Steubenville Shines: Conference Provides Inspiration for Youth and Adults
by Diocese of Des Moines | October 6, 2026
By Jason Feeney, coordinator of catechesis and evangelization at Christ the King, Des Moines
“They say I’m broken, alone, weak, fake, ugly, nothing, empty, lost, trapped, hopeless, dirty, desperate, ignorant, worthless. HE says I’m whole, loved, strong, authentic, beautiful, real, valued, blessed, found, seen, HE says I AM WORTHY.” –Steubenville 2026 promotional video, Franciscan University of Steubenville
When I became youth minister at Christ the King 8 years ago, my very first week on the job was attending that year’s Steubenville conference with 3 teens and 1 other chaperone. I had never attended a Steubenville conference before. I had attended SEEK as a Fellowship of Catholic University Students member, and later as a FOCUS missionary. Even later as a Youth Minister in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, I had attended the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC). When I first attended a Steubenville Youth Conference in 2018 I wished I had the opportunity to attend as a high school student.
The Steubenville conferences differ from a SEEK or NCYC in that they combine the traditional high energy atmosphere of those youth conferences that get youth excited about being part of the worldwide Catholic community and help them see that Catholicism extends outside of their home parish community, with a more prayerful atmosphere of a traditional retreat that reminded me of the Youth 2000 retreats I attended in middle and high school. This combination really sets up a unique experience that combines the best aspects of both experiences.
Having taken some of the same kids to both NCYC and Steubenville, those students preferred the more retreat like experience of Steubenville. Not that they disliked the experience of NCYC (they have expressed a large interest in attending again in the future), but they said that Steubenville helped them grow closer to Jesus Christ and His Church.
This year’s theme for the Steubenville conferences that occurred during the months of June and July 2026, was “Worthy.” Worth, both internal and external, is something that youth today appear to desperately seek. They seek validation from social media numbers, online attention, snapchat scores, and friend group approval. They avoid anything that might cause them to lose that validation because they perceive, correctly in most cases, that they are constantly being observed — stuck in a panopticon of potential ridicule and the ever present “cringe” that can ruin a young person’s life, they appear to be shut down or closed off to effort. They are unsure if they are worthy of their own effort.
Steubenville, through its various talks given by amazing Catholic speakers like Mari Pablo, Kyle Huelsing, and Father Brian Fallon (and many more across 19 different locations all over the country), small group discussion times, powerful adoration and confession services, and fellowship building fun activities, explores what it means to be truly worthy, not by some external metric — but what it means to be worthy in the eyes of God as his beloved son or daughter.
Whether they know it or not, young people seek this, and the numbers of attendance this year from our Diocese (and even in my own parish show it). Last year, Christ the King took just 10 youth and five adults; the year before Christ the King and Saint Luke’s Catholic Church in Ankeny partnered and brought 15 youth; this Year Christ the King, Saint Patrick’s Parish in Perry, and Sacred Heart Parish brought 52 kids (from rising 9th grade students to graduated seniors on their way to college) and chaperones (and one priest: thank you, Father Nick Smith). Saint Pat’s and Sacred Heart traveled to the conference for the first time this year and each bringing six and 10 youth respectively. Christ the King brought 26 youth to the conference, with over half of them are going for the first time to something like this. Seventeen of the participants were high school boys, a tough demographic to get interested in an event like this. Of those 17, only five attended a conference like this before. Twelve of them decided to come through invitation of their friends or siblings.
One particular group of eight boys started small with just one, whose older sister had come to one of the conferences a few years ago, Leonel (Leo). Every week at confirmation prep when I would bring up the retreat, he would lean to his friends and whisper. At first I thought he was doing what most teens do: goof around during opening announcements. When I was his age, I was guilty of doing the same thing. But after the third week of this, he approached me before small group break outs and asked, “If I go on the retreat how many of my friends can I invite along? Because I’ve asked my friends every week and I think we all want to go.”
And that one grew to four, and those four went to their separate small groups, and eventually grew to eight. And those boys, as high school boys are want to do, invited a few other girls to come along with us. And so, instead of taking a few rented mini vans, we filled an entire charter bus with kids seeking to get to know their worth through Christ in an amazing life-changing way.
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Steubenville conferences. I’ve been to the last eight. Each year we take a few more kids than the year before. And each year the conference continues to outdo itself in creating a sense of the universal church, and in engaging teens to grow closer to Jesus. This year the conference began with a very special message: The conference teens were greeted by a message for Pope Leo!
He spoke to them about how their sense of worth comes from directly how much God loves them. He told them how important it was for them to be there that weekend how God had planned for their attendance from the very beginning and that He had a very important message to teach them this weekend. Starting that way put the teen on the right foot ready to receive the message God had for their hearts.
The keynote presentations focused on how our worth can be torn down the world, our own self-perception, and our own sinful nature, and how none of that matters in the light of God’s overwhelming, never ending love for each of us. One of the speakers emphasized the point that, “There is nothing you can do to stop God from loving you.”
Throughout the weekend the teens were surrounded by the church. At least a thousand youth from around the Midwest and probably further attended the conference. The students got to see that the church extends further than their live experience. They also were surrounded by the presence of many vocations throughout the weekend. Over 50 priests and about a dozen religious sisters attended the conference as well and the students had the opportunity to converse with many of them about their vocations, have their confessions heard and just share lives with these amazing examples of how to love and be loved by Jesus.
I believe the atmosphere combines the best aspects of NCYC and a really solid retreat that promotes the experience that they are part of a church larger than their home parish. The presence of so many priests and religious at the conferences, and the deep talks and discussion the students are able to participate in are why for the last 50 years Steubenville conferences have made difference in the lives of teens in our country and will hopefully continue to do so for many more to come.