College students’ faith boosted at SEEK23 conference

BY Bill Doyle
CFP Correspondent


A speaker urged students not to experience their Catholic faith only through retreats.
“I find that’s something I do as a Catholic,” she admitted. “I go to church events or whatever to boost my faith and make it stronger. Rather it should be something I’m practicing while I’m here at home as well. It should be something where I’m going to daily Mass or things like that. I could be doing better to pray my rosary. There is more I could be doing during my day.”
Kevin Donkor, Fellowship of Catholic University Students team director at Assumption, is glad Miss Janelle experienced that revelation at the January conference.
“Our faith isn’t just a hat or a jacket,” Mr. Donkor said, “that you hang up on the door after you went to Mass on Sunday and said your prayers. It’s supposed to be that your life as a Catholic is a lifestyle.”
Mr. Donkor believes that a Catholic lifestyle elevates people.
“Living a real Catholic life should inspire people to wonder, ‘Why are you different?’” he said. “‘Why do you seem to be joyful?’ ‘Why do you seem to have a hope that sustains you in difficult times especially?’”
FOCUS, a national outreach that sends missionary teams to college campuses to connect students and their faith, resumed holding SEEK conferences in person this year. The conference was held remotely the previous two years because of the pandemic. Nearly 19,000 people from 386 college campuses and 1,000 parishes attended and they listened to more than 50 speakers. In addition, more than 3,000 confessions were heard by more than 500 priests and 24 bishops. 
It was the first SEEK conference for Miss Janelle, a 20-year-old psychology major from Exeter, New Hampshire.
“It’s definitely about seeking a deeper faith,” she said.
Miss Janelle said attending the conference should help her in her career. She plans to work with patients in a mental health hospital.
FOCUS missionary Alexine Siwy urged Miss Janelle to attend Bible study at Assumption and then the conference.
“It was just amazing, awe inspiring,” Miss Janelle said. “Just to see and look at the flood of other Catholics around and knowing that I’m not alone in my faith.”
She was especially moved by the silence of so many people worshiping during adoration.
She said 21 students and four FOCUS missionaries from Assumption attended. Students from WPI and Holy Cross were also there.
The theme of SEEK23 was “You are called.” It centered on the fact that we are called by God to know and love him with all our strength and to learn how to share that calling with others.
Mr. Donkor said many students told him after the conference that they’ve become more interested in sharing their faith.
Last fall, Mr. Donkor became the new FOCUS team director at Assumption after having served with FOCUS at Brown University, George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania.
“He’s just kind of being there for us and helping guide us through our faith,” Miss Janelle said.
Mr. Donkor said 60 to 70 students regularly take part in campus ministry at Assumption. The ministry offers small group get-togethers each week for students to learn to know each other better and meet new people while studying the Bible. A pro-life group also meets weekly and a number of students took part in the March for Life in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 20. A Hispanic group and choral group also meet as part of campus ministry. Mission trips have been taken to serve those in need at such places as El Paso, Texas; Baltimore, and Ecuador.
Mr. Donkor pointed out that while many young Catholics have stopped going to church in the U.S., he has found that not to be the case at colleges with active ministries reaching out to them.
Although raised Catholic, Assumption sophomore Shea Barton didn’t attend church regularly while he was a student at Pembroke High School. He said he considered himself to be agnostic, but he wanted to reconnect with his religion by going to a Catholic college. He calls himself a “revert.”
Mr. Barton, 19, connected with the FOCUS ministry at Assumption at the beginning of his freshman year and he was invited to Bible study. He’s since found inspiration from missionaries, including Mr. Donkor.
“He’s been like a guiding hand,” he said. “He’s pushed me in the right direction. He talks to me when I
want someone to talk to. He’s helped me a lot.”
Mr. Barton was urged to attend SEEK23 and donations from family and friends paid for the trip.
“Honestly, it was amazing,” he said. “I had never really been to a conference that big before. I’ve really connected with the people on my campus and the campus ministry, but it was absolutely amazing to be surrounded by all these people who share the same virtues as me. I can easily talk to any of them and start a conversation about my faith. So that was absolutely incredible.”
Just a few years ago, he wouldn’t have believed his faith would become so meaningful to him.
“In high school, I was really trying to find a greater purpose in my life. We’re all obviously searching for that. I was just very lost. I had some doubts about religion,” he said.
The conference motivated him to read the Bible more often, and read key texts from the saints. At Assumption, he read St. Augustine’s Confessions and began reading St. Thomas Aquinas.
A FOCUS missionary from Washington state told him at the SEEK conference how he prayed and he thought that it might help Mr. Barton.
“It taught me how to worship,” he said. “I really haven’t had a structured prayer life before.”
Now he tries to recite the rosary every day. Yes, faith has become an important part of his life.
“I haven’t fully decided on what I’d like to do,” he said. “The one thing that has been kind of speaking to me is married life, but priesthood hasn’t been ruled out.”
Nine WPI students attended SEEK23 with Father Alfredo Porras, WPI’s Catholic chaplain.
“It was a great opportunity to reflect on the way each of us are living the faith,” WPI senior Kenny Savage said, “and to realize there are others with similar stories out there. It was fun and I left the conference having felt fulfilled and wanting to improve my relationship with God.”
Father Porras said that Mass and confession are the most important things the ministry offers, but FOCUS missionaries are also vital because they lead Bible studies and accompany students as they dive deeper into their faith.
According to Father Porras, WPI students have done everything from decorating Christmas cookies to taking part in an “Ask the Priest Night,” to watching a Mother Teresa movie, to holding a fall retreat.
“The goal of campus ministry,” Father Porras said, “is to create opportunities for the students to encounter the Lord so that by entering into a deeper relationship with him and his Church they may sanctify their lives and the world.”