December 10, 2025

By Keith Benman
Contributing Writer

Hundreds of young people from more than two dozen parishes around the diocese learned they are never alone in their Catholic Faith at four religious retreats in November.

Three of those retreats, in Plattsburgh, Massena and Adams, were for those receiving confirmation next year. Confirmation candidates heard 11 disciple-missionaries not much older than themselves recount their own stories of faith and conversion. The young missionaries’ joyful witness took place during a six-hour retreat filled with fun, games, discussions, and then prayer and quiet reflection.

Isis White, a 7th grader from Our Lady of Grace parish, said playing games and talking in small groups with other confirmation candidates was the best part of the morning for her at the retreat at St. Mary’s social hall, in Massena, on Saturday, Nov. 22.

“It’s been great meeting new people,” she said. “I was expecting like having the same people I knew here. .. I got to hear about some of the problems affecting them. Here, they have someone to share them with.”

The missionaries leading those small group discussions were from NET (National Evangelization Teams) Ministries. Their home parishes are in places as far away as Texas, California and the United Kingdom. They each do two-year stints traveling around the nation putting on religious retreats for young people.

“We’re not teachers, we’re witnesses,” said NET team leader Anthony Frisina. “So we really share our own experience of how we came to believe in our Faith.”

Frisina is a 20- year-old from St. Peter Cathedral parish, in Erie, Pennsylvania. Before Saturday’s event started, he noted it was the 181st retreat he had conducted.

Two days before, he had been at Immaculate Heart Central School in Watertown doing a “Created and Claimed” school retreat for about 90 students.

“It was a really great retreat, he said. “They have a lot of foreign exchange students attending there, so to be able to talk to people from all over the world and share our faith with them was really cool.”

NET Ministries has come to the Ogdensburg diocese for a number of years now to put on retreats for confirmation candidates. As word about the retreats has spread, more and more parishes are opting to send their young people to the NET retreats. This year, the eastern region had a record number participating in its confirmation retreat with 95 candidates from 14 parishes coming to Holy Cross Parish Center, on Sunday, Nov. 23.

As much fun as the games and other activities provide, some young people say it’s the more reflective part that really sticks with them.

“I really liked Adoration because we had quiet time to pray,” said Scott Ellis, of St. Alphonsus, in Tupper Lake.

That came as no surprise to Anita Soltero, diocesan faith formation director for the eastern region. She remembers seeing the young confirmation candidates at Adoration at a NET retreat for the first time some years ago.

“The kids really get hit with the spirit at that time,” she said. “It was like they were all dead silent, staring up at the Eucharist. It was amazing.”

Adoration gives the young people a great chance to reflect on all they’ve heard during the day, Soltero said.

Matthew Siskavich, of St. Bernard’s, Ellenburg said hearing the testimony from the NET missionaries will help him persevere in his faith.

“I really liked the retreat because it gave me courage,” Siskavich said.

It was the same mix of fun, games, prayer and testimony from NET missionaries on Friday, Nov. 21, at a confirmation candidates’ retreat held at St. Cecilia’s Church, in Adams. About 80 candidates attended there.

“The kids get to see there are young people out there who take their faith seriously and are happy and joyful about it,” said Catherine Russell, diocesan western region faith formation director. “It’s that ‘I’m not alone’ sense.”