Fr Kevin Lee receives the $20,000 cheque on his ‘escape’ from Triple M DJ Brendan Jones.
Spending three weeks locked inside Melbourne’s former Pentridge jail to win $20,000 and other prizes in a radio station competition was “a walk in the park” for Fr Kevin Lee compared with the hectic demands of parish life.
And it brought “unexpected blessings”, in particular the conversion of a fellow contestant who asked to be baptised after asking Fr Kevin about the Catholic faith.
The priest’s rivals for the prize missed family, television and mobile phones. Not so, Fr Kevin. “It was like a retreat, I used the time to reflect,” he says.
As part of Triple M’s Escape from Pentridge competition, the police chaplain and assistant priest at St Michael’s, Baulkham Hills, lived prison life inside the old jail with seven other contestants from November 12–30.
Their own clothes, books, alcohol, CDs, mobile phones and cigarettes were banned.
They were also under constant surveillance through web cameras so people could watch them through the radio station’s website and talk with them via a special chat line at night.
The only concession made for the priest was that he was allowed to take in what he needed to say Mass every night in his cell.
People ‘tuned’ in to the Internet Mass, says Fr Kevin.
“They would say: ‘I was with you when you were saying the Mass. I was praying with you’,” he says.
Fr Kevin earned the most points by successfully completing challenges like picking a lock, having his head shaved, composing a song and reciting a memorised text.
He says the worst challenge was being hosed down despite chilly temperatures.
‘The Padre’, as he became known to Triple M listeners donated his $20,000 cash prize to the Mathew Talbot Hostel for homeless men.
He also won a trip to Switzerland and a car; he has yet to decide whether to keep it.
Fr Kevin, not a regular listener to Triple M himself, heard about the competition through his brother.
“My brother is in advertising and he said: ‘This will be a great opportunity for the Catholic Church to be seen to be reaching out to where people are instead of waiting for them to come to you.’ He said here was an opportunity to talk to people where they are.”
Fr Kevin, “knew I had a good chance of winning, but I thought the challenges would be things like pushups and running”.
His involvement in a publicity stunt for the pop rock music station was controversial, especially when people heard what he would have to do to stay in the game.
“When I told the bishop I had entered and was going he was very supportive,” Fr Kevin says.
But there was also some disquiet about whether it was ‘appropriate’ for a priest to spend time in jail this way.
“But I thought if I’m going to be in it I have to submit myself to and do everything the others have to do,” he says. “I couldn’t ask them to treat me differently (such as) not swear around me.
“And, out of those bad things, good things did come.”
For example: “I had heaps of opportunities to talk about the Catholic faith and why it is the true religion,” he says.
One night he was woken up to talk on the station’s late-night program. He discussed the priesthood, celibacy and the Church with two presenters. One defended him; the other “didn’t know what I was talking about”.
He found out later that it was a program on sex issues.
“They were really great, they gave me free reign to talk about that on a commercial radio station where people were listening to the program to get advice about sexual problems,” he says.
Two other presenters, both Catholic, gave Fr Kevin lots of precious air time over the three weeks and he says he tried to make the most of it to promote the Church.
“I did it so that young people who don’t know anything about the Catholic faith and wouldn’t get the chance to hear about it could hear about it.
“And also, as we have a shortage of vocations, so that people might see a priest as a normal person and see it as a radical way of life.”
Fr Kevin was embarrassed to hear that the radio station staff had told the people at Matthew Talbot about his intention to donate the prize money.
“What if I hadn’t won?” he asks,
Fr Kevin says he hopes he has encouraged others “to donate to Matthew Talbot, especially as Christmas is coming up – I was able to publicise them a bit”.
He says: “I’d like to see them have regular counsellors for the men, not just give them a sandwich and send them off again but have someone their to listen to their life’s story. And that will take a lot of money.”
Fr Kevin got a huge reception from young parishioners on his return to St Michael’s.
“The Masses were booming on the weekend. Even the kids from the public school where I teach religion came out,” he says.
“Those kids who don’t usually turn up to church came up to see me. They may not keep coming, they might, but at least when we have the end of term school Masses they’ll see me and go: ‘we know him’.”
Television’s A Current Affair also followed the unusual competition. As the prison gates closed behind Fr Kevin on the first day, he was asked if he was nervous.
“It’ll be a walk in the park,” he answered.
At the end of three weeks he was asked him if it had, indeed, been that easy. When he answered, “Yes” the reporter said he didn’t seem a very humble winner.
“I said: ‘But I had God with me all the time. There was never a moment that I felt worried’.”
