Editing Nico's Youth Group Years (section)

=== The Summer Retreat ===
From July 31 to August 11, 2022, the youth group traveled to Umhausen in Austria for their annual summer retreat (Sommerfreizeit). This trip would prove to be a turning point.

As a recently baptized member, Nico was placed into a prayer ministry team alongside his uncle Mimmo. Their task was to pray for people who came seeking spiritual help—individuals who arrived hoping their lives would change. What Nico witnessed disturbed him profoundly.

The team would pray in tongues over the seekers, then pronounce prophetic words: "You were hurt as a child," "I sense that you did this or that." These statements were, in Nico's assessment, pulled from thin air—guesses based on reading people's body language and emotional state, dressed up as divine revelation. Some statements went further, implying serious sins like abortion. Looking back, Nico calls the entire practice "godless"—a complete catastrophe that exploited vulnerable people. He knew at the time that it was wrong. He felt it in his conscience. But once again, he went along with it.