Page "Edmund Ignatius Rice" Paragraph 12

However, the communities were under the control of the bishop in each diocese rather than Edmund Rice, and this created problems when Brothers were needed to be transferred from one school to another.

Rice sought approval from Pope Pius VII for the community to be made into a pontifical congregation with a Superior General.

Ultimately he obtained this, and as Superior General he was then able to move brothers across diocesan boundaries to wherever they were most needed.

In the 1820s further difficulties emerged owing to the expansion of the society and its becoming two distinct congregations.

From this time on they were called Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers.

The motto of the Christian Brothers was: ' The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord forever ' ( Job 1: 21 ).