District Council
A New Yorker, born and bred, Carl Malacalza, FSC has been Brother for over 50 
years. Br. Carl has spent almost all of his career in the Empire state (there is 11 years in Detroit), as Teacher, Director, President, and presently, he is the Principal at La Salle Institute in Troy. A talented and creative administrator, Br. Carl has a knack for arranging schedules and course offerings so that students can get the most from their education, including earning college credits with La Salle Institute’s neighbor, Hudson Valley Community College. Started in 2009, Br. Carl and the Institute’s administration initiated the program for Junior and Senior students to receive dual high school and college credit for over 20 electives, including Computer Science, Physics and selected Calculus courses. Br. Carl is constantly on the look-out for new educational ideas that enhance La Salle’s programs. Outside the school building, Br. Carl extends himself to all the athletic games where he takes pictures and is a source of encouragement to all the students.
As a Community member, he is truly a Brother to his Brothers, well respected and liked. He is constantly working to make improvements to the physical condition of the Community house. In his spare time (when he has any!) Br. Carl hones his skills in computers, golf, skiing, gardening, photography, and cooking.
Why I entered the Christine Brothers
Mom was the seventh of eleven children. Three of her five sisters became nuns and one of her brothers became a priest. I was the second of my parent’s six children and like my siblings I went to public elementary and secondary schools. After graduating high school, I went to Manhattan College, an all-male Christian Brothers’ college in NYC. In 1961, in the second semester of the second year there, I decided to become a Christian Brother. I felt the Brothers offered a sense of belonging and purpose.
But the decision to join the Brothers did not come easily. During the second semester, my grades fell and I felt there was no one with whom I could speak about entering the novitiate. Though there were three other students at Manhattan College who were thinking of joining the Brothers at the same time as I, while at the College, we didn’t meet.
I spent two 3-day weekends at their novitiate in Barrytown, NY. During each of these weekends a Brother spoke to us about vocations. He said there was a special place in heaven, “a mansion,” reserved for those who accept God’s calling. I felt, if He was calling, it behooved Him to call loud enough for me to hear. I wanted a sign. Several times a week, I’d go to chapel at the college and look at the candle in the sacristy. I figured, if God wanted me, as a sign, He could make the candle flare up or go out. He never did.
In May my roommate told me he wanted his buddy to room with him next year. I wasn’t wanted; but the Brothers wanted me. I never got “the sign” until after final exams when the Brothers hosted a luncheon for those who wanted to enter the novitiate. On the way to the luncheon, I got the sign I was looking for.
Mom, two of my sisters, and I were on the Long Island Expressway. A truck stopped short in front of us, I slammed on the breaks. In the rear view mirror I watched as an empty tractor trailer came to a tire smoking, jack knifed, panic stop and came to rest a foot or two from back bumper of our VW Beetle. If the truck had been carrying a full load, we’d all have been killed. I believed we were spared for a reason.
This sign was clear enough for but a day or two. The sign that endured was that in the novitiate I surrounded myself with young men whose talents and dedication I admired. This community of men wanted me. This was evidence enough for me to decide to dedicate my life to the Christian Brothers. At Manhattan College all the young men in the dorm where I stayed were business majors. My roommate and his friend were marketing majors. The three young men from Manhattan College, those that entered the Brothers at the same time I did, graduated Catholic University, two summa cum laude, one of whom majored in physics, and the other in electrical engineering. The third majored in math and also graduated with honors.
—April 4, 2016 stringerhugh@hotmail.com
Thank you, Carl