“They’re the saviours of the world the Millennials,” he said.  “They feel things very deeply. They’ve got ideas about new ways of doing things and we need to listen to them.”

The outspoken priest made an impassioned plea for communities to work together to end homelessness and social inequality during a visit to Damascus College on Monday. He visited year 11 students as part of the school’s Religious Education program.

Each year, 16 students are selected travel to Melbourne as part a social justice retreat run by the school where they visit the Father Bob Maguire Foundation which supports Victoria’s most disadvantaged people including those caught in a cycle of homelessness and substance addiction.   

“To solve any of the problems we’re facing from homelessness to the refugee crisis you need a mixture of generations working together,” he said. “The kids have got the information, the old people have got wisdom.”

Father Maguire said curbing social inequality was “hard yakka” but not impossible. 

“The virus we are seeing in society is ‘community collapse disorder’,” Father Maguire said. “Our most disadvantaged are struggling. But the vaccine is building communities and connecting people because we’re in this together.”

Touching on recent tensions involving gangs of juvenile offenders in Melbourne, Father Maguire implored communities to reach out to troubled youth.

"Apex gang is a label we put on them because we don't who or what they are,” he said. “We label things, we label people instead of respecting them or trying to understand them."

When asked about controversies surrounding the federal government’s asylum seeker policy Father Magurie said the answer was simple. 

“Open the door and let them in, they’ll save us just the same as our immigrants did in the 1950s. They have so much to offer communities.”