Learning more about the sacrament of penance will enhance most Catholics’ spiritual health, but for local teenagers it also may boost their financial well-being.
The Diocese of Rochester is sponsoring a video contest based on the sacrament and open to students in grades nine through 12 who either belong to a diocesan Catholic parish or are enrolled in a Catholic high school within the diocese’s 12 counties.
The diocese is inviting students to explore any dimension of the sacrament of penance, also known as reconciliation, and create a video based on what they learn. They may work individually or in groups, and must upload their finished videos to YouTube. A committee will review all of the videos, which will be judged on content, theology, film technique, creativity and use of the video to spread the word about the sacrament of penance.
The top three videos will be posted on the diocesan website, http://forgiven.dor.org, on Feb. 24, at which point online voting will commence. The winners will be announced on March 5, which is Ash Wednesday. The creators of the first-, second- and third-place videos will win $500, $250 and $100, respectively. Teens who won prizes in last year’s video contest are not eligible to win prize money again this year, but are encouraged to create and submit new videos for possible inclusion in the video gallery on the Forgiven website.
The video contest will precede the diocesanwide Day of Penance, which will be held April 14. Every parish in the diocese will offer the opportunity for individual confession during a specified time frame on the Day of Penance.
Participants in the video contest must visit the Forgiven website to download applications, and completed applications must be returned by Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. to the Diocesan Pastoral Center, 1150 Buffalo Road, Rochester, NY 14624. All applications must include the links for participants’ video submissions.
