Pastoral workers urge adapting street kid programs to local realities

Published: 2004-10-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Father Guy Gilbert does not look like your ordinary priest: Sporting a star-studded, black leather motorcycle jacket and smoking rolled cigarettes to their stub, he seems more like the street kids he has been helping in Paris for the past 40 years. And that is precisely the point. "At the beginning, dressing like this helped me enter into contact with young people. I will dress like this till the end of my days," said the priest, whose organization, La Bergerie de Faucon, has the mission of saving troubled teenagers' souls. "We want young people to understand that one is not born a delinquent, but one becomes a delinquent, and that one can stop being a delinquent through a strong educative program," Father Gilbert said. The French priest was one of several pastoral workers from 20 countries -- most from the developing world -- who attended the first international meeting on the pastoral care of street children sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. During the Oct. 25-26 meeting, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the council, said the United Nations and Amnesty International estimate that there are between 100 million and 150 million street children in the world.

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