SEEK 2026 conference inspires local attendees

By Bill Doyle
CFP Correspondent

Julia Saksa is an electrical apprentice for Kuik Electric in Uxbridge. So it should come as no surprise to hear how she described attending the SEEK2026 Conference last weekend.

“Yeah, it was electric,” she said. “Sparks flew.”

You didn’t have to be an electrician to feel that way.

The annual SEEK conference held by FOCUS inspires college students and those of college age who do not attend college, to pursue and deepen their relationship with God. The conference gets its name from John 1:38 in which Jesus asks his disciples, “What do you seek?”

Miss Saksa, 20, of Northbridge, was one of 34 young adults from the Diocese of Worcester who accompanied Father Donato Infante III and Father Derek A. Mobilio to the conference in Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 1-5. Father Infante is director of the diocese’s Office for Vocations and Father Mobilio is pastor at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Worcester. They work with FOCUS Team Worcester.

Father Alfredo R. Porras, director of the diocese’s Office for Divine Worship and chaplain at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, also went with WPI students.

The summer before her sophomore year at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Upton, Miss Saksa traveled to New York City on a Young Neighbors in Action mission trip with fellow parishioners from St. Patrick Parish in Whitinsville. The students slept at a church and volunteered at food pantries.

This was her first SEEK Conference, however.

“It was amazing,” Miss Saksa told the Catholic Free Press via cell phone while accompanying others from the diocese on the 14-hour bus ride home that arrived in Worcester at 3:15 a.m. Tuesday. “I didn’t set an expectation or a bar for how great it could have been, but it exceeded everything that I could have thought about it. I was left awestruck and in wonder almost every day.”

Other SEEK conferences were held at the same time in Denver, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas.

According to the Catholic News Agency, more than 26,000 young people attended the three conferences, a 24 percent increase from last year and the most since the SEEK conference launched in 1999. Columbus drew more than 16,100, Fort Worth had 5,907 and Denver had 4,503.

Fifty-eight Catholic bishops attended SEEK this year, up from 46 last year, and attendance by seminarians nearly doubled.

Miss Saksa’s best friend, Evelyn Pohlman, 20, of Northbridge, said she loves being a parishioner at St. Patrick Parish where she sings at the Sunday night Masses, but she doesn’t see many people her age at Mass. The youthful enthusiasm at the SEEK conference gave her hope for the future of the Catholic Church.
Photo Courtesy of Father Donato Infante
Father Donato Infante with seminarians Mateo Pacheco and Lucas Albuquerque at the SEEK conference.“Everybody who thinks young people are not interested in Catholicism is completely wrong,” Miss Pohlman said. “It was amazing being surrounded by so many people that were so passionate about it and believed the same things as me and were searching for the same things as me. It gives you hope.”

Miss Saksa described the bishops and priests processing in on the first day as “jaw dropping and probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

The students were surprised to view a recorded video message from Pope Leo XIV asking them what they were seeking.

“In this conference, he showed me that he’s real,” Miss Pohlman said. “He gave me peace, he gave me strength. Now I’m going to be looking to deepen that relationship.”

“I was probably looking most to deepen my faith,” Miss Saksa said in agreement, “and it definitely opened a whole new horizon.”

Daniel Gronek, 19, of Oxford, is a sophomore at Assumption University. He called Pope Leo’s video message “surreal” and he said the pope’s willingness to provide a message showed how important the conference was.

Miss Saksa especially enjoyed experiencing Adoration at the conference with Miss Pohlman. They registered for SEEK after attending four Newman Nights at Our Lady of the Angels Parish last fall.

“I never thought I would be so at peace with myself,” Miss Saksa said, “and with something higher than me in my faith. I cannot wait to go back home and tell people about what I experienced and what they could experience as well.”

Miss Saksa paid half of the $800 cost of the trip and her boss, Tom Kuik, paid for the other half. Miss Saksa considered it money well spent.

“I’m kind of sad to go home,” Miss Saksa admitted.

At the conference, Miss Saksa went to confession for the first time in what she said was five or six years. Miss Pohlman said it had been about four years since her last confession.
“It was absolutely, completely freeing,” Miss Pohlman said. “It felt like every weight in the world had been taken off my shoulders.”

Miss Pohlman said she had been looking for God to become more a part of her life so she decided to attend her first SEEK conference.

“There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in my life this past 2025,” she said. “I think what I really needed most was peace and I absolutely found that. One hundred percent.”

Miss Pohlman credited the conference speakers with giving her advice about what she should be looking for and how to lead her life.

“It gave me a direction rather than just wandering around aimlessly and hoping for the best thing,” she said.

The theme of the conference was “To the Heights!” a joyful phrase often stated by St. Pier Giorgio, who was canonized last September. Bishop Earl Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus told the conference attendees that the theme spoke to challenges that young adults face, including loneliness and mental health struggles.

This was the sixth SEEK conference that Father Infante attended and he also took part in one in 2021 that was remote.

“SEEK isn’t just a conference, but a pilgrimage,” Father Infante said.

Father Infante said a seminarian from the Diocese of Worcester told him that he felt the calling to become a priest after attending a SEEK conference two years ago and that a third of seminarians in the U.S. discovered their callings through FOCUS.

Two seminarians who are from the Worcester Diocese traveled to the conference with their group from Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Providence, Rhode Island.

“The speakers are good,” Father Infante said, “but it’s really that encounter with our Lord and the sacraments that I think moves them the most.”

Mr. Gronek is a lector and former altar server at St. Joseph Basilica in Webster. Three of his friends convinced him to join them and attend his first SEEK conference.

“Going into it I was in a little bit of a spiritual downplace,” Mr. Gronek said. “So I was seeking some kind of a rebirth, some kind of a motivation or a fire to build within me. I was seeking some community, some new friendships and honestly a good time. I’m never surrounded by this many faithful Catholics. So it was great.”

Mr. Gronek was most impressed by the talk given by Father Mike Schmitz, director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and the Chaplain for the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Father Schmitz talked about how the sacraments prepared people for the final judgment and that Catholics should enjoy their lives for as long as they can, but to not fear death because they will be with God for eternity.

Mr. Gronek was inspired that everyone sang and responded during Mass.

“Everyone here, you could just tell, was just very passionate,” Mr. Gronek said. “They wanted something deeper. They didn’t just want to have a good time.”

Mr. Gronek works summers for his father’s construction business, Aden Construction, so he was able to pay for his own expenses, but he helped raise funds for others.

Miss Pohlman said she and Miss Saksa plan to attend the SEEK conference again next year when it will be held in Columbus again. Mr. Gronek said he’s considering returning as well.