I. Charism - La Salle.org

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IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD
La Salle had, it would seem, enemies who wished to take over part
of his work in order to have it serve their own projects.
One of the consequences of the condemnation in the “Clément”
court case, was the precipitate departure of Monsieur de La Salle
from Paris. He resumed the visits which he had been forced to
interrupt and headed for the Midi in the first week of Lent 1712
(in February and therefore still in winter). This departure allowed
him to escape the arrest which the condemnation included. But a
serious faux pas by Brother Barthélémy when he sent him by post
the text of the judgment of the tribunal of Le Châtelet which had
condemned him, created a deep misunderstanding between
Monsieur de La Salle and the Brothers.
After the departure of the holy man, the Brothers received two summonses
one from Rogier, who had gone to the other side, although he
had been his intimate friend, and the other from Monsieur Clément,
the father. In both of these documents, De La Salle was treated with
extreme discourtesy. In particular, they made it a point to call him a
Priest of the diocese of Reims and Superior of the Brothers of the said house,
not Superior of the Brothers of Paris and Saint-Denis: clear proof of
the evident collusion between his legal adversaries and his great
enemy. 94
Since apparently Brother Barthélémy did not correct this heading
by means of an accompanying letter, John Baptist de La Salle
thought that the former had taken sides with his ‘enemy’ and was
rejecting him:
What affected the founder most keenly was that he imagined that all
the Brothers in Paris were on his enemy’s side. It was a false impression,
because during his absence, the Brothers in Paris remained in his
regard what they had been when he was present among them: obedient
and inviolably attached to his person. What gave him this impres-
94
Blain, op. cit., Book Three, p. 598. (CL 8, p. 79).