(OSV News) — Franciscan Father Rufino Corona still remembers how the Steubenville Youth Conferences impacted his vocation to the priesthood as a teenager. In particular, he recalled the priests he encountered there.
“I’d been told that I kind of had a priestly heart, and I never fully got that, because I never had that really modeled for me in a way that really grabbed my attention — until I went to the youth conferences,” Father Corona, a Fransican friar at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, which organizes the conferences, said. “I just saw these priests … on fire for the Lord.”
Today, he is one of those priests who ministers at the youth conferences, which are entering their 50th season this summer. Father Corona, together with other organizers, speakers and alumni of the conferences, spoke with OSV News for the anniversary. They pointed to an incredible legacy. Since 1976, the Steubenville Youth Conferences have helped more than one million teenagers encounter Christ through three-day events filled with prayer, preaching, the sacraments, Eucharistic adoration and community.
“This idea of bringing people together, give them good content, give them the truth, pray with them, let them pray with each other and then send them forth to go be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ,” Katie Prejean McGrady, an author, speaker, podcast and SiriusXM Catholic Channel host involved with the youth conferences, said. “That formula has worked for 50 years.”
McGrady and others pointed to the community and friendship that these conferences offer to everyone involved. Many of them, like Father Corona and McGrady, attended as teens themselves before joining as speakers and organizers. They highlighted the impact of adoration at these conferences and the beauty of young people realizing that God loves them and that they are not alone in their faith journey.
“A successful conference is (one where) a young person that walks away, they realize they have a God that loves them, a church that desires them and is always welcoming them,” said Franciscan Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan University, who has been a part of the youth conferences for more than 30 years.
This summer, organizers expect 43,000 teens to attend 19 youth conferences taking place across the country and in Canada from June to August. Four of the 19 are planned for Franciscan University’s main campus. The other 15 are held off-campus in partnership with different Catholic apostolates and dioceses.
A special message for young Catholics
This year, all of the conferences will feature something special: A video message from Pope Leo XIV to teens honoring the 50th anniversary. In the nearly eight-minute video, the pope reflects on St. Francis of Assisi’s example for young people during the Jubilee Year marking the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death.
“St. Francis’ message, and mine, is simple: true peace and perfect joy are gifts from God that come when we open ourselves to him and trust in his power to transform us,” he says. “What can we give him in return for such great love, for such generous gifts? Nothing but ourselves!”
The pope’s words follow reports finding that many conference attendees go on to dedicate themselves to God by entering the priesthood and religious life. According to a recent Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate survey of seminarians preparing to become priests in 2026, 18% of respondents attended a Steubenville Youth Conference. Additional CARA reports released this year find that 21% of women religious and 15% of men religious who professed perpetual vows in 2025 also attended a youth conference.
The beginning of something timeless
The youth conferences began after Franciscan Father Michael Scanlan, president of Franciscan University 1974-2000, held a summer conference for priests in 1975, Father Pivonka said. When Father Scanlan asked the priests what the university could do for them, they encouraged him to do something for young people.
Brian Kissinger, executive director of conferences at the university, added that a youth conference was held off campus for the first time in 1996 with the Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana. Kissinger, who attended the youth conferences as a teenager, said organizers today feel like God is inviting them to expand internationally.
Last March, he said, they planned a “Steubenville Belize” at the invitation of a priest in that country. The one-day event in Belize City attracted 2,500 young people.
“I’m reminded time and time again that when we say yes to what the Lord asks us to do, he doesn’t just fill the need, he exceeds expectations,” Kissinger said.
A focus on Christ in adoration
While organizers are always looking to adapt and meet young people where they are, they envision a future where the conferences stick to the timeless: The sacraments, the Gospel, the love of God. Father Pivonka said many young people point to adoration as their favorite part of the conference.
“There’s something really beautiful when you put Jesus in front of young people and try to get rid of the barriers, the blocks that might exist between them and God, and then just let God do what God does really, really well,” he said. “That’s love them.”
Elizabeth Feulner, an 18-year-old from Syracuse, New York, attended a youth conference for the first time last year. Adoration, she confirmed, was her favorite part.
“I was sitting there, and the priest just came up, and he stood right behind me for it felt like ages,” she said, adding that she was in pain at the time after dislocating her knee. “That moment was so powerful, it just felt like God was looking over me in that moment.”
Feulner made the six-hour journey to Steubenville, Ohio, with her youth group. She spoke about how seeing other young people on fire for Christ made her more comfortable being active and open with her own faith. She’s returning this year. This time, her sister and her boyfriend, a recent Catholic convert, are coming too.
McGrady, who has been involved with the conferences as a speaker or a host for a decade now, also remembered attending adoration at the conference as a teenager. She remembered her grandparents, who were volunteers, dragging her with them to the youth conference in Louisiana. While she initially resisted going, she had an encounter with Jesus during adoration that transformed her life.
“I was born and raised Catholic, so it wasn’t like a conversion into Catholicism, but it was very much a conversion of my heart into ‘this faith is my own,'” she said.
The next 50 years
Father Corona, who began helping with the youth conferences five years ago, said he attended four conferences as a young person. Through these events, he not only encountered God but also realized there were people he could look up to who were living out their priestly vocations.
“Now,” he said, “I get to do the same to others, and hopefully I’m bringing people to good and bringing people to the Lord.”
Katie Yoder is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Maryland.
