Scottish Catholic Observer

THE past week’s New Dawn conference in St Andrews looks set to be a great success with over 500 having attended as the SCO went to press. Fr Paulos, a German Franciscan Friar of Renewal, was one of many priests there and he took time to give an insight into his work with young people.

“I only moved to England last week,” he said. “But I was in Limerick for four years before that. My order works a lot with poor people and young people so this was a good chance to do that.

“The order had a house in an area of Limerick called Moyross, which was very troubled. There were a lot of drugs in the area and it was very hard to do anything, but we kept at it and we now have 12 youths from the area from really difficult backgrounds not just going on youth pilgrimages but leading them. The change you see in young people if you spend time with them is amazing.”

Fr Paulos said that by spending real time and effort on young people the Church can have a great impact.

“If they feel loved and valued that has a great impact,” he said. “So you have to lead them to Jesus as He can love them in a way we cannot. It is the same for parents I think sometimes that they can feel overwhelmed by expectation but if they lead their children to Jesus, Jesus teaches them.”

The best thing you can do with young people Fr Paulos believes, is spend time with them. “You just have to hang out,” he said. “Young people cannot stand hearing ‘sorry I have no time,’ which unfortunately is true for a lot of parish priests. Teenagers have so many questions and often strained relations with their parents at that age as they are searching for what kind of person to be, but if you get them at that stage you have them for life.

“This is why we see the media and big corporations spending so much money trying to engage with young people,” he said. “Because they are trying to set the pattern of their life towards consumption and away from spirituality.”

Fr Paulos’ own youth was very much devoted to spirituality and he joined the Franciscans at the age of 21.

“I joined as soon as I could,” he recalled. “And that was in East Germany before the wall came down, so when that happened and I went over to the west it was a real culture shock.”

Later he saw a documentary about the newly formed Franciscan Friars of Renewal in the Bronx that changed his life

“It was a real eye opener because I had been longing for something more radical that was still in the Franciscan tradition,” he said. “And they were out there working with the young and poor on the streets in the big city. I felt they were risking more so I joined them.”

Although he is now 40, Fr Paulos said he still loves working with young people and is delighted to be here in Scotland.

“Though I’m no longer young myself, when you spend years working with young people you get used to them,” he said. “It is very enjoyable and this conference has been wonderful and a really good opportunity for that.”