Contact: Mario Bruschi, Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Adults, 917-597-3453

NEW YORK, Feb. 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Adults (CSPYA,) in association with the Archdiocese of New York, is pleased to announce an event that is specifically targeted to engage the Catholic laity of New York during the 2009 Lenten Season.

"24 HOURS OF CONFESSION" is scheduled to take place between 7:00 A.M. on Friday, March 6th, 2009, through 7:00 A.M. on Saturday, March 7th, 2009, at various parishes throughout the borough of Manhattan.

The Cathedral of Saint Patrick and 20 other area parishes are participating in this unique event. Many of the participating parishes have extended their hours for hearing confessions, targeting those Catholics who have not yet found the time to receive the Holy Sacrament of Reconciliation. The participating parishes will be keeping their "confession doors" open for a total of more than 120 hours during this 24 hour period.

"Thousands upon thousands of Catholics line-up to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday each year... imagine if these same thousands of Catholics line-up for confession? It could be a tremendous day for Our Lord," says Mario Bruschi, Director of the Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Adults. "The Archdiocese of Chicago organized a '24 Hours of Grace' event in 2007, with 7 parishes participating. On that day, 2,500 souls attended confession. That equates to 105 people attending confession per hour. The Archdiocese of New York has three times the amount of parishes participating in this event and we hope and pray that three times the amount of people go to confession."

For a full list of participating parishes, please visit www.cspya.org, and click on the "24 Hours of Confession" hyperlink on the homepage. You can also visit www.events4jc.org and click on the "24 Hours of Confession" event listing for March 6th, 2009.

For more information about this event or to speak with an event manager, please contact
info@cspya.org, or call (917) 597-3453.