Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne has said the best advice he can offer young people today is to value friendships.
In today’s world people are inclined to know everybody but they have no friends, he said in an engaging Diocese of Kerry documentary produced to celebrate Youth Week 2024.
Asked what advice he would offer the younger generation, he replied: “Be loyal to your friends, spend time with your friends and don’t be overwhelmed by the future”.
Bishop Ray encouraged teenagers not to feel that they have to make massive decisions and he said they should take one step at a time as things fall into place.
“Lead a balanced life – a balance of work, rest, play and prayer and have a sense that God plays a part in our lives.
“It gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. Life has a purpose. We make a contribution and how you live your life matters,” the bishop said.
In an interview conducted by Christina Scanlon, a member of the diocesan pastoral team based in the John Paul II Pastoral Centre in Killarney, Bishop Ray said young people should believe that God’s plan for them is unfolding, that He will be their help when life is difficult and when there are decisions to be made, God is at work through the Holy Spirit.
Reflecting on his own youth growing up in Athlone, the bishop said one of the key events at the time was Ireland joining the then EEC which gave people great hope as farming was going to benefit through price increases and Europe supported industries that needed more technology.
“They were hopeful times,” he recalled.
Bishop Ray said the late 1960s was a time when education really took off in Ireland as, prior to that, families had to pay significant amounts of money for their children to attend secondary school.
“Within 10 years it went from around 30 or 40 per cent doing the Leaving Cert, or maybe less, to 90 per cent doing it and it was an opportunity,” he said.
One of seven children, Bishop Ray’s father was a train driver which meant he was away a lot and the bishop recalled a simple but happy childhood.
“We lived in town and everywhere we went was walking or on a bicycle. Neither of my parents ever drove a car,” he said.
His mother was very keen on education and he attended boarding school in Sligo, in a class of 40 students, getting home for weekends just once every two months.
“If you were happy studying, boarding school was fine but I’d say if you weren’t, it was very hard,” he said.
Sport also played a big part in his life, particularly soccer, pitch and putt and table tennis and he was a very keen reader growing up.
The Youth Week documentary focused on young people in the diocese and those that contributed included comedian Bernard Casey who recalls growing up in Portmagee, Daithi O’Sullivan from Mastergeehy who attended Work Youth Day 2023in Portugal, the Glenflesk Parish Youth Choir with teacher Rosie Healy and Fr Amos from Kenya who is based in St Brendan’s Parish in Tralee.
Also featured are the transition year students from Intermediate School Killorglin and their teacher Micheál Ó Shea who were celebrating Earth Day in the local community garden, Caiara and Saoirse Murphy from Ballymacelligott who are actively involved in their local parish, MTU student Josh Egan who enjoyed a pilgrimage to Taize with the Diocese of Kerry, the New Wave adventure therapy service in Camp and young farmer and musician James Bowler from Castlegregory.
It also featured a two-minute video by TJ and Millie Evans from Killarney who won a competition to tell the story of their parish and also featured is a stunning image that won a Youth Week photographic competition for Jess Jackson from Mean Scoil An Leith Truig in Castlegregory.
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