“For a priest, being able to hear confessions gives meaning to his ministry. It is restoring peace; it is making God’s love present,” said Father Rodolfo, a Pallottine priest who heard young people’s confessions during the Nov. 10 vigil with Pope Leo XIV at the Monument of the Spaniards in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Speaking with EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the priest noted that “the confessor is a mediator; it is Jesus who forgives, it is Jesus who welcomes the sinner, but being able to serve as that mediator fills me with joy and gives meaning to my life.”
When asked what he would say to young people who do not go to confession, the priest emphasized that he would remind them that “they would always experience themselves as loved by God. God’s gaze is a gaze of love, and the sacrament is a sign of that love and so I would encourage them to come forward.”
Regarding his experience with Pope Leo in Argentina, Father Rodolfo shared that he is experiencing “immense joy. In my Sunday homily, I said: ‘The pope’s arrival, the mere fact of his coming, will not change anything; what will change us is listening to him, because his message comes in the name of God.’”
“These young people,” he emphasized, “can hear the pope’s message, a pope who is truly focused on Jesus. He is a man of God, but one with his eyes open to reality. I believe he has much to say to young people, as well as to us priests, religious, and adults; he conveys a message rooted in our own reality and places Jesus at the center.”
The priest expressed his hope that by the end of the vigil, the young people would “take with them the knowledge that Jesus loves them with an eternal love. He loves us where we’re at, not in spite of our limitations, but right along with them. God’s love forgives and transforms.”
Catalina Albrecht, Marcos Fratantoni, and Belén Lisdero, students at the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, contributed to this report.
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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