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Archives Deacon Brian Dwyer  looks back on life as diocesan director of youth ministry
‘I leave with a heart full of gratitude’

September 9, 2015

By Mary Lou Kilian
Editor

Ogdensburg  – Deacon Brian T. Dwyer, diocesan youth director for the past five years, served on the committee which generated the new diocesan vision for youth ministry, but he’ll have another vantage point from which to see it bear fruit.

On Sept. 30, Deacon Dwyer will move from the youth ministry office to a parish office becoming the pastoral associate for Chateaugay, his home parish, and for the Catholic Community of Constable, Westville and Trout River.

Deacon Dwyer has served as diocesan youth director since March 31, 2010 but has been actively involved in youth ministry since 1995.

“I really enjoy working with young people,” he said. “I saw the great and urgent need for their ongoing formation and ultimately, just felt called to this ministry.

“It’s hard to leave but I’m really not leaving youth ministry,” he said. “I’ll still be available to the extent that I’m needed.”

“In my work in youth ministry I got involved with the wider parish,” he said, “making visits to the homebound, being part of the faith formation program. I got to see many facets of parish ministry and it intrigued me.”

“As I told Bishop LaValley, I’m here to serve and want to go and assist him wherever it’s needed,” Deacon Dwyer said. “So I’m anxious to get closer to home and bring my gifts, skills and talents not only to youth but to the wider community.”

Working closer to home brings him closer to his wife Monique, and their four children, Stephen, 11; Angela 9; Paul, 6; and Matthew 4.

“I joked that ‘when Stephen is old enough to go to Guggenheim, it’s time for me to be done as youth director because he’s not going to want dad anywhere near the place,’” he said.

Blessings and challenges
Looking back at his tenure as youth director, Deacon Dwyer said that he is most proud of the resurgence of the diocesan Youth Rally which, he said, had been dormant for a while.

“We’ve done four or five of those and they’ve all been well received and successful,” he said.

“I’m also happy that the Leadership Weekends have emerged again,” he said. “When I was in parish youth ministry, the Youth Rally and Leadership Weekends were two staples that I remember taking teenagers to. When I came on here they had drifted a bit. I wanted to try to bring back programs that had worked in the past.
What has been the most inspiring aspect of Deacon Dwyer’s work?

“We have a very solid summer youth program, the Youth Rally is solid, March for Life is solid,” he said. “These are grandiose events with a lot of energy.

“But, what inspires me is when I work with a parish youth minister and they are in the parish basement with five kids and there’s not a lot of hoorah,” he said. “They are just trying to make a difference with limited resources and sometime limited support.

“Those are the people who inspire me, people on the grassroots level trying to walk with these young people in their daily life,” Deacon Dwyer said. “That’s what has fueled me more than the big events.”

The challenging aspects of working for the Diocese of Ogdensburg, he said, are the distances and demographics
“The demographics of diocese are a challenge and a blessing,” he said. “How things work in Ticonderoga is a lot different from how things roll in Adams.

“I’ve put 140,000 miles on my car so the travel has been difficult at times,” he said. “And no one size fits all to ministry, not just youth ministry, but all ministry. In a lot of these parishes, there are limited resources and personnel. Often your youth minister is also wearing six other hats. So that’s difficult.”

The diocesan vision for youth ministry
While Deacon Dwyer was happy to be part of the youth ministry vision team, he appreciated that the committee was led by Father Christopher Carrara and not the youth director.

“This made me look at things from a different perspective,” he said. “I knew long before bishop made his proclamation that youth ministry would be a priority in the diocesan vision. I went to four listening sessions and heard people say ‘we have to do something for our youth.’

“I do think the vision will make a difference and I’m glad that it happened,” he said. “When we went around speaking ay all the deanery meetings, Father Chris would say that, ‘as a pastor I know youth ministry is important and we say, we’ll do something when we get around to it, when we have enough money, have enough resources, have enough time, but we have to change our thinking from youth ministry is important to youth ministry is essential.’”

“If it’s not essential, it’s not going to get done,” Deacon Dwyer said, “because we’ll never have enough resources, we’ll never have enough money, we’ll never have enough time.”

“Authentic and genuine youth ministry happens in the parish,” he said. “To put our emphasis on that is going to huge. Having fewer priests in the diocese is obviously a disadvantage but it does open up opportunities for regional growth, encouraging parishes to share resources rather than thinking we have to do this on our own.”
“St. John Paul II said that the church needs to be traveling companion for young people and that’s what we need to do,” the deacon said. “Parish youth ministry does that.

“Those are his words and I believe it,” he said. “It’s not good if a young person has a great time at Guggenheim and then goes back to parish where not much is going on. Diocesan events are good but they are sporadic and we don’t want our kids to ‘hold on for dear life’ until the next event.”

For the future
As Deacon Dwyer enters his last weeks as youth director, he shares some advice for his successor
“Be yourself and don’t try to become bigger than the position,” he said. “Be a humble servant… humility is so important and Pope Francis models that beautifully.

“To implement this diocesan vision there’s going to be a lot of work, on a regional basis with pastors and parish leaders,” he said. “I’ve always seen that the purpose of this office is to serve the parishes.

“So a director needs to have humility, be prepared to offer service and be him or herself,” he said. “I would not want the successor to be a clone of Brian Dwyer. I’m excited to see where it goes.”

“This has been the best job I ever had,” Deacon Dwyer said, “For a farm boy from Chateaugay to come into this dynamic was very different for me. There have been a few bumps along the way but the people I’ve met here will be continued friends even as I leave. People in this building (Loverde Building in Ogdensburg) have been so helpful. I knew they will help me in my new position. People here have been so supportive.

“I leave,” he said, “with a heart full of gratitude.”

 

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