Young people from the diocese who attended conferences in Minnesota and Ohio received support from the Raising Vocations Collection
By Jeff Kurowski | On Mission
FREEDOM — Andrew Murphy of St. Nicholas Parish, Freedom, recalls wondering what he had gotten himself into during the summer of 2023, when he was one of 17 high school students from the parish on the way to the Steubenville Youth Conference in Rochester, Minn.
“We were on the bus and everyone was like, ‘What is this? What is it about?’” he said.
Classmate Ella Manteuffel said that she thought to herself, “I can’t wait to get back here” when the bus first departed.
What a difference a year makes. Both Murphy and Manteuffel, seniors at Freedom High School, said they were excited to attend this summer.
Twenty-one teens from St. Nicholas Parish were among the 103 young people on the Diocese of Green Bay trip to the 2024 Steubenville Youth Conference in St. Paul, Minn., July 26-28. Young people from the Diocese of Green Bay received a “nice surprise” this year,” said Tommy Nelson, youth evangelization coordinator for the Office of Evangelization, Youth and Young Adults of the Diocese of Green Bay. More than 300 young men and women from the Green Bay Diocese registered to go to the Steubenville Youth Conference received financial support from the Raising Vocations Collection.
Some parishes arranged their own trips to Steubenville Youth Conferences. For example, five parishes in Appleton united to take approximately 95 teens to Steubenville, Ohio, and a group of about 40 young people from Oconto Falls and Laona traveled to Rochester, said Nelson.
“It’s a prayer encounter through talks, but mostly the highlight is Eucharistic Adoration, just encountering Christ in a powerful way through confession and Adoration,” said Nelson, describing the Steubenville Youth Conference experience.
“To see other kids from other parts of the diocese on the same bus is pretty cool, but then to see 2,000 kids from across the country in the same arena worshiping the Lord is pretty awesome,” he added.
Murphy said that “you can’t have expectations, but just need to go with an open mind.”
His relationship with the Lord grew through the conference experience, he added.
“I didn’t have a close connection with God (prior to attending his first conference),” he said. “I believe in God and go to church every Sunday. This really opened my eyes to realize that he has a plan for us.”
“The first year, I went into it not really fully believing in God. I didn’t know who he was,” said Adria Ponschock, a member of St. Nicholas Parish and a junior at Freedom High School. “During (the conference in Rochester), I realized that he’s real and he loves us.”
Marny Clark, who forms the discipleship team along with Jennifer Jochman to serve young people at St. Nicholas, said that she has seen a change in the teens who attended the conferences.
“I think going to Steubenville for the kids has opened a whole new door for them to see Jesus in the Eucharist,” she said. “It has provoked them to want a relationship with him. They see how he has touched them. They felt his love by his invitation to draw closer to him. Adoration is a really big thing that they desire to bring back to our parish. They want it here. They want to understand him more and grow with him more. That desire is placed on their hearts.”
Adoration is the highlight of the conferences, said Murphy.
“I witnessed him more last year in Adoration,” he said. “I was just sitting there and my hand started to shake. I was holding it with my other hand. Five minutes later, my whole body started shaking and I just went black. I don’t remember anything that happened, but I felt like he was close to me.”
Ponschock had a similar Adoration experience this year at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, where the Steubenville Conference was held.
“I was kneeling and my arm went numb, so I sat down,” she said. “I heard a voice say, ‘You can rest in my arms,’ so I fell asleep. (Jesus) showed me he is real.”
“When Adoration came, after (the monstrance) came up to our row, I felt such a presence, an overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness,” said Manteuffel about Adoration at her first Stuebenville Conference. “I felt safe. It was a turning point for me. I believed in God and went to church. Now, I genuinely go to church for my own well-being, because I want to go. It definitely changed who I am.”
Manteuffel added that she appreciates the opportunity for reconciliation at the conferences and encourages young people to go to confession.
“It makes me feel better,” she said. “I feel like so much weight is lifted off my shoulders. I like going to confession. Whenever we have the chance, I go.”
Fr. Agustino Torres, a priest with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, based in the Bronx, N.Y., was a hit with the teens in St. Paul.
“He knows how to make it fun for everyone there, especially for people in their first year,” said Manteuffel.
The messages from the speakers stick with you, she added. Manteuffel said that her favorite speaker from the St. Paul Conference was Sr. Josephine Garrett, a sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
The “fire in their faith” from the Steubenville experiences has led the parish to offer more faith experiences for young people, said Clark. A “Night of Healing for Teens” has been added to the calendar on select Sundays at St. Nicholas Parish.
“They can come for reconciliation if they choose. We have Jesus exposed in the Eucharist. We do some praise and worship and we also have time for a prayer team,” she said. “It’s something we are trying to bring to the community to know that God is continuously healing. It’s something to help them continue to grow.”
A Monday morning offering for teens is also in the works, said Clark. Young people will be invited to come before school for Lectio Divina. Some teens have mentioned that they want to “open up God’s Word,” she said.
Another benefit of the Steubenville Conference experiences is the relationships the youth build with each other. Murphy said that he now talks to peers he never engaged with before.
“They open up and you get to see what’s on their heart,” he said. “They talk about what they’re going through. It’s cool.”
The teens also started a group chat.
“They ask for prayers. They just talk to each other, send out positive things, lifting each other up,” said Clark. “They share different feast days, different music. They formed their own lifeline.”
Note: Thanks to generous families like yours, the Raising Vocations Collection helped more young people discover Christ and say “yes” to a vocation. To learn more about how young men and women are discovering Jesus and hearing God’s call through the Raising Vocations Collection, visit Raising Vocations – Catholic Foundation – Green Bay, Wis (catholicfoundationgb.org).