Pardon and Peace program
Celebrating a ‘joyful sacrament’ for the first time
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — “It feels good to tell your sins to the priest.”
That’s the conclusion 8-year-old Sean Cunningham reached after making
his first confession at St. Matthew Church recently.
The son of Sean and Amy Cunningham and a second-grader at St. Matthew
School, Sean said he felt “awesome” after making his first
confession to his pastor, Msgr. Charles McGroarty.
“It’s fun not to have sins,” he said.
Cardinal Justin Rigali also heard the first confessions of a group of
second-graders from St. Matthew School — as well as adults’
confessions — during the archdiocesan Bicentennial Lenten program,
Pardon and Peace, on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at the church on Cottman Avenue
and Battersby Street in the Mayfair section of the city.
Through the program, the sacrament of reconciliation is to be available
in every church in the Archdiocese from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. every Wednesday
during Lent.
“My dear children, you have come here today to celebrate a joyful
sacrament,” Cardinal Rigali said prior to hearing their individual
confessions.
“When you were little, you received the sacrament of baptism and
became a child of God. … Now you are older, and Jesus comes to you
again. … Soon, you will go to speak to Him in confession, where
He will give you His forgiveness and peace. He will make His love grow
in you, and fill your heart with joy.”
In preparing for their first confessions, the young penitents read aloud
a children’s version of the examination of conscience, which included:
“When boys and girls are playing and one child decides to push,
fight or be unfair, all the children become unhappy.”
Another second-grader, 8-year-old Alyssa Mehaffey, daughter of James and
Diane Mehaffey, was also happy about having made a good first confession
to Msgr. McGroarty.
Alyssa was afraid she might forget some sins but she said afterward that
she’d remembered them all. “Telling my sins and getting forgiven”
was the best part, she added.
“Just as the children are initiated tonight, we look forward to
the fact that Jesus will always be with them as He is with us,”
Cardinal Rigali said in his homily.
“He is always there in our weaknesses, in our faults, in moments
when we fail because it assures us of His loving understanding and His
forgiveness.”
The beauty of the sacrament of penance, the Cardinal continued, is that
the blood Jesus shed on the cross makes it possible for any sin to be
forgiven at any time: “So great is His mercy, so great is His love,
so great is His pardon, so wonderful His peace.”
Confession, the Cardinal continued, “is the instrument for all of
us to receive the merits of Jesus Christ.”
The Cardinal led the children’s parents and guardians in a special
prayer, and commended all who helped prepare the children for their first
confession.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.