Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 29, 2024 / 07:00 am
For the first time, the annual Fellowship of Catholic University Students’ SEEK conference next month will take place in two locations: Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., as national attendance for the event continues to grow.
“After the growth of SEEK over recent years we are excited to offer the opportunity to attend SEEK in locations that are more convenient to attendees around the country,” the event website indicates. “Our regional SEEK location will have the same quality of world-class speakers, ability to connect with our dynamic sponsors, and opportunity to come together with a community of seekers and believers to worship, pray, receive, learn, and connect in a regional location.”
The Jan. 2–5, 2025, satellite event in Washington, D.C., is completely sold out. The regional event will mostly mirror its counterpart in Salt Lake City but will not include the “Making Missionary Disciples” (MMD) programming track geared for Catholic adults in any stage of their faith journey.
The MMD program, which will take place exclusively in Salt Lake City, is especially designed for clergy, lay leaders, parish staff, and FOCUS alumni along with parishioners and benefactors in general who “long to see their parish, diocese, family, or community experience deep transformation in Jesus Christ and who desire to be a part of the solution,” the organization explained.
Speakers for SEEK25 in Washington will include Father Chase Hilgenbrinck; Dr. Matthew Breuninger; Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT; Edward Sri; and Father Gregory Pine, OP. In addition, the D.C. event will also include entertainment from Christian indie folk artist Jervis Campbell.
“SEEK has been gaining momentum,” Jake Leins, the senior director of conferences at FOCUS, told CNA in an interview. “What we’ve actually found is that we are outgrowing convention centers, most convention centers, because we use space differently than many other conferences.”
“We want everybody who attends the conference to be able to go into the same room for Mass and in the same room for our keynote sessions, which takes up a massive amount of room,” he explained.
The locations for SEEK26 will be announced on Jan. 2.
According to Leins, FOCUS is motivated in its decision to both allow people to experience SEEK “without losing anything” that makes SEEK what it is and to “cut down on travel time and travel costs, which can be a barrier sometimes for people.”
“We hope to bring SEEK closer to different audiences all around the nation so that as we continue to grow, we can actually accommodate that growth,” he continued. “If we stayed at one location, we actually would not be able to continue to grow at the rate that the Lord has been blessing us with.”
The theme for SEEK this year, “Follow Me,” originates from the words of Jesus Christ, who said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).
Leins, who has attended SEEK a total of 13 times, described the conference as “a beautiful picture of what the Lord is doing in the Church in America and around the world,” put on by missionaries for missionaries.
“My experience was that I was living a pretty prodigal life in college, and SEEK in 2013 was the first time that I really encountered Jesus in a powerful way,” Leins told CNA. “It changed my entire life, the trajectory of my life.”
“I’m just grateful for the Lord’s providence, and now I oversee the conference,” he added.
SEEK24 saw record high attendance, with over 24,000 college students, alumni, parishioners, priests, and bishops from the U.S. and abroad gathered at the America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis. According to a press release following the event, there was an 80% increase in clergy attendance last year, with 44 Catholic bishops attending the conference as well as hundreds of priests and seminarians.
Father Mike Schmitz is scheduled to return to SEEK25 in Salt Lake City along with Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Father Robert Spitzer, Arthur Brooks, and numerous other Catholic speakers. Forrest Frank, lead singer of the band Surfaces, will provide the featured entertainment for the Salt Lake City event.
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