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Spirit of the Founders. In the midst of a great society that has declared war on poverty, the brothers are also reconsidering what it means to be poor. Marist Brother Kevin B. Donohue of Washington's Catholic University suggests that the brotherhoods' spirit of poverty would be better defined as simplicity. Although most of the congregations were organized to educate the poor, at least half the students in U.S. schools run by the brothers are white, middle-class Catholics.
Although vocations are few and far between in Europe, the congregations in the U.S. have more than held their own—which to some brothers is ample proof that they have not yet lost their vitality or their usefulness to the church. They believe that current questions about the role of the brother can only lead to what Irish Christian Brother John Brickell of Chicago calls "a deeper understanding of our vocation rather than any change in its nature."