Perth’s Archdiocesan youth office’s first fulltime chaplain in several years is no stranger to persecution, living in a world of confusion and finding certainty in one thing – the Church. He’s now on a mission to give that same certainty to today’s youth in an unprecedented time of secularist confusion.
By Anthony Barich
WHEN Father Roman Wroblewski grew up in Communist Poland Catholics fought for their very faith because it was constantly under threat.
Today, Fr Roman’s role is to build up modern-day martyrs – young Christians with solid foundations, discerning what God wants for them in concert with Scripture and discussing their daily relationships with God and others.
Now free of that totalitarian regime, Poland finds itself under another dictatorship – of relativism – one which has also gripped Australia, where he now ministers as a youth chaplain where young people are crying out for spiritual direction. “The paradox is that we were more free (spiritually) under Communism than we are now. We were strong promoting the faith,” Fr Roman said. His days growing up under Communism were not unlike the first three centuries of the Church which grew despite savage persecution, including death. But, like the Poles, many Christians’ faith became lukewarm once the persecution stopped.
The challenge today is to re-awaken young people to understand God better through Scripture, personal prayer and spiritual direction, which is where Fr Roman comes in.
Today’s world presents an especially important time to help youth discern God’s plan for them, he said, “in a world where image and material success is everything”.
“But it’s a process. We can’t expect them to die for Jesus straight away. It’s a process of knowing themselves, their relationship with God and with other people.”
When he was teased at school for praying the Rosary during lunch break, he was desperate to find other youth to talk about his faith for a sense of belonging. In today’s world of iPhones and iPods, hearing God’s word becomes nigh impossible.
“Today, we live in a world in which a sense of belonging no longer exists, replaced as it is by diffidence and fear, or by a fear of abandoning oneself into the hands of another,” he said.
“No one seems to belong to anyone anymore; or belonging to some is experienced as a refusal or a negation of belonging to others. For that reason, spiritual direction is important and precious, helping young people to discover their inner belonging to God and His family of human beings redeemed and renewed by the blood of Christ.”
The need is rising. He had so many requests for spiritual direction working two days a week at Perth’s Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Ministry office that he had to go full-time this year.
His Salvatorian Superior, Fr Karol Kukczycki, agreed this would fit their founder Francis Jordan’s charism to open up to as many people as possible the truth of the Catholic faith “that all may know the goodness and kindness of the Saviour”. He wanted to mobilise priests and lay people for this purpose using every means at their disposal, especially the press.
Hence Fr Roman has bombarded CYM’s website with Pope Benedict XVI’s former collaborator, Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, Polish Pope John Paul II and St Edith Stein, otherwise known as St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
He’s also put guidance on Lectio Divina (Divine Reading of Scripture), which he says is “God’s most intimate way of communicating with us”.
“In Jesus’ words, you’ll find an invitation to open ourselves to the presence of God – which is in the Word of God – and to one another, sharing our lives in the power of community which is fully realised when we can talk about our faith in the reality of our lives,” he said.
Jesus is not only found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He is revealed and pre-figured in the Old Testament and in other New Testament places like Paul’s letters. Accordingly, prominent on the website is a section called Transformation, which reflects the man whose life and writings reveal a deeper understanding of Christ – St Paul, a Jewish scholar once so convinced he was doing God’s work by persecuting Christians, was knocked off his horse and made blind by Jesus after His Resurrection and asked “why are you persecuting me?”
Fr Roman said that this highlighted for Paul his spiritual blindness that was blocking him from seeing the reason behind Christianity and the Church – Christ. Similarly, people’s relationship with God and others, and their ability to see who they are in Christ can be blocked by past hurts or events, all of which is teased out in spiritual direction.
Spiritual direction, however, is not counselling, nor psychology, though some experience in the latter helps at times. Spiritual reading and silence – so rare in today’s world – are essential in findings what God wants of one’s life.
Priests often steer clear of being spiritual directors for people – understandably, he says, because he’s often found himself in “awkward situations” where he’s needed some psychology training to get to the crux of a person’s issue, while still maintaining the spiritual dimension.
But it is essential for everyone. It requires the spiritual director – whether priest or laity – to have the humility to say “I don’t have the answer for you now, but let me get back to you in a week”, he said.
While there have been several different models of spiritual direction throughout the centuries, modern spiritual direction most often refers to a relationship like spiritual companionship or friendship, he said.
In this way, the director is present as a spiritual friend who listens with the intent, compassion, love and understanding of helping the directed person recognise how the Holy Spirit is leading and working in one’s life.
“The emphasis is on helping the person develop a good prayer life and relationship with God,” Fr Roman said.
“The director does not tell them what to do in a way that requires obedience. The guided has the final decision as to what to do in his or her spiritual life. Questions are asked to get to know the person, his or her present life circumstances and spiritual life.”
St Paul was key in Fr Roman’s conversion that occurred as a youth, just when he was searching for Catholic fraternity and his identity in Christ. “Paul’s genius was that he puts Jesus in the spotlight, not himself. He uses himself only as an example of God’s transforming power,” Fr Roman said.
“This was similar to the transformation in my own life … to that realisation that I was not the centre of the universe, that there is someone else: Christ. Paul had an unexpected encounter, a turning point. When struck blind, he became like a child, allowing Jesus to lead him through the very people he’s imprisoned – the very people who gave him the faith and supported him.
“Through Paul’s letters I gained more knowledge about the life of Christ, and it was life-changing for me.” From his conversion at 18, Fr Roman’s own awareness of being a disciple of Jesus grew slowly but surely, and he “fell in love” with the Word of God – Scripture; “I couldn’t live a day without the Eucharist and individual prayer”.