Priest’s dark past no match for mom's prayers

VANCOUVER—If there was hope for Father Rob Galea to turn his life around, there is hope for anyone.

Father Galea, a musician-priest, flew from Australia to Vancouver to tell Catholic teachers and principals at an educators' conference how to help change the lives of troubled youths.

He first snuck into a night club when he was 14 years old. He had jumped out of the window at his parents’ home after they had fallen asleep and, two years too young to enter, had friends slip him inside.

“When I started to drink these beers, I started to feel confident,” he told more than 1,400 people at the Catholic Educators’ Conference Feb. 8. “I continued to drink. After the drinking, then came the smoking. Eventually I would go to the clubs week after week, hanging out with my friends, and I couldn’t stand hanging out with my parents.”

Drinking led to smoking cigarettes, then to marijuana and party drugs. “I found myself, before my 15th birthday, already addicted to so many things.”

He began shoplifting. At first, it was just for the thrill. “I wanted people to think I was cool,” Father Galea said, recounting the first time he stole something: vanilla flavouring from a grocery store.

“It made me think that I could get away with anything. From the vanilla, it led to a pair of sunglasses, to a T-shirt, to seeing my mom’s handbag and taking things and eventually going to my friend’s houses and taking things from there. It reached a point where it did, as the other things, become an addiction.”

His addictions, lies, and stealing had his friends always trying to get him out of trouble. By the time he was 16, they'd had enough and told him they were through.

Friendless, he continued clubbing. “The only people who would hang out with me were these gangsters, these thugs. They were the guys who would deal the drugs,” he said.

“They would go around with knuckledusters and folding knives. One of them was expelled from school for showing up with a loaded gun to show how tough he was.”

With them, the troubled youth’s life became more violent. He recounted how he was dare to steal a cap off a man’s head at a McDonald’s. When he did, his new friends descended on the man and severely beat him.

“I took my cap home and I was still on a high,” said Father Galea. “But when things calmed down, I started to worry.  ‘Does this 30-year-old guy have a wife? Does he have kids? Is he going to die?’”

The questions didn’t stop the teenager from seeking affirmation from his gangster friends. They dealt drugs together and constantly got into fights.

“My life started to spiral. I was totally messed up and numb inside. One day, I was sitting in the night club. As I was in the night club, a group of friends said: ‘Quickly! Get out of here.’”

One of the gang’s leaders, Chris, had learned the young Galea had lied about him and was coming to find him. Terrified, Galea ran to his parents’ home, where he had not lived for years, and knocked on the door at 2 a.m. His parents let him hide inside.

“Chris didn’t find me, but he found my best friend Daniel. They cornered him in a hotel and got his head and slammed it against the hotel door. He ended up in intensive care.”

When he heard the news, Galea stayed hidden in his room for six weeks, leaving only to eat. “I had reached the end of myself. I used to cry myself to sleep and every morning think of ways I could end my own life. I used to harm myself just to feel alive,” he said. “It was the worst time of my life.”

He didn’t know it at the time, but as he cried in his room for six weeks, his mother listened on the other side of his locked door, praying for him.

“I stand here today because of the perseverance of my Mama. Because of her prayer. Because of the fact that she continued to believe in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. She continued to pray for me even when I hated myself. She wanted to give up and my addictions kept getting worse and my behaviour got worse, but she continued and prayed and I stand here today because she refused to get off her knees.”

Eventually Galea stepped outside his home to attend a youth group his sister had been invited to. With the help of good mentors, his relationship with Jesus began to grow and he started cleaning his life up. By age 21, he was discerning a call to priesthood.

He is now a priest in the Diocese of Sandhurst, Australia, and has released eight music albums.

He encouraged the vast crowd of Catholic educators to be life-changing role models and mentors for their students.

“It is your privilege as parents and as teachers. You’re going to see so many students lose their self-confidence and so many in a dark place. Be the one who perseveres. Be the one who prays for your students. Sit down and by name pray for every one of them. Prayer is powerful. Prayer can change lives. Prayer can turn a life around.”