My brother has emailed my mom and told her that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the family. She is crushed. She isn't sure why, but she is pretty sure it's because my brother's wife doesn't like our family (for some odd reason - we are all really nice, I swear).

Anyhow, this really hurt my mom. Not only is she suffering from a bad depression right now, she is pretty much immobilized when she received this email. And honestly, I can't blame her. I don't know whether I should even bother responding to the email b/c it wasn't sent to me, even though he did talk about why he doesn't talk to me or why he doesn't want anything to do with me as well.

I feel this loyalty to my mother and father and I feel the need to stick up for them. On the other hand, my counselor says that my parents can stick up for themselves and I have to stop putting myself in the middle of things. I can't fight this fight for them.

I feel like he is not seeing the entire situation, however, and he needs to open his eyes! However, if I respond to the email, he will simply push me away farther.

My dad's brother (my uncle) died about a month ago and my brother didn't even call my dad or ask how he was doing. We barely saw him at the funeral. It spoke volumes. I even called him a few weeks back to let him know our grandmother was doing poorly and was in the hospital. I left him a voicemail to call me back if he wanted an update. No phone call.

So I guess the question is, I can do any of the following - but which one?
A.) reach out and try to get the relaionship back with my bro, putting aside our differences and just trying to move on (which would mean me ignoring his disrespect and all the hurtful things he has said to the family).
B.) respond to the email, specifically about what he said about me.
C.) Ignore it, since he doesn't make any attempt to see the family (we haven't seen him in over a year) and just move on as an only child with no siblings.

Any suggestions?
It's also hard seeing my mother and father hurt so much. It's like my initial reaction is to just lash out and defend them. Idk. He's a very unhappy person and it's really impacting our family dynamic. Any advice is welcomed....