Foundations of Our Faith and Calling

The Bruderhof community movement started in Germany in 1920 and has since spread to four continents.

I congratulate the members of the Bruderhof on their community’s new constitution, Foundations of our Faith and Calling. Since my appointment as Archbishop of New York, it has been a joy for me to visit the Bruderhof communities and to work together with them in proclaiming the gospel message, especially in regard to marriage, the family, and the sanctity of life. I treasure the Bruderhof’s Christian witness as a significant contribution to the wider church today.The Bruderhof, as a religious community that includes families, seems part of the great and venerable tradition of Christian monasticism. Foundations thus is similar to the Rule of St. Benedict: visionary yet practical, theologically profound yet always down to earth. Deeply anchored in Scripture, Foundations calls the church to renewal and testifies to the world what it means to live as brothers and sisters in Christ. (October 2012)Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York