The Congregation of Christian Brothers (Latin: Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum; abbreviated CFC) is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Edmund Rice.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Waterford merchant Edmund Rice considered travelling to Rome to join a religious institute, possibly the Augustinians.

Instead, with the support of Thomas Hussey, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, he decided to found a religious community dedicated to teaching disadvantaged youth.

Two men from his hometown of Callan, Thomas Grosvenor and Patrick Finn, soon arrived to aid Rice in his makeshift schools, with the intention of living the life of lay brothers.

In the same year, Rice used proceeds from the sale of his victualling business to begin building a community house and school on land provided by the diocese.

Bishop Hussey opened the new complex, christened “Mount Sion” on June 7, 1803, and pupils were transferred to the new school building the following year.

In 1972 the alumnus rugby team was travelling in Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 when it crashed in the Andes, stranding survivors in freezing conditions with little food and no heat for 72 days; 16 of the 45 people on the aircraft survived.

A number of these technical schools originally taught poor children trades, such as carpentry and building skills, after which they could progress to gain apprenticeships and employment.

A special community within this new European province will be based in Geneva, Switzerland, working to establish an NGO known as Edmund Rice International.

"This position allows groups the opportunity to challenge systemic injustice and to engage in advocacy work with policymakers on behalf of people who are made poor."

In Kenya, they support the Ruben Centre [18] Additional funds are also raised for similar work in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay) and India.

In most Christian Brothers' schools in Ireland, Gaelic football, hurling and handball were encouraged and there were even examples of boys being punished for playing "foreign games", like soccer.

[21] In the late 20th and early 21st century many cases were exposed of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children in the Christian Brothers' care over a number of decades.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse documented Christian Brothers' activities in Australia and in particular in Ballarat.

[23] Four of the school's brothers and their chaplain, Gerald Ridsdale, were accused of sexually assaulting children — all but one, who died before charges could be laid, have been convicted.

[24][25] In December 2014, a royal commission found that "Christian Brothers leaders knew of allegations of sexual abuse of children at four Western Australian orphanages and failed to manage the homes to prevent the systemic ill-treatment for decades.

[30] The response to complaints of sexual abuse was "grossly inadequate": most often Christian Brothers were moved to new locations after an allegation had been made.

[33] In December 2012, the Christian Brothers school St Ambrose College, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was implicated in a child sex abuse case.

According to the commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, between the years 1940 to 1970 15 children died there while in the care of the Christian Brothers, from causes including tuberculosis.

The Congregation of the Christian Brothers published full-page advertisements in newspapers in Ireland in March 1998, apologizing to former pupils who had been ill-treated whilst in their care.

This advertising campaign expressed "deep regret" on behalf of the Christian Brothers and listed telephone lines which former pupils could ring if they needed help.

[40] Playing fields owned by the organisation and valued at €127 million would be transferred to joint ownership of the government and the trust that runs former Christian Brothers schools.

[43] In 2016 Brother John Bernard Farrell, retired priest of the Diocese of Motherwell, the last Head teacher at St Ninian's Falkland, Fife, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

[44] In 2021, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry issued a report on the St. Ninians residential school which had been run by the Christian Brothers between 1953 and 1983.

[54][55][56][57] Both the St. John's Archdiocese through the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as the Congregation of Christian Brothers have since enacted policies aimed at the prevention of child sexual abuse.

[58][59] In Ontario in January 1993 the Christian Brothers reached a financial settlement totalling $23 million with 700 former students who alleged abuse.

[60] In February 2021, a British Columbia man alleged that he was sexually abused by one of the Christian Brothers, who confessed to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary of molesting children at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in 1975.

One case that emerged during the #MeToo movement was of Brother Francis Gale who was alleged in a detailed Facebook post to have molested Mary Therese Kurkalang, a tribal woman, since she was five years old, inflicting lifelong trauma, when he was stationed at St. Edmund's College, Shillong.

[65] Christian Brother Robert Brouillette, who had taught at St. Laurence High School, was arrested in April 1998 in Joliet, Illinois, for indecent solicitation of a child.

[73] The Educational Record was an annual collection of articles from Christian brother schools around the world published by them from their offices in Rome.