DOT youth join participants from around the nation in Steubenville

For 50 years, summer Steubenville Conferences have been forming teens in the faith and deepening adults’ faith journeys.

Sprouting from a single priests’ retreat in 1975, the conferences have made a measurable impact on service to the U.S. Church in parishes, dioceses and national apostolates.

Joined by hundreds of other attendees, St. Mary teens participate in Eucharistic Adoration during the July youth conference. Courtesy photo

Fifty-five high school teens from St. Mary Parish’s Life Teen youth ministry, Middletown, journeyed to Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio for the July 11-13 youth conference. The week drew thousands of Catholic high school teens from across the country into a weekend of Eucharist-centered worship, teaching and fellowship.

“To see our teens worship, pray, and encounter the Eucharistic Lord so deeply is one of the greatest joys of my priesthood,” said Father Jeff Kegley, pastor of St. Mary’s. “This generation is hungry for God, and they’re discovering that only Jesus can truly satisfy. We are witnessing the beginning of a revival among Catholic youth.”

Gez Ford, newly appointed youth minister in St. David the King Parish, West Windsor, has worked with youth for years and has taken groups to the conferences for decades, both to Ohio and Steubenville East in Springfield, Mass.

“It has always been a life-changing event for those who attend,” said Ford, who is on track for ordination to the diaconate in November. “We are rebuilding our youth and young adult program, and we WILL be going to Steubenville next year!”

Raising the Bar

Four youth conferences, and all six of the adult conferences this year, are on the campus of Franciscan University of Steubenville, where the series started. The rest of the 15 youth meetings are happening across the country and in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Between 600 and 4,500 attend these, according to organizers.

A three-day program for high schoolers is built around the person of Jesus Christ, said Franciscan Father Dave Pivonka, who directed the conferences for 30 years. Father Pivonka, president of Franciscan University, also speaks at the conferences.

He said young people come to know the love of God in the proclamation and preaching of the Gospel, raising awareness of the Real Presence at Mass and Adoration, “and that’s the extent of it. God does really great works in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

“Young people love to have the bar raised for them,” he told OSV News. “We’re not compromising. We speak about eternal realities, we speak about sin, and we speak about mercy. And when presented with the entire Gospel, our experience is the young people actually respond quite beautifully. So, you’ll find … (people) that are in their 60s that 45 years ago had the encounter with the Lord that radically changed their lives.”

Surveys in 2024 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate show 15% of seminarians to be ordained that year had attended a Steubenville youth conference, and 14% of religious who made solemn professions of vows then also attended a conference.

Brian Kissinger, executive director of Steubenville Conferences, said this year’s theme, “Consumed,” is a take on God’s all-consuming love as found in Deuteronomy 4:24.

The conferences explore what young people are consumed by nowadays: social media, too much “screen time” and seeking popularity, said Kissinger. And at the conferences, participants find the antidote is God, who “wants to consume us in a way that doesn’t take away our freedom or individuality but really makes us fully alive.”

Real Transformation

Matej Živković, St. Mary’s new Life Teen Youth Minister, accompanied the teens and helped lead small group discussions.

St. Mary LIFE TEEN members gather at the July 11-13 youth conference on the campus of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. Courtesy photo

“This was my first Steubenville Conference with our group, and I am truly in awe of what God did in our youth,” said Živković. “Many experienced personal healing, deeper understanding of their identity in Christ, and a passion for living the Gospel. This is revival among our youth – and it’s just the beginning.”

“I had never experienced Jesus like that before,” said Abby Kistler, a rising senior. “During Adoration, I felt peace and love that I can’t even describe.”

Ben Constance, a recent graduate, added: “This trip changed my life. I now know God is real! I realized faith is about a relationship with Jesus who is alive and powerful. I want to live for Him.”

“When teens travel and see thousands of their peers worshipping the Lord together, they are changed,” Ford said of past conference trips. “Witnessing vibrancy through the liturgy, the Sacraments and the teachings of the Church, they are often inspired to share that encounter with others. Steubenville provides a platform from which true, authentic discipleship can springboard!”