Sending Positive Vibes. Talk given to the Religion Teachers Association of Ireland. Athlone. March 7th 2020.

I ask myself what can I say to a group of religion teachers? What do you need to hear from me? I remember Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard winning the Oscar for ‘Falling Slowly’ a few years ago and they got the chance to speak to the great and the good of Hollywood. For a few moments they had the ears, the attention of just about every movie star in the business. I remember thinking, what a platform. Here today, I have a chance to speak to you. Each of you daily invite and challenge scores of young people to become conscious of something above and beyond themselves and this is something I share too in my life as a capuchin friar and as a priest. 

A little about me. I was born in the Coombe Hospital in 1969, the eldest of seven, and I went to school in Dublin in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  I joined the Capuchin Order in 1987 after a mediocre Leaving Cert and in the ten years of formation, I studied philosophy in Millltown Park, and Theology in All Hallows College. I graduated with a BA in Theology and a Grad. Dip. In Holistic Development. I was ordained a priest in 1997 and my first appointment was a school chaplain. I had 5 hours RE teaching per week and I quickly realised I knew very little about chaplaincy and so I began a two-year MA in school chaplaincy in Mater Dei/ DCU (this began as a Grad Dip and finished as a MA in 2004)

I spent 10 years in school chaplaincy altogether between Dublin and Cork. I was into a groove in Dublin and was gaining confidence in front of a class of 30 teenagers. Now, I acknowledge that it was perhaps easier for me, even more than other priest-chaplains or religion teachers, because dressed like this, I am pretty hi-visibility. When the pupils first get over the shock, and the giggles, and the “Hey-hey, we’re the Monkees…” then it’s obvious to them what exactly I am. For other chaplain and RE teachers, there may be some explaining. Maybe there’s no explaining in that sense for an English, or a Maths or Science, or a French teacher.

You know the way the first year or two can be a nightmare and then you get into it. Well, at least I think I did. They I was sent to Cork, to our own Capuchin School, and I had to start all over again. Eventually, I walked in like a cross between Roy Keane and Liam Gallagher and there wasn’t a sound. I knew I had developed the craft. I had made it as a teacher. I was like “Yeah, don’t mess with me.” But it was hard fought. I remember going back to visit Coolmine after I was transferred. I was in the staff room for a coffee and one of the teachers from the maths/science dept asked me how I was getting on. I remember I said, I think I have got tougher. She said, we knew you would break! It was like she said, yeah, no more mister nice guy. 

In 2007, I was asked to go as Chaplain to Beaumont Hospital. If you had asked me to choose a ministry, any ministry, the last one I would have picked was hospital. I spent three years there and it was tough for lots of reasons but honestly, hospital ministry is great work. It can be a cliché but teaching the young is a privilege, perhaps we are supposed to say this. But hospital ministry, where one can sit with someone who is dying or trying to come to terms with a new reality in their lives is an amazing privilege too. Working alongside nursing, medical, surgical, and care staff and seeing them make no distinction at all about who comes into the emergency dept was and is a great lesson to me.

From Beaumont in 2010, I was asked to go as parish priest to St. Michan’s, Halston St and Church St. In parish ministry, I had fairly regular visits to the two parish primary schools, but this was also somewhat of a challenge because in the real world it can be more tricky to get the time in parish ministry to engage with the schools. For example, there were a lot of funerals in the last parish I was in and these take up the whole morning and some of the afternoon and since the kids are gone home by 2.30 p.m. that’s the day gone. When I was in secondary school in the 1980’s, a priest used to literally walk into the class and promote devotion to some saint or other. No one stopped him. Who would after all? Today, thank God, this shouldn’t happen now for loads of reasons not least as all visitors need to report to reception at least. 

For the last 10 years, I have been in parish ministry with all that entails; Baptisms, Funerals, First Communions, Confirmations, RCIA, First Friday visitation of the sick, emergency calls by the Gardaí, Fundraising, Restoration. And this has given me much of the material for the two books I have written in the intervening years. I’ve been very lucky and very blessed.

I seem to have a reputation out there for spreading positivity. No doubt because I published my second book before Christmas. My first one was called ‘Tired of all the Bad News’ which came out in 2016. The second one is called ‘Sending Positive Vibes’ and that was published in November. Basically, they are some reflections and homilies I have written and blogged over the years. They are interspersed with some memories of growing up in Dublin in the and the genesis of my vocation and my decision to join the Capuchin Order in 1987.

Tongue-in-cheek, I say that the first book was an exercise in vanity. I had been approached by Columba Books in early 2016. They asked me to write a foreword to a book they were publishing on Padre Pio. When I submitted it, they said they would like to return the favour. “Maybe you can” I said. I told them of my idea for the book. “You writing a book?” “It’s kind of written” I replied. “Send it in” they said. So, I did. And following a conversation with the provincial minister because I had to get permission, I sent it in.

So, I stand before you this morning to encourage perhaps. I also want to express my gratitude to those who teach the young religion. While there is a debate today about the passing on of the faith – primarily the work of the Holy Spirit through parents and grandparents, you are also stakeholders in this by providing a platform for students and others to gain wisdom and understanding about a loving and personal God as revealed by Jesus Christ.

My brother Kevin graduated from Mater Dei in 1996 and taught English and RE in Tallaght all his professional life. Two years ago, he became Deputy in Old Bawn Community School. I told him I was going to be speaking to you today. He offered some advice for me. 

He said today religion not something that needs to be defended anymore – nor apologised for – or embarrassed about.  It is something that needs to be rediscovered. While it has to be acknowledged that some (clergy) and in leadership roles have made a spectacular success of profoundly damaging the church institution not least in how child sexual abuse and the criminal cover-up was handled, I still see a cohort of young people responding to the invitation to get involved in church. We are in a post outrage society. For example, you need look no further than what is going on in St. Paul’s Church, Arran Quay in terms of youth ministry.  We are not alone in trying to reach out to young people and offer them something under the umbrella of religious education which I believe goes deeper than just an academic subject.

Young people engage with Church today because they want to, not because it’s what their mammy and daddy want. The days of obligation are over. We are more adult now and when we go to church and when we practice our faith, it is because we desire to. No one is forced anymore. The question “what did the priest say at Mass?” to test kids did they go is gone, thank God. The Millennials are not upset by the Church – they are intrigued by it. Prominent and welcoming people help in this regard, whether in school, or at diocesan level or parish level. For example, seeing church people on social media spreading the good news is critical today. I believe Twitter is an ingenious way to spread the good news today just as the pulpit was in the past. The Holy Father, many bishops, priests, and religious as well as dioceses do the same all over the word and on cyberspace. I believe it is critical to use these forums to upbuild and affirm rather than sow seeds of judgement. Church people should never be trolls. 

I am impressed by Pope Francis in that in his ministry he uses the example of Saint Francis of Assisi praying before the cross of San Damiano. In the story, Francis of Assisi is searching for some answers as to what God is asking him to do. He hears the voice; “Francis, go repair my church, which, as you can see is falling completely into ruin.” At first Francis rebuilds the walls of the church with bricks and mortar. However, later, the other brothers, and Clare and her sisters come to join him.  Fundamentally, Francis learns the building programme is about people. Pope Francis is doing the same in our time I would argue; repairing the church person by person or as he has said, “one heart at a time.” This is what you are doing each day in class with your students when you teach religion, you are repairing the church, you are proclaiming the gospel, you are forming the young and this is vital. It is great work. 

People need hope. We crave good news and while at the moment we seem to see nothing but bad news; Climate change, Covid 19 Corona Virus, Brexit, Republican or Democrat, you name it, it is all consuming because we have it 24/7 on our televisions, tablets, and smartphones. So, while we see this bad news, if we look, we can see the helpers too. Those who are working hard to make a difference, to find an anti-dote and a vaccine, and we need to hear this because its like a shot in the arm.

The vital work you go is a powerful example of making an investment in the future of our young people. Teaching RE is good news and it marries the academic with faith formation and this will inevitably help the building up of the Kingdom of God. Thank you all.