• How can you say confession is a “joy” and a "celebration”, when to me it seems to be a sad and difficult time?

What I feel when I receive this sacrament is a deep joy because I know I am loved fully, I am treated like a new person, every misdeed has been forgiven, wiped away as if it never happened. I feel a new enthusiasm, a chance to start again.

• Do you think it is a good idea to include in the World Youth Day something as outmoded as Confession? For years now in my parish only old people go to confession…

I think that a young pilgrim in search of his call in life may appreciate the value of the sacrament at the sight of 300 confessionals. To fail to love... to realize it...to ask forgiveness, to start out with a new heart...seem to me to be actions linked not to any age, but rather to the movement of the heart. To train our heart to love ever more intensely and to remain in communion with the One who is Love, seems to me to be a job for anyone but the “old ones”!

• Why was it decided to organize a celebration of Penance on a large scale? Isn’t Confession essentially a private affair?

Of course the Sacrament is a strictly personal encounter with an exclusive embrace which the Father has for each of his children. The joy of a new conversion is, on the other hand, a joy for the whole Church and it will be made publicly visible through the young people who will celebrate with us at the end of the celebration of the sacrament. Moreover, the preparation of this community event intends to offer everyone a chance to make a sincere examination of conscience and to be a visible sign of a penitent Church anxious to be ever more pleasing to her Lord.

• What is the meaning of a Sacrament lived in such a particular context? Isn’t there a danger that it will be just an isolated moment in my life?

  Yes there is a danger of it being an isolated moment. Here I see a great challenge for each individual, to prepare for this moment profoundly, so as to live the Sacrament as an intimate personal encounter which makes you a new person. Prepared in this way, Confession during the World Youth Day can be a lap on the journey of conversion of each of us, to continue when we return home.

If you are still not sure,
don’t hesitate to send us your questions!

Let us take part together in the 15th World Youth Day of 2000
Let us live with enthusiasm and participation the World Youth Day
If you want to communicate with us contact our e-mail address Circomassimo
Comitato Italiano GMG2000 - Servizio Confessioni Circo Massimo
Via della Pigna, 13a 00186 Roma
Telefono: +39 06 69876911   Fax: +39 06 69880500