The Church alive: Young adults attend SEEK conference; Fort Worth to host in 2026

Diocesan college youth pose with Bishop Michael Olson at the SEEK 2025 annual conference for Catholic college students, held Jan. 1-5 in Salt Lake City. (Courtesy photo/Midwestern State University)

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — Big groups are not her thing.

A self-described “homebody,” Erin McCutcheon loves Mass and learning about the faith, but she had no interest in SEEK 2025, an annual national conference for Catholic college students, held January 1-5 in Salt Lake City. Her friends at the Catholic Campus Center at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls convinced her to go.

McCutcheon described the five-day gathering with 17,000 fervent Catholic college students from across the country as “breathtaking. It was just amazing.”

Despite a whirlwind of keynote addresses from renowned Catholic speakers, diverse workshops, exuberant concerts, and reverent Masses, the biggest impact on her came during the quiet of Eucharistic Adoration.

McCutcheon, who just completed her junior year, is still processing the conference. She said, “There’s just so much that you receive. I feel like it’s going to take a very long time for me to unpack it all; the graces are going to keep flowing for a long time.”

Making it possible

About 100 college students from six universities in the Diocese of Fort Worth attended SEEK 2025. St. Mary Parish in Graham also sent some young adults.

However, the expense of airfare, lodging, meals, and the conference fee can be prohibitive.

That’s where creativity and community stepped in.

Students at Tarleton State University made and sold 4,500 tamales to raise funds. Along with support from family, friends, St. Brendan Parish, and the Knights of Columbus, the campus ministry raised almost $40,000.

Debbie Veitenheimer, campus minister at Midwestern State University, expressed her gratitude to parishioners at Sacred Heart and Our Lady Queen of Peace in Wichita Falls who donated the majority of the cost for the students’ airfare and housing, leaving the 13 MSU students responsible only for the conference fee.

The 12 students who attended from St. John Paul II University Parish fundraised with stamps and pens. They wrote letters to family, friends, and their home parishes and raised $1,300 each.

By the numbers

Many who attended the conference found great joy with the large number of priests, bishops, and religious men and women present.

An emotional moment for Jeff Hedglen, campus minister at University of Texas at Arlington, was the entrance processions for Mass, in which priests walked in four abreast. “I’m not exaggerating. It takes eight to 10 minutes,” he described, adding the majority of the priests were under 40.

SEEK reported that 489 priests and 46 bishops attended the conference, including Bishop Michael Olson, who was the main celebrant of the closing Mass.

McCutcheon sat on the front row of the closing Mass along with other young adults from the diocese, and she prayed as the bishop who confirmed her celebrated the Mass.

“It was a beautiful Mass; I loved it,” she recalled. “The singing of all the students — more than you can really fathom — praising the Lord. My heart was lifted up with everyone else’s voices.”

The conference had a powerful impact on students and clergy alike.

Father Ed Hopkins, pastoral administrator of St. Brendan Parish in Stephenville, described SEEK as the Superbowl of campus ministry.

“To see 17,000 students on fire for the Gospel, walking with Christ, living for the Gospel — it fills you full of hope. The Church is strong, and the Holy Spirit is moving,” said the priest, who spent “hours and hours” hearing confessions from the students.

The Tarleton students had a great experience, the priest said, and he hopes they “bring back enthusiasm for the Gospel and the courage to proclaim the Gospel, to be witnesses in their own lives and witnesses for the Gospel on the campus of Tarleton State University.”

Of one accord

Sam Macaraeg, campus minister of University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University, said the conference was the culmination of three major faith formation events for Denton students. They attended the diocesan college students retreat in October, then a campus retreat in November.

“They saw the Church alive at the diocese level. They saw the Church alive in our campus ministry. And then being around 17,000 faithful Catholics — this is what life is intended to be like — the joy and the ability to talk to any person. They saw the Church alive all over the place,” he said.

Nathan Mena, campus minister of Tarleton State University, said that in addition to having a deeper encounter with Christ, the Tarleton students “felt like they had found a family, in the Church at large but also among each other. Their relationships with each other have grown deeper.”

Moving forward

Mena pointed out to the students that went that SEEK is not just a five-day retreat.

“The encounter continues. … When you come back to campus, share that zeal, share what you experienced. Don’t let it stop in Salt Lake — bring it back to where you are,” said Mena.

Magali Castillo Nicolas, a junior at Texas Woman’s University, attended SEEK along with her older and younger brothers.

Just a day after the retreat, she already had three action items to keep growing in faith: a Marian devotion (“recognizing Mary in our lives and bringing her into every situation that we find ourselves in”); an awareness and openness to the constant presence of the Holy Spirit; and an understanding that God is always with us and truly loves us.

“God seeks to change our lives and transform our lives,” Nicolas said, “Every challenging thing is an opportunity to grow. It just depends on what we choose.”

For Jeff Hedglen, campus minister at University of Texas at Arlington since 2012, networking with other campus ministers and gleaning new ideas from workshops was helpful. However, he said the conference reminded him that prayer is his top priority.

The veteran ministry leader explained the college students are on the front lines of campus evangelization, inviting their peers to Mass or ministry events.

“My work is in the Eucharistic chapel, praying for them, praying for these students we have yet to meet,” he said.

Bring it home

Screams and cheers erupted from the hundred diocesan attendees when conference officials announced that Fort Worth is one of three locations selected to host SEEK 2026. Although planning for the conference, which is scheduled for January 1-5 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, is in its early stages, the Diocese of Fort Worth will be tapped to help with hospitality.

“Texans are really good at hospitality,” said Veitenheimer. “Bishop Olson said we do things big in Texas, so we’re going to do this big too. It’s a new opportunity for evangelization and for sharing the goodness of the Catholic faith in Texas.”

Hosting the 2026 conference eliminates the hurdles of transportation, and perhaps lodging, for nearby faithful. Bishop Olson and campus ministry leaders anticipate strong participation from young adults in the diocese.

Mena, who attended the Salt Lake City conference with 39 others from Tarleton State University, hopes to double that in 2026.

Bishop Olson also challenged the diocesan campus ministers to invite Catholic college students at universities and college campuses without a Catholic campus ministry to attend the SEEK 2026 conference.

Nicolas, the Texas Woman’s University student, plans to return to SEEK in 2026 with her two brothers, and include her sister, who is a high school student.

“It truly is such a phenomenal experience. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone, and you really get to experience what it means to be Catholic,” she said.