On May 18, 2026, Friar Jacob Carazo, a friar of the St. Joseph of Cupertino Province, was admitted to the college of Confessors at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He will join an international group of Conventual Franciscan Friars who live at a Friary at the Vatican and serve as Confessors.
Congratulations, Friar Jacob! May God bless and protect you. We will keep you in our prayers.
Inside the Vatican, there is a large, dormitory-type building housing Conventual Franciscan Friars from all over the world. A dedicated group of about 14 Conventual Franciscans live on-site and hear confessions full-time at the basilica. They come for varying lengths of time, but all with the same purpose: they offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation to catholics at St. Peter’s Basilica in 15 different languages. Pope Clement XIV, who was a Conventual Franciscan, officially entrusted the ministry of reconciliation at St. Peter’s to the order in 1774.