Conversation: In tune with life and the music of youth

Sydney
3 February 2002

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Conversation: In tune with life and the music of youth

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Conversation: In tune with life and the music of youth

Fr Geoffrey Abdallah, priest and pianist

By Marilyn Kerjean

When Fr Geoffrey was ordained eight years ago he told his friends and family, "Even though I'm becoming a priest I'm not giving up music.

"Music will always be a part of my life, but now my music will be directed towards the Church."

That was when Fr Geoffrey was 26; in the video he looks even younger.

Music and youth are major spheres in the priestly mission of Fr Geoffrey Abdallah (pictured).

He was seven when he had his first piano lesson and began playing the organ on Sundays at the family's parish church, St Patrick's, Mortlake. Those parishioners were in for a treat over the next several years.

As he collected award after award for his growing talent people began to take notice of him.

He was playing with the Sydney International Orchestra at 16. By 17 he was learning from the renowned concert pianist, Roger Woodward.

He deferred university after HSC and travelled with his teacher to be introduced to London. From there he went on to Paris to study with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, widow of the composer Olivier Messiaen.

His star as a future international concert pianist was rising. Then it seemed to be knocked dramatically off-course.

Geoffrey expressed a desire to be a priest; a conviction that had been growing steadily from the age of nine.

"I've always wanted to be either a priest or a musician, a pianist. At nine I couldn't be a priest yet" he laughs, "so I pursued music."

All the time he was under the tutelage of his respected teachers, Geoffrey had been trying to decide between the Church and the concert hall.

The moment of truth came in Paris.

"I was praying in one of my favourite churches there, St Gervais, and I just had a feeling that I liked music but I didn't think my life would be fulfilled," he says.

In two weeks he was in his parents' house in Concord, telling them of his decision. "They said: 'You've come this far, you should at least finish your music degree; once you've got your bachelor of music you can do whatever you want'."

Fr Geoffrey graduated from the University of Sydney 1988 with a Bachelor of Music, having studied composition under the likes of Peter Sculthorpe, and went straight to the seminary.

He attributes his vocation to growing up as one of four children of devout Maronite Catholic parents.

"We've got a very prayerful family, we grew up praying together and I really believe that parents shape your formation, not only as a priest but also as a human being."

And what is life like as a priest? Very busy.

Fr Geoffrey is private secretary to the Maronite bishop, the Most Rev Joseph Hitti.

He is preparing for the arrival and installation of Australia's newest Maronite Catholic bishop, the Rev Monsignor Ad Abikaram.

Fr Geoffrey is a prison chaplain, coordinator of the Maronite Youth Council, chaplain of Our Lady of Lebanon College, director of the liturgical and musical commission and director of the internet committee.

He is also president of Parramatta's Maronite Youth Ministry, and regularly visits the Matthew Talbot Hostel and the Caritas Centre in Darlinghurst.

Official duties aside, Fr Geoffrey is probably best known in the parish of Our Lady of Lebanon at Parramatta for his preaching at the Sunday night youth Mass.

"Some people find it a bit full on," he says.

"People find me radical in the sense that I'm not afraid to be confronting.

Now if the priest talks for more than five minutes, people get the cranks and start reading the bulletin," he says.

But young parishioners listen to Fr Geoffrey's sermons. And they keep coming back. Every Sunday night, 800 young people aged 15 to 30, arrive from Granville, Merrylands and Parramatta for Mass.

"I'm modern in my outlook, I use modern language but … we have to be orthodox, we're passing on the faith of the Church," he says.

Fr Geoffrey says one key to keeping young people in touch with the Church is to understand what level they are at and "walking with them".

"For most adult Christians, they have a faith level of someone in year eight at school.

"So how on earth do you expect (them) to find their faith as a source of strength and support as an adult when there's a crisis?"

"That's what has happened to some young people. You ask them about the Church and (all they can say is) 'You can't use condoms'. You ask them why the Church says that and they say 'don't know'."

Fr Geoffrey says that young people especially need the Church to be "a loving mother".

"But this is the mother who loves them by teaching them (not) just by positive affirmation, (but by) instilling the right principles," he says.

Young adults already know what is right and wrong, he says, but "want to be told that we understand where you're at and this is where we will guide you".

For example, he says, "I'm still going to teach that sex before marriage is wrong, but to say 'this Wednesday we're talking about fornication and the sixth commandment' they don't want to hear it like that".

Another cause close to his heart is quelling any "self-righteous" attitudes about the young people he ministers to in the State's jails.

"I was preaching once that the people in jail, a lot of them, have made mistakes; a lot come from dysfunctional families, a lot have been led astray by bad friends.

"And you can't give up on people.

"I said the only difference between the people in jail and some people that have sat here in the church is that the (ones here) haven't been caught yet.

"They basically need just as much help and guidance as any other parishioner would.

"We're all sinners."

Fr Geoffrey says his evangelising to young people is helped by his knowledge of the principles of musical composition.

"I know what elements to put in and where (in order) to get the point across."

He is enthusiastic about the use of the internet in evangelisation as well.

"The internet witnesses to the important truth that the Catholic Church is indeed universal when the internet is used in the service of God's Kingdom," he writes on the diocesan website.

A piano sits in his office in the episcopal residence in Strathfield and he has been playing music from his latest book, Gathered As Your Church Vol 2.

Fr Geoffrey has composed hymns, chants and Mass settings for use in both the Roman and Maronite Church and adapted Syriac and Arabic chant for English use in the Maronite dioceses of Australia and the US.

Mass settings Fr Geoffrey has composed include the Mass of the Good Shepherd, which he completed as a seminarian; the Mass of Life, composed for Parramatta diocese's 10th anniversary and Mass for the Kingdom.