Father Geoffroy Génin, a 69-year-old French priest, offers confessions to skiers while riding the chairlift once a week in the Alps. The priest wears ski attire, including goggles and a ski suit, while conducting this "open-air confessional." His ministry aims to reach vacationers who double the population of his parish's mountain communities during the winter sports season. Father Génin stations himself near the ski lifts at the Val Cenis ski area every Monday morning in the Maurienne Valley.
23 days ago
Father Geoffroy Génin, a 69-year-old priest in France's Savoie diocese, offers confessions on chairlifts at Val Cenis ski resort every Monday.1
Dressed in ski gear with his parish name visible, he meets skiers in the Alps' Maurienne Valley.1
Originally from Lyon, Génin grew up as a "cultural Christian" without active faith.1
At age 35-36, a tourist visit to Cîteaux Abbey inspired his conversion; he was ordained at 43 in 2000.1
He later volunteered for Savoie from Lyon, drawn by his love for mountains.1
The idea began when skiers requested confessions after Sunday Mass near Easter.1
Génin met them the next day on a chairlift for discreet, 6-7 minute sessions, followed by skiing together.1
It proved effective, lightening hearts amid the mountains' elevation and perspective.1
He now serves parishioners, ski lift workers sharing prayer intentions, and even non-believers for casual talks.1
Génin adapts to vacationers in population-doubled mountain parishes during winter.1
He also uses tandem flex skis to help elderly or disabled individuals ski.1
Savoie's mountainous diocese, near Italy, has 60 ski resorts and a priest shortage.1
Génin embraces sports like skiing, hiking, and paragliding to connect with people "where they are."1
He follows local athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics, viewing sports as chances for evangelization.1
Investigate Catholic pastoral outreach in secular leisure settings
Catholic pastoral outreach in secular leisure settings represents a vital expression of the Church's missionary mandate, extending the Gospel into everyday spaces where people seek joy, creativity, and community apart from formal worship. Drawing from key Church documents, this outreach emphasizes presence, formation, and dialogue in arenas like sports, music, arts, and cultural events, fostering evangelization through servant-leadership and synodal practices. Such efforts integrate faith with human development, countering individualism while promoting values-oriented engagement.
At its core, Catholic pastoral outreach mirrors Christ's call to serve rather than be served, initiating disciples into a sensitivity for active engagement in diverse human experiences. This is not mere technique but a holistic formation linking human, spiritual, and intellectual growth, where participants—lay faithful, deacons, or communities—proclaim the Christian message, lead prayer, and witness charity. In secular leisure settings, this prophetic, priestly, and servant-leadership derives from baptismal consecration, demanding qualities like generosity, collaboration, creativity, respect for ecclesial communion, and obedience to bishops. The Church recognizes that those already involved in mission bring prior experience, which pastoral formation builds upon through broad exposures including youth ministry and service in varied cultural settings.
The Church actively plants itself in secular leisure realms such as sports, music, and art, where formation occurs alongside schools, universities, and social commitments. These "Catholic-inspired formation centres" stand on the "frontline" of an outward-moving Church, embodying synodality through friendly, participative relationships that prioritize lay leadership and family contributions. In these spaces, the Christian community witnesses to life, offering moral education rooted in Christ as the "icon of life in its fullness" and challenging dominant models of individualism and competition. Catholic schools and universities exemplify this by facilitating faith-culture dialogue, but the principle extends to leisure: in some contexts, these are the sole Church encounters for youth, valued even by other faiths for human development when infused with intercultural and interreligious sensitivity.
Pastoral outreach here is prophetic, promoting alternatives to secular excesses while engaging culture directly. For instance, sports events can integrate evangelization through team chaplaincies or faith-sharing gatherings; music and arts venues, via lay-led workshops blending creativity with Gospel values; all fostering missionary discipleship.
Preparation for such ministry requires structured pastoral dimensions, especially for deacons but applicable to laity. Initial formation exposes candidates to evangelization, catechetics, youth ministry, social justice, ecumenism, and service in cultural settings—directly relevant to leisure contexts like concerts or athletic fields. This builds confidence in abilities and awareness of limits, assessing fitness through demonstrated skills in proclamation, liturgy, and charity.
Synodal documents reinforce this by highlighting lay-led skills and organization in leisure formation sites, ensuring they become "fertile contexts" for mission. Diocesan plans should inventory media environments—including delivery systems like computer networks—and support outreach to professionals in these fields, emphasizing media education on values.
Effective outreach demands comprehensive pastoral plans for social communications, envisioning strategies responsive to contemporary issues. These include assessments of audiences, media producers, resources, and Catholic personnel; proposed structures for evangelization via press, radio, TV, cinema, networks, and telecommunications; dialogue with media professionals for their spiritual growth; and financial sustainability. In leisure settings dominated by secular media—think streaming arts events or sports broadcasts—this equips the Church to reach audiences where leisure intersects entertainment, promoting values amid cultural flux.
While sources affirm outreach's breadth, challenges include diverse cultural practices and the need for ecclesial obedience amid creativity. Secular leisure often risks individualism, yet Church presence offers prophetic witness. No document provides exhaustive tactics, but they converge on integration: deacons' servant-leadership, synodal lay dynamism, and communicative structures form a unified approach.
In summary, Catholic pastoral outreach in secular leisure settings is a dynamic mission of presence and formation, rooted in service, extending to sports, music, arts, and beyond. By leveraging deaconal training, synodal practices, and communication plans, the Church evangelizes leisure as a path to fuller life in Christ, calling all disciples to collaborative engagement.