his students with great thought and attention. He doesn’t have to say how much he cares about them; one can see it. “I care about them and what happens to them… Not just as students but their whole lives.” He has had the experience with past students, who have said to him “I appreciate what you did.”
“I have had also the experience of students returning years later to thank me,” he adds.
His hardest obstacle in the classroom is that there are so many distractions in the world today. Also, many parents face the same situation, where they are working hard to provide for their families, and they are busy during the day. He says, “A lot is left up to us.”
Brother Charles relates this to a story about St. John Baptist de La Salle, who founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1680. “His advice to the brothers was that we should be older brothers to our students, but sometimes we have to use the sternness of a father, but the gentleness of a mother.”
As the conversation unfolds from where he is now to how he actually came to the Brothers of the Christian Schools, he talks first about his grandmother. “When she saw me with my younger brothers, my grandmother told me that I’d be a good teacher,” he said, relating the story as if this was when the seed was planted.
He grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, with his father, mother, and three younger brothers. His family, he says, “have always been supportive of me.”
Brother Charles learned from his elementary teachers, all Sisters, “that life is about doing what God wants of me, and then the other things you learn in life are second to that.” He continues, “I assume my vocation came from my response to that.”
He found the same lesson in high school, where all of his teachers were Brothers.
Brother Edward, who has served as principal of St. Gabriel’s for 21 years and resides with Brother Charles in the community house, said, “His vision of the Church is multifaceted.”
Not only is Brother Charles a full-time teacher, he is also on the pastoral team for the Charismatic Renewal and coordinates prayer groups at St. Gabriel’s parish. He also teaches at the Pastoral Institute for Lay Leadership and helps pastoral assistants with liturgy and the sacraments. And in his free time, he loves to swim.
Although he has been a brother for 41 years, there is no sign of him slowing down. He jokes, “I was very surprised when I heard I was the only brother on the elementary school level in the diocese. I told people in my community that I was a dinosaur; I was now going beyond the endangered species list.”
The tone then turns a little more serious, a little more concerned. Brother Charles relates, “It’s not the decision on the community’s part to have only me. It’s the economy of vocations. We need more vocations.”
As for his, he says, “I couldn’t imagine not being a brother, I can’t separate myself from it. It is who I am.”
His hope is that one of the people who read this article “will pray for other young men to join the Brothers of the Christian Schools.”
The Christian Brothers of Long Island and New England districts can be found online at www.cbline.org.
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