By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper
MIAMI | Coming soon to a church near you: extended hours for confession. And this year they’re coming with a new video and poster promoting the annual Lenten event.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Kelsey Gibson and John Oliva of Digital Cut Productions look over their work while taping a Reconciliation Weekend promotional video at St. Mary Cathedral.
Reconciliation Weekend is set for Friday, April 5, and Saturday, April 6 – the weekend before Palm Sunday. Most of the archdiocese’s 109 parishes and missions will be making priests available for confession for a couple of hours on Friday evening and most of the day on Saturday.
From March 27 through April 5, Comcast subscribers will be able to catch one or both newly produced 30-second spots aimed at encouraging Catholics, especially those who might be away from the Church, to “accept the invitation to go to confession” this Lent, said Mary Ross Agosta, archdiocesan director of communications.
Agosta supervised the production of the spots, which were created by Digital Cut Productions, the South Florida-based company that also produced the “Reflections on the Priesthood” video shown at the Archdiocese of Miami’s 60th anniversary gala in October. (Watch it here: https://bit.ly/2O5yTm0.)
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Father Juan Gomez, parochial vicar at St. James Church in North Miami, acts as if he is imparting absolution during the taping of a Reconciliation Weekend promotional video at St. Mary Cathedral.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Father Lazarus Govin, pastor of St. Martha Parish in Miami Shores, pretends to start a confession with Tamara Genna during the taping of a Reconciliation Weekend promotional video at St. Mary Cathedral.
The “stars” this time are Father Lazarus Govin, pastor of St. Martha Church in Miami Shores, and recently ordained Father Juan Gomez, parochial vicar at St. James Church in North Miami. They helped to recreate the sacrament of confession – both the face-to-face and anonymous options – with St. Mary Cathedral’s Deacon Sergio Rodicio and Tamara Genna portraying the penitents.
The archdiocese has purchased commercial spots to air from 6 a.m. to midnight during the March 27-April 5 period on the following Comcast channels: Fox Deportes, ESPN Deportes, Discovery en Español, MSNBC, WE TV, OWN, Hallmark Channel, CNÑ (español), TLC, ESPN, National Geographic, HGTV, Lifetime, Bravo, History and History en Español, and Food Network.
For those who do not subscribe to Comcast, the videos also are posted above and below this story and on the archdiocese's social media outlets: Facebook (@ArchdioceseofMiami), Twitter and Instagram (@CatholicMiami), and YouTube (CatholicMiami). There will even be a “watch party” on social media March 27 where people can post that they saw the TV spots and whether they’re accepting the invitation.
This Lenten opportunity to begin anew through the sacrament of reconciliation dates to 2011, the year after Archbishop Thomas Wenski arrived in the Archdiocese of Miami.
As he explained then, “this Weekend of Reconciliation is not meant to replace scheduled celebrations of the Rite of Reconciliation in our parishes but rather to make this sacrament of God’s mercy more available to our people.”
He added: “I pray that the Lenten season – and the Weekend of Reconciliation – helps bring all Catholics – both active and those who may have fallen away – to an experience of the Divine Mercy of Him who in dying and rising for us has reconciled us to his Father and to one another.”
