- Feb 5, 2002
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As Pope John Paul II lay suffering in the last weeks of his life, he may have prayed the Lord send someone to carry the torch of his priesthood, rooted as it was in a love for young people and a heart attuned to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If so, he found that someone in Father Timothy Tarnacki, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office of Ministry With Young Adults.
Just as Pope John Paul would spend the early years of his priesthood listening to the heartfelt desires of young adults on hikes through the mountains and the reading of Scripture by the light of a campfire, so has Father Tarnacki’s mission with young adults born similar fruit.
At least five marriages and several vocations have resulted from his work leading the young adult group at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. Like the saintly pope, Father Tarnacki also was born in Poland, and he fills his young adult events with hikes, bonfires and even the occasional roller coaster ride.
Mostly, he listens. In fact, his young adult ministry began by listening to them in the confessional.
“I encountered many young adults, college students or young adults in their 20s and 30s, and I began really listening to what they were saying and listening to the deeper desires and longings that they were expressing and the challenges that they were facing,” he said. “On some level I could identify with a lot of those things, and I felt the call to respond to that in some way.”
It was a natural extension of his devotion to St. John Paul II, and it started with a dream.
Continued below.
catholicphilly.com
Just as Pope John Paul would spend the early years of his priesthood listening to the heartfelt desires of young adults on hikes through the mountains and the reading of Scripture by the light of a campfire, so has Father Tarnacki’s mission with young adults born similar fruit.
At least five marriages and several vocations have resulted from his work leading the young adult group at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. Like the saintly pope, Father Tarnacki also was born in Poland, and he fills his young adult events with hikes, bonfires and even the occasional roller coaster ride.
Mostly, he listens. In fact, his young adult ministry began by listening to them in the confessional.
“I encountered many young adults, college students or young adults in their 20s and 30s, and I began really listening to what they were saying and listening to the deeper desires and longings that they were expressing and the challenges that they were facing,” he said. “On some level I could identify with a lot of those things, and I felt the call to respond to that in some way.”
It was a natural extension of his devotion to St. John Paul II, and it started with a dream.
Heeding the Call of a Dying Pope
Continued below.
Hikes, Hope, and Holiness: How One Priest is Reaching a New Generation
Pauline Father Timothy Tarnacki leads ministry to young adult Catholics in the Philadelphia region by taking a cue from his compatriot, St. John Paul II: listen to, walk with, and form relationships with young adults.
catholicphilly.com
