In 1976, Franciscan University of Steubenville held its first youth conference on its campus in Steubenville, Ohio. This summer, the Catholic university celebrates 50 years of a conference that has changed many lives.
Since its founding, the youth conferences have helped over 1 million young people encounter Jesus Christ through dynamic talks, the Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confession, prayer, and fellowship.
The inspiration for the conference for young people came after Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, former president of Franciscan University, held a conference for priests and asked them what the university could do for them. Their response? They wanted some kind of event for young people — specifically teenagers. The next year the first youth conference was held.
"It's really a beautiful testimony to God's faithfulness," Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, current president of Franciscan University, told EWTN News.
"I was thinking the other day that the teenagers that came to the first youth conferences are now in their late 60s, almost 70 years old," he added. "So that's half a century of young people whose hearts have been touched, who have encountered Jesus in the sacraments, who have encountered him in the community gathered of young people … it's just a tremendous milestone for the young people. Now, the fact that Franciscan University has been able to be a part of that and we had the vision to be able to provide this opportunity, I think, is just a great grace for us as well."
This summer, Franciscan University hosted four sold-out conferences on its campus in Steubenville with an additional 15 conferences taking place in cities across the United States.
Youth conference speakers this summer include Father Mike Schmitz, host of "The Bible in a Year" podcast; Chris Stefanick, author, speaker, and television host; Father Leo Patalinghug, author, podcast host, and priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; Katie Prejean McGrady, author and Catholic radio host; Paul J. Kim, speaker, author, and musician; and many more.

Brian Kissinger, executive director of conferences at Franciscan University, told EWTN News that "at the heart of our conferences, at the heart of this experience for young people, is the Blessed Sacrament."
He explained that they also try to keep the conferences "as invitational as possible."
"We know teens are coming from a million different places — not just geographically but emotionally, spiritually, catechetically. Some have great formation and loving Catholic homes, others are not Catholic but were just brought there by their Catholic friends," he explained. "So we really try to make the weekend as invitational as possible, to preach the Gospel message, which never changes, but always approaching the presentation of kerygma assuming that a teenager does not know the whole story."
One of the most impactful moments that takes place during the conference, Kissinger said, takes place during the closing Mass when the presiding priest invites young men and women to come forward if they heard during the weekend an invitation from God calling them to the priesthood or religious life.
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate's (CARA) 2026 survey of newly ordained priests, 18% of priests ordained this year attended a Franciscan University of Steubenville Youth Conference during their vocational journey.
Separate CARA studies found that 21% of women religious and 15% of religious brothers who recently professed perpetual vows also attended a Franciscan youth conference. Combined, 18% of newly professed religious men and women reported participating in a Steubenville Youth Conference — more than any other Catholic conference ministry in the United States.

So what is the secret to the Steubenville Youth Conference's success among young Catholics?
"People will often ask me, 'What's the secret sauce of the conferences?' But honestly, there's nothing complicated about it," Pivonka said. "What we do is we gather young people and we provide an environment where they can encounter Jesus. We do that through the sacraments. We do that through adoration. We do that through the sacrament of reconciliation. We do that through worship. And in the best way that we can, to kind of take down the barriers that might exist between that encounter."
"So, I'd like to say that there's some secret sauce but it's really just providing an environment for encounter for the young people," he added.
"I also don't buy into the whole 'young people aren't zealous or you can't challenge them,'" he continued. "I mean, we present the teachings of the Church without any hesitation. And what we're finding is that young people respond to that."
From reluctant attendee to joyful disciple
Elizabeth Feulner, an 18-year-old student from Syracuse, New York, has attended two Steubenville Youth Conferences.
In an interview with EWTN News, she shared that she was forced to attend the conference her first year. The youth group at her parish was just starting up and her mom received an email from the youth group leader giving her details about the conference.
"My mom was like, 'You're going to this. This sounds like a great opportunity. I wish I'd had this when I was your age.' And I was like, 'Wow, this is very short notice; I don't know if this is going to be my favorite thing.' So it wasn't really my choice the first year," Feulner said.
However, looking back at the first experience, she said it helped her "grow in my personal relationship with Jesus and in more outwardly showing that and being confident in that in a lot of ways in my life."
She pointed out that attending by herself the first year allowed her to "really sit there and feel the presence of Jesus and feel him working in my life," which then motivated her to find relationships "centered in God" when she returned home.

Feulner recalled the one moment that impacted her the most during that first conference: Eucharistic adoration.
That year, she attended the conference with a dislocated knee and had to walk with crutches. Adoration took place in the evening but during the day she had walked a lot and was in a lot of pain and was exhausted by the evening.
"I was sitting there during adoration; I was really emotional and the monstrance just stopped right over me and it just felt like for a moment it was just me and God and he was like, 'I see you and I'm here,'" she shared.
"I think that moment has shown me — and I've continued to try and allow it to show me — that he's always there," she added. "And so that physical representation of him being there, looking at me through the monstrance, it's like it's me and him. And that's continued to shape how I view my relationship with God especially through struggle and throughout my life."
When Feulner attended this year, she expressed having a completely different perspective and feeling extremely thankful for all the work God had done in her life since attending the first time the previous year.
Since then her youth group has formed and through that she has received Christ-centered friendships, her boyfriend of two years has now converted to Catholicism, and her younger sister was able to attend the conference with her this year.
"I just felt so thankful for the past year and for the community that I, honestly, never thought I would have as a youth," she said. "This past year has been so fundamental in finally having a community in Christ and in my faith and friendships that are just so unwavering."
Feulner said she hopes that for those who attend a Steubenville Youth Conference that they would have an "experience at some point that showed them that they know that they are worthy of his love, no matter what they've done and that they know that he sees them, whether they had that moment in adoration or not, that he truly sees them every single day and in everything they go through and that he loves them not in spite of that but because of that."
Information about upcoming Steubenville Youth Conferences can be found here.











