Little Flower Parish at 204 1st St. N.W., Browning, MT 59417 US - This is a new Middle School

The First Students in Our School (Year 2001--2002)

DE LA SALLE BLACKFEET MIDDLE SCHOOL We consider it a great gift from the Lord to finally have begun this year a new Catholic school. Through a decision made by our Pastoral Council we first contacted the De La Salle Christian Brothers in 1992. Their first response to us was that it would not be possible for them to help us at that time. But, with prayer, we kept after them. About the time we started to get discouraged one of the Brothers called simply to say that we should not give up, that they are starting to get interested in us. We contacted them again. This time they said to us that the Brothers are discerning a call to get back to teaching in poor areas and that we certainly were located in a poor area. It was hard for the Brothers to believe that they were being called out to the far reaches of Montana to teach on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation when they had Native Americans living in the Chicago area-- but it became clear at some point that was exactly what the Lord wanted, and they responded to the call. The next obstacle we faced was that our school project was put on hold because we had no Bishop at that time. Bishop Elden Curtiss had been made Archbishop of Omaha. After a year wait we got a new Bishop—-Alexander Brunett. The Brothers began dialogue with him once he settled into the Diocese. During that period Brother Paul Ackerman came to live with us and began the process of investigating our needs. Just about the time we were getting ready to make some formal decisions concerning our school project Bishop Brunett was made the Archbishop of Seattle. (He had been in the Diocese only three years). This time we were without a Bishop for two years. The Brothers stopped the process to await a new Bishop. In that interim period the Brothers opened a number of schools in other poor areas. We were getting worried that they might not have the manpower to also give us a school when we finally got a Bishop for the Helena Diocese. We simply prayed for the school and waited. There was nothing else we could do. Finally in the year 2000 we got Bishop Robert Morlino. We consider him and our new school a millennium blessing. Bishop Morlino has been very supportive of the Brothers and the De La Salle Christian Brother School. Once settled in to his new role as Bishop, the Bishop talked with the De La Salle Brother’s Provincials, Thomas Johnson and Michael Ferenbach. They together negotiated and put the school project back into action. Needless to say we at Little Flower Parish were overjoyed. We are very aware of how unique it is to get a Religious Order to commit to opening a new school these days. We believe that this event is a gift from God to us-- and we praise Him and thank Him for it. The Brothers assigned Brother Paul Ackerman and Brother Denis Murphy to The Blackfeet De La Salle Christian Brother School. They in turn have located four young La Sallian volunteers to be the beginning teaching staff. The Brothers are about the business of getting our CCD center ready for this new school. The plan is that we start with the fifth grade and build up to the eighth grade. That would complete the first phase of our grand school project dream. As a parish our job is to get students for the new school and to help raise money to finance the new school. Here again we wait on the help of the Lord. The large vision is to have all twelve grades and to build new schools. But that is a dream and will take a miracle to complete. It is a miracle that we got the Brothers here. We believe that it is God’s will to have these schools. Time and prayer will tell the full story. We will simply wait on the Lord.

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