by Bonnie Collings
Building a community and engaging with young parishioners are two of the Reverend Father Brendan Hogan's goals for the Warragul and Drouin parish in 2025.

Appointed to the parish in early January last year, Father Brendan said he had felt welcomed into the West Gippsland community and wanted to continue building connections with parishioners.
"Warragul, Neerim South and Drouin are amazing communities," Fr Brendan said. "They're very loyal...you can see the parish means a lot to them. They're faithful, they give to their parish, sustain community."
Originally from Sale, Fr Brendan had an interesting journey into priesthood.
With a former South Melbourne footballer Kevin Hogan as his father, Fr Brendan grew up playing AFL with his siblings.
"I'm one of nine children, eight boys and a girl and we all played football," Fr Brendan said. "I played football for Sale against Warragul. Coming here (the Warragul and Drouin Parish) was familiar in a way, some of the names around were all names involved in football when I was playing."
While he felt the call to priesthood during his late teens, it wasn't until he was 36 that Fr Brendan became a priest.
"I was thinking of priesthood from about year 12, but it wasn't until my brother died when I was about 21, that it started to become a bit more of a commitment in my life," he said.
"I didn't respond so quickly because I wanted to explore life a bit."
Fr Brendan took up carpentry, working for a builder in Sale for five years before taking up a position as a youth worker with the Diocese of Sale.
During his time as a youth worker, Fr Brendan said the priests and the community around him encouraged him to consider priesthood.
"It was on a (retreat) weekend that a person in my small group said 'you'd be good at this, have you ever thought about it?'," he said. "At that stage I was a bit shocked by it, even though it was in my thinking. For somebody to name it for me, it just sort of threw me a bit."
After finishing his time as a youth worker, Fr Brendan trained in primary teaching before beginning the process of applying to the seminary.
Once he was accepted, Fr Brendan travelled overseas for a year, still unsure of his calling.
"I still had that uncertainty in the back of my mind, even though I felt the call," he said. "I thought if it stays with me right through that journey, then I can say this is a genuine call."
Travelling through the Americas, Europe and England, Fr Brendan said the call to priesthood was "there constantly."
"I had a year's leave from primary teaching and eventually I had to ring and say 'I've decided to go into the seminary'," Fr Brendan said. "That was sort of the turning point."
After seven years of study in the seminary, Fr Brendan made his formal commitment to priesthood at 36-years-old. He was appointed to the Bairnsdale parish as assistant priest before spending time in churches across the Orbost parish and eventually being appointed parish priest in the Narre Warren parish.
"It's been a journey through priesthood," he said.
"When you sign up and start the journey, you can't believe the blessings that come back to you," he said. "You think you're in a role where you're giving to others, but in actual fact, the gifts keep coming back to you in so many different ways."
During his first year at the Warragul and Drouin parish, Fr Brendan said eucharistic celebrations were a highlight.
"People come from all walks of life, all sorts of challenges, but they want to be here on a Sunday to pray and receive the eucharist," he said. "I find that really inspiring."
Fr Brendan said one of his key focuses for 2025 was building community within the parish, utilising concepts from divine renovation frameworks and the Alpha program - a series of interactive sessions where life, faith and meaning were explored.
"When you come to a parish, the challenge is how do you build a community?," he said. "How do you get people to know each other, reach out to others? The parish has got a great community already so you're working with what is already here to make that grow."
Alongside building community, Fr Brendan said another goal for 2025 was connecting with young parishioners.
"Probably the greatest challenge we face at the moment is how to engage young people in the church.
"How do you make relevant the message that Jesus gave all those years ago to young people today? It's not something you can force feed, it's an encounter that has to happen for each individual young person."
Fr Brendan said he hoped the Alpha program would help young people to feel engaged and connected with their faith.
He encouraged newcomers to the parish to be "patient with the journey into parish life."
"There's ups and downs in the journey, but there's prayer and spiritual support," he said. "While there might be a bit of dis-heart in those early stages, trust in the slow work of God in your life."