The Hindu : International : Reaching out to the sinners

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 26, 2006

International

International

Reaching out to the sinners

John Hooper

Rome: The beaches of Italy offer a wide variety of facilities: loungers, umbrellas; ice creams, of course; and, increasingly, a chance to get a massage or a tattoo. But the Adriatic resort of Pescara can now offer a unique attraction — the opportunity to emerge from a night of partying with a soul wiped free of sin.

Don Vito Canto, a 33-year-old priest from a village near Pescara, says he had listened to confessions "almost uninterruptedly" from Saturday night into Sunday morning at a makeshift shrine on the sands. Backed by volunteers calling themselves the Lifeguards of Jesus, Father Vito and another priest were on hand to offer penance from 10 at night until one in the morning.

"Some people were a bit mistrustful and others were sarcastic. But in general the reaction was very positive," he said.

Some 30 Lifeguards of Jesus fanned out from the nearby Church of St. Peter to fish for souls among night-time revellers. Their outpost on the sands was made up of a crucifix, a host in a monstrance and a lifebelt.

The Adriatic coast is a dance culture heaven. "But," said the priest at St. Peter's, Monsignor Vincenzo Amadio, "we have to get in touch with people in the places where they are. We are changing from a church that called people in — ringing bells and the like — to one that goes after them."

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