GENERATIONS OF FAITH

Special collaboration leads to unique April event in Diocese of Albany

Will Capuano and Jim Cuggino might be separated by decades in age, but both share a deep commitment to understanding and growing the Catholic faith.

Capuano, 26, is a parishioner at the Church of St. Peter in Saratoga and the founder of Spa City Catholic, a young adult group based out of Saratoga, which started in February 2023. 

Cuggino, who turns 90 on April 5, is the founder of the Goodwill Network, which is a grassroots organization whose goal he says is “trying to understand the church as a living, evolving organism rather than a sect.” 

And a chance meeting after a Mass at St. Clement’s Church in Saratoga Springs led the pair to collaborate on an event that intends to bridge the gap between older and younger generations by having discussions about the faith and how they can better serve each other and the church as a whole.

The event is called the “Generations of Faith” breakfast gathering and it will take place on April 13 at the Knights of Columbus in Saratoga Springs (50 Pine Road) from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Along with the breakfast, the topic of the discussion for the morning will be “Who is My Neighbor?” Young adults between the ages of 18-39 and young adults at heart (65 and over) are encouraged to attend this free event.

“This is the epitome of the essence of collaboration where the Diocese is working with a young adult regional group and working with active parishioners in making something great happen,” said Thomas G. Cronin, the diocesan director of Evangelization & Strategic Planning, who has known Capuano and Cuggino individually for years.

But the chance meeting between the two — who are now fast friends — at St. Clement’s sparked the collaboration that began as Capuano’s idea.

“I had a vision of organizing an event where young adults share a meal with those of the older generation and talk about how both can help each other and the church,” Capuano told The Evangelist via email. “I told Jim about this and he said he wanted to help out. He shared with me a visual that I just love of the older generation bringing the wisdom and the younger generation bringing the energy to use that wisdom to build up the church. 

“And now here we are with Generations of Faith, a collaboration of Spa City Catholic, the Diocese of Albany, the Goodwill Network, Knights of Columbus and St. Clement’s Parish, that will help make that a reality. I am very excited.”

Cuggino saw the youthful Capuano at Mass and “I approached him and asked him where he was on his journey? He told me that he was spiriting a youth group and when I heard that I told him about my group and I thought maybe if we collaborated we might be able to have breakfast and have a generational dialogue.” 

The dialogue will be centered around the aforementioned theme of “Who is My Neighbor?”

“I would say that I have two goals for the gathering in April. Going along with our theme for this specific breakfast of ‘Who Is My Neighbor?’ and the Good Samaritan parable that we’ll be diving into, I am hoping that people can leave our gathering knowing what this type of situation from 2,000 years ago looks like in our world today and with an action plan of how to better seek out our neighbor,” Capuano said. “My second goal would be to organically bring people together from both generations as one to learn from each other and grow in friendship.”

Cuggino sees bridging the communications gap between the generations as key.

“Intergenerational communication will be beneficial for both the young and the old. I feel that young people need the company of older people to help them journey though the struggles of the high number of divorces, the breakdowns in marriage and the secularization of education,” he said, “and many older people sometimes are just abandoned because they are old. I think there is a huge communications gap that can be beneficial for the building up of the church.”

Generations of Faith is a collaboration between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, Spa City Catholic, Goodwill Network, St. Clement’s Church and the Knights of Columbus. There is no cost for the breakfast, but a “free will offering” will be available. All attendees MUST register because space is limited. To register, use this link: https://

forms.gle/FZKKJhyZxEoyFgF97. For more information, please contact Trip Gagnon at trip611@

aol.com.