Carmelites open arms to ‘lonely’ and ‘disconnected’ young men

A parish church in the centre of Dublin has been helping an “amazing number of young men” who are struggling with “serious loneliness” and a feeling of disconnection.

While the church regularly welcomes faithful of all ages and ethnicities, there are many young men searching for someone to speak to, according to Fr James Eivers O. Carm, Prior of Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin City Centre.

Fr Eivers told The Irish Catholic in particular the friars meet a lot of university students from nearby colleges such as the Royal College of Surgeons, Trinity College Dublin and DBS.

He said: “It’s amazing the amount of young men coming into the church. You talk to them, and you find there’s serious loneliness out there… there’s a sense of community that’s missing. Sometimes they come here just really struggling and looking for quiet, a lot of them not even knowing why they are here.” Sometimes they come in to light a candle and ending up in the line for Confession, “and they haven’t been to Confession since their Confirmation maybe, and they’re saying ‘I don’t even know how to do this, but I just feel I need to talk to someone about what’s going on in my life’”,  according to Fr Eivers,

The fact that there is a community of 10 Carmelites living on-site means there is extra availability, the prior noted. Fr Eivers added that many of the young men in university are “struggling with a lot of the pressures of college, particularly in their first year and their second year, struggling to find their niche, struggling to find where they’re going”.

“And it is the same story, ‘I picked a course, I didn’t know why I picked it and now I don’t know what I’m doing’. Then there are all the pressures that come with that. Increasingly you are seeing that with younger people, coming in and just wanting someone to listen, not even give them answers – just to listen.”

Fr Eivers also drew attention to “serious increase” in the number of people looking for financial support from the parish.

He said: “It’s all over the media in terms of the homelessness crisis but it’s literally on our doorstep every night here – homelessness, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, family issues, all of that. It is being written about, but it is all being played out within this square around the Church, that’s part of it as well. You have a lot of people coming in, really struggling with life: you must be present to them as well.”