It was an awesome sight: Students from all eight Niagara Catholic high schools, holding hands and swaying in song and worship, celebrating the power of reconciliation at an event focused on mercy as part of the Church's Jubilee Year of Hope.
The event at St. Alfred Church on March 26 was led by Frank Capisciotto, director of the Youth and Young Adult Ministry at the St. Catharines Diocese, and Nick Ali, its Director of Evangelization and Faith Formation.
Driven by the conversation Confession Changed my Life, during the morning of testimony the two shared their experiences with the grace that confession has brought to their lives.
For Capisciotto, the hope found in confession led him to what he called his first experience of feeling love.
He spoke about the girls he’d dated in high school, and the many times he’d been told “I love you,” but was unable to say it in return. Confession, and the relief of laying down the burden he carried, he said, changed that.
But a girlfriend wasn’t the object of the feeling he could now proclaim. Instead, it mended what had been given up as a shattered family relationship,
“It changed my heart,” Capisciotto said. “The first time I said I love you and meant it, it was to my great aunt.”
The event was a perfect tie into the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, and this Lenten season.
“Confession helps everyone. I wish more people understood that,” said Capisciotto. “I feel many people live with a lot of guilt and lack an outlet to express it. My hope with today's confession retreat is to help students understand that confession does not simply strengthen their relationship with the Lord, but also is a tool that relieves the weight of guilt.”
Ali spoke about his own experiences growing up with a cousin who was a priest, his own five years in the seminary training to be a priest, and the occasional awkwardness of confession to a close relative or people he was with every day.
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. “Don’t tell my mom.”
While that got a laugh out of students, many were visibly moved.
Normally, getting up and walking out on a speaker would be considered rude. But Ali, Capisciotto, and the chaplaincy leaders encouraged it. And so, students moved freely in and out of the presentation to receive the sacrament of reconciliation from five priests on standby, waiting to offer God’s grace to those asking for forgiveness.
“Confession is this great gift that God has given us. It’s a guarantee of God’s forgiveness of our sins,” said Ali.
After lunch, the students celebrated a music ministry led by Brock University students. At the back of the room, a trio of students from Saint Paul Catholic High School stood up and sang. At the front, two students from Denis Morris did the same. By the second song most students were out of their seats, linking arms or clasping hands, and singing along.
The day concluded with Mass celebrated by Monsignor Leo Clutterbuck.