Father Leonard Moloney has had a bird's eye view of what it means to be ayoung man in Ireland today, writes Louise Holden. As he hands over to Belvedere College's firstlay headmaster, he reflects on a decade of challenges for young men, theirparents and, particularly, the Catholic Church

Belvedere College, bearing all the hallmarks of affluent suburbia, has thrived at the heart of Dublin's north-east inner city for over 150 years. Well-heeled, high-achieving and thoroughly Jesuit, the school is incongruous in its own location where low income, educational disadvantage and multi-ethnicity are the norm.

Current headmaster Father Leonard Moloney is about to pass the reins to the school's first lay headmaster. Father Moloney has steered Belvedere through a decade of sudden wealth that has turned our national attitude to money on its head. He has stood at the helm of a Catholic bastion during the most humiliating decade in Church history. Moloney has shepherded school-age boys in a "cult of youth" era when many parents are nervous of taking charge.

Leonard Moloney has had a bird's eye view of what it means to be a young man in Ireland today. It's a much analysed demographic that's at the highest risk in every area from suicide to drug abuse.

Money has played a central role in the changing fortunes of male Irish youth - and not necessarily for the better, Moloney contends. "When I was in school, I was blind to my appearance. That was the norm. Now boys are spending a lot of money on clothes and are really focused on the way they look. They have more money to socialise and it's feeding the culture of alcohol. I don't think the lure of soft drugs has changed all that much from the 1970s, but the drink culture is totally different from anything their parents went through."

Moloney is sympathetic to the position of today's parents where discipline is concerned - they're caught between the responsibility of authority and the desire to be friends with their children. "Have the courage to be a parent," Moloney tells families seeking his advice. "There's tension between your role as a parent and your memory of being a teen in the 1970s - that's natural. But you have to be consistent and confident in your role."

Communication is a vital skill to encourage in young men, who may struggle to express themselves, Moloney contends. There are unique pressures on families in Ireland that make a challenge of fatherhood, and Moloney has found the cultures of southern Europe far more family-friendly than here, where alcohol may call the shots.

The rise in the cost of living has also made it difficult for young men to move to the next stage. "Many parents of former pupils ask me why their 30-year-old sons are still living at home. They expected them to get jobs that were better paid than theirs, and to be able to support families. Even those who do start families are finding it hard to blend work and family life. Women are much better at that."

There has been a necessary social readjustment that has made it more acceptable for women to be breadwinners, says Moloney. It's hard on boys, who haven't really moved away from the notion of man as hunter. "The male desire to win, and the pressure that is on him to provide, has not gone away," he says.

"I hope that the Jesuit education sends students out to be open and creative with their lives in a time when roles and social mores are changing. Sexual identity is an issue for a number of outgoing sixth years every year. When the boys start out in first year, there's a lot of slagging around the area of homosexuality. We try to foster sensitivity to difference as they come up through the school. The Church is publicly unambiguous about this issue in its teaching. The challenge is to deal pastorally with these issues in a sensitive manner."

The Jesuit schools in Ireland haven't produced a priest in over 20 years. "There is a real recognition in the Order that no one is coming up behind us. We have to look to the future, and be prepared to hand over to people who share our commitment and ethos without necessarily sharing our vocation. The most exciting initiatives in the Jesuit schools in the last 20 years have come from lay staff."

The fact that Belvedere is a fee-paying school has been controversial in Jesuit circles, so, some years ago, management decided to engage with the realities of the city they worked in. The Social Integration Scheme was introduced in 1984 and has brought 15 students a year from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to study at Belvedere. The scholarship scheme has been successful, but it was not easy to establish.

"You could argue that our school culture is shaped by the students coming in, including the scholarship students. For example, it was suggested that we move away from rugby and cricket and concentrate on soccer and GAA. In the end, we decided against it. Rugby is a team game with an educative dimension where a whole range of abilities are required."

An important part of selecting candidates for the scholarship programme - which is not academically based - has been finding parents willing to provide the background support necessary to get a child through secondary school. "This is an academic school - we still study Latin and Greek. There are sacrifices involved in coming here, not least of which is the journey into the centre of the city everyday. Also, we are an unapologetically Catholic school, while, of course respecting other traditions. Scholarship students and their families, like everyone in the school, must have an openness to Christian values. If families aren't 100 per cent behind the students then the scholarship scheme doesn't work."

It's a tall order finding ideal candidates every year. I put it to the principal that anyone with such a high level of family support is already advantaged. Surely if the Order wanted to reach out the community in a meaningful way, they would find room for students whose families were not so well disposed?

"It is not in the gift of the Order to do that. National resources need to be redirected to disadvantaged children much earlier - at the pre-school stage - if they and their parents are to be given a chance to succeed at primary and post-primary level."

The Jesuit Order, and the Church more broadly, is going through a very difficult patch, Moloney concedes. He is glad not to have been a bishop in the last decade. "Thank God that the sin is now public. It was much worse when it was secret. This process will lead to a healthier Church."

While many clerics may have lost the confidence to "proclaim the Word", Catholic teaching in Jesuit schools has not been undermined by recent revelations, Moloney maintains. He does admit, however, to a nervousness of the media. "I was not looking forward to this interview one bit. "

At a recent Jesuit convention in Warsaw, the heads of schools from all over the world discussed the declining number of Jesuits and the rise of the lay administration in Jesuit education. Was it a sad realisation?

"I think that the laicisation of our work is the answer to our problems in many ways. The call of Vatican II was for the Church to be defined as the people of God. Perhaps the decline of the priest is part of that process. I see the hand of providence in all that is happening now."