This week-long conference is packed with keynotes and breakout talks from well-known Catholic speakers, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, daily Mass, opportunities for confession, and additional experiences including exhibitors, a concert, and live podcast recordings. In addition, the 2025 SEEK conference occurred simultaneously at three locations worldwide to accommodate an ever-growing number of attendees: Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., and overseas in Cologne, Germany. This change drew record numbers with over 17,000 attendees participating from Salt Lake City, over 3,000 from Washington D.C., and over 400 from Cologne. 

The Diocese of Saint Petersburg sent a large delegation. Approximately 60 college students from the University of Tampa, University of South Florida, and Eckerd College attended the Salt Lake City location. Two staff members from the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, 10 seminarians, and our Director of Vocations attended as well. Melissa Mulson, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, and Brendan de Padua, Associate Director for Young Adult Ministry, attended SEEK and experienced how successful the conference has become at drawing college students in.  

“You have an event that advertises an authentic Catholic experience, in which people have the opportunity to come and be fed by good content from well-known and established speakers, as well as to be fed spiritually by the Lord in Mass, and Adoration, and Confession,” he said. “And people are accepting this invitation by the thousands.”  

SEEK is a place to connect with the Lord while also having an opportunity to connect with each other. Many college students and adult attendees alike find SEEK to be a time of rejuvenation of their faith and simultaneously a time to reconnect with friends from other schools or areas of the country. “Having the opportunity to talk and pray with professionals and young adults attending the conference was very life giving for me,” said Mulson. “It is amazing our diocese supports us in our ongoing efforts to serve the youth and grow our young Church.” 

The many keynote and breakout sessions offer an opportunity to be called deeper into the faith while rooting that faith in the sacraments. Attendees often cite a call to allow the Lord to lead them into deeper faith and trust in the Lord’s love and plan for their lives following the conference.  

A vital component of SEEK and other events like it is the challenge extended to young people to take their boldness, courage, and love of the Lord back to their communities and beyond a one-week conference.  “I think that our Church is alive and well, and I believe that if more people would take these incredible experiences they receive and share them with their family and their friends and whoever else is around them, the world would see that the Church is thriving,” shared de Padua. “It is my hope that all attendees from our diocese have the opportunity to share their experiences with another person.”  

While a common concern among older Catholics is that the Church is dying and young people are not taking their faith seriously, events like SEEK are indicators of young people living their faith boldly and seeking to be transformed by Christ. Countless photos across social media of attendees on their knees in adoration and flooding the hallways of the convention centers demonstrate the Church is not dying but rather thriving.  

“The question is ‘what do we do when we go home?’,” asked de Padua. “I believe the answer is simple: Go to Mass. Make time for personal prayer. Go to confession when you need to. And don’t keep your faith to yourself.”  

FOCUS officially announced that the January 2026 SEEK conference will offer three United States locations in Denver, Colorado, Columbus, Ohio, and Fort Worth, Texas.  

The education and formation of the Youth and Young Adult Ministry staff of the Diocese of Saint Petersburg is supported through donations to the Catholic Ministry Appeal. To learn more about the appeal or to make a gift, visit http://www.dosp.org/catholicministryappeal.