A Weekend That Changes Everything

The lights go down. The crowd is hushed. Up on the screen appears Pope Leo XIV. “Dear friends, I’m happy to greet all of you as you gather in various locations for the Steubenville summer youth conferences during the year that marks the 50th anniversary of these encounters,” the pope says. Some teens gasp. Others pull out their phone cameras. Many turn to their friends, as if to ask, “Is that really the pope?” Yes, it really was the pope. For this summer’s Steubenville Youth Conferences, in a seven-minute video, Pope Leo XIV gave a heartfelt reflection on St. Francis of Assisi and how to live in authentic peace and joy. In 1976, did Franciscan University President Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, ever imagine the conferences he started would one day receive a personal video message from the pope? Probably not. But although much has changed over the years, the heart of the youth conferences has remained the same: to bring young people to Jesus Christ.

In the Beginning

When Father Scanlan was asked to host a Catholic charismatic conference for priests at the College of Steubenville in 1975, he said yes. The next summer, the College hosted it again, this time adding a conference for youth. Teens came to campus to be built up in the faith—and they kept coming.

Jack Rook stepped onto Franciscan’s campus a little over a decade after that first youth conference, serving as director of Conference Operations from 1988 until 1999.

“My passion was to assist or set the stage, if you will, for people like Father Michael Scanlan where they could share the Gospel in a Catholic setting,” Rook says.

He says he was privileged to see how the conferences impacted young people, as well as the growth of the conferences themselves. He remembers being there when the vocational call started—a moment during the conference when teens who are open to discerning the religious life and priesthood come to the stage—noting, “To see young men and women come out of the crowd and say, ‘I’m ready.’ What could be better?”

The early conferences weren’t without their challenges. Until the mid-1990s, the conferences were held outdoors underneath a giant tent. Jim Beckman ’87 worked as a host from 1987 through 2014 and then as a program director until 2019. He’s attended nearly four decades of conferences, yet he says the most memorable was the summer of 1995, otherwise known as “the year of the big storm.”

The theme was “The Great Adventure”—and an adventure it was. In the middle of a speaker’s talk, everyone had to evacuate the tent due to incoming weather.

“As we were getting everyone out of the tent, the storm hit. The tent was flapping up and down,” Beckman says. “I was one of the last out, and as I was running down the hill toward the J.C. Williams Center, there was a music stand flying in the air next to me.”

The conferences team later made T-shirts that said, “We survived the Great Adventure.”

Yet despite the storms—literal or figurative—the Holy Spirit was always at work. Whether at a youth or adult conference, people would tell Rook they didn’t want to leave because campus felt like “holy ground.”

Rook would reply, “Because you’re here, it’s holy. And we’re holier because you’re here. When you go back, wherever you go, you’re holy.”

Take This Show on the Road

Barely a month into a new job in the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana, Beckman was at dinner with Bishop Sam Jacobs and colleague Sally Dubroc. Beckman joked that he should host a Steubenville Youth Conference—only not in Steubenville but in the South. What was meant as a joke, however, Bishop Jacobs wanted to make a reality.

Beckman and Dubroc made phone calls, assembled a team, and established the logistical support needed for this massive endeavor. In 1995, the inaugural Steubenville South—the very first regional Steubenville Youth Conference—was held in a high school gym. By the following year, the conference moved to a bigger venue to accommodate the growing crowd.

Shortly afterward, Beckman had another job transition that took him to Colorado. This time, he knew what to do. He talked with another Franciscan alumnus working in the diocese about bringing the Steubenville experience out West; thus began Steubenville of the Rockies.

“God kept moving me through my personal circumstances to help get these regional conferences off the ground,” Beckman says, adding they were truly a team effort. “It was the fruit of the local community working hard to make something this big happen.”

More dioceses and organizations wanted to partner with Steubenville Conferences to bring the life-changing experience to their teens. Rook helped set up those first few regional conferences, from flying out to locations to conducting debriefs afterward.

“Steubenville Conferences would be not just an event, but it would be a lighting of a fire, which could then be nurtured and grown in that local area,” Rook says.

Now, in addition to 4 conferences on Franciscan’s main campus, there are 15 regional youth conferences held everywhere from Texas to Halifax, Canada.

In 2026, for the first time, Steubenville Youth Conferences went beyond North America by hosting a day-long event in Belize. Executive Director of Conferences Brian Kissinger ’04 MBA ’05 says the inspiration for an international conference came from St. Francis, who saw the world as his cloister. Perhaps like the first Steubenville Youth Conference in 1976, no one knew exactly what to expect that day in Belize.

“About 2,500 teens showed up, many of whom had never been baptized,” Kissinger says. “Of those who were Catholic, many had never experienced eucharistic adoration before.”

Together, they listened to inspiring talks, gathered in fellowship, and, most importantly, encountered Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Lasting Transformation

In 2014, Arthur Bodenschatz came to his first Steubenville Youth Conference on Franciscan’s campus. The amount of people—including priests and religious—gathered there who were joyful and alive in their faith struck him. Then on Saturday night, he went to adoration.

“The monstrance was going by, and I saw the Lord in the Eucharist. I knew he loved me, I loved him, and that I was going to be a priest,” Bodenschatz says, adding, “I’ve never had a moment of such clarity ever since. God grabbed my heart.”

Throughout high school, he participated in youth group, attended daily Mass, and kept going to adoration. He also returned to the youth conferences, bringing family and friends.

This past June 2026, he was ordained as a transitional deacon and currently serves at St. Carlo Acutis Parish in Columbiana County, Ohio. God willing, he will be ordained a priest next summer.

“Looking back, I’ve realized how much I’ve leaned on that moment” from the youth conference, says Deacon Bodenschatz. “During my times of doubt, I remember the Lord came to me at that moment for a reason, that he really does have a call for me.”

According to a 2026 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate survey, 18 percent of men ordained to the priesthood this year had attended a Steubenville Youth Conference. On his travels throughout the country, Kissinger has had priests come up to him and say the conferences played a role in their vocations.

“For me, it’s a constant reminder that when we do what the Lord’s calling us to do, the impact is going to be far greater than even what we’re aiming for,” Kissinger says.

The conferences will always be part of Beckman’s own vocation in a rather unique way. In 1994, during a skit on stage, Beckman proposed to his girlfriend. Two summers later, they presented their newborn son to the cheering crowd, holding him up like Simba in The Lion King.

“It’s a beautiful memory of how my own family and personal life were wrapped up in the conferences,” Beckman says.

Steubenville Youth Conferences have touched more than one million lives, so it can be tempting to ask: What’s the secret? Those involved in conferences will say if there is a secret, it’s just putting teens in front of Jesus.

“It’s the unfolding of the kerygma,” Beckman says. “Have young people encounter Jesus, introduce them to the Holy Spirit, and it works.”

“We’ve done something wrong if we ever get away from sharing the story of the Paschal Mystery,” Kissinger says. “With that said, we’re always looking for either a themed Scripture verse or cultural touchpoint to reach teens where they are and to speak to their questions, concerns, and priorities.”

And when Jesus touches one life, it has a ripple effect.

“I’m sure it wasn’t anyone’s plan or vision 50 years ago that the conferences would not just be blessing individual teens but be blessing parishes, families, and the vocations young men and women can be faithful to because of what they experienced,” Kissinger says.

Looking forward, he says Steubenville Conferences will continue reaching more souls. This past year, they launched Revival, an initiative that presents day-long evangelistic events to adults around the country. The next Revivals are November 14, 2026, at St. Ann Parish in Coppell, Texas, and April 10, 2027, at the Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi in Raleigh, North Carolina. They’ll also host their first Encounter one-night event on December 6, 2026, at Pittsburgh’s St. Luke the Evangelist Parish. For youth conferences, Kissinger hopes to continue bringing the conference experience to other countries like Belize.

“My hope is we would bless every diocese that we’re connected to,” Kissinger says. “If young men and women are encouraged to be faithful, to live a life ready for the Lord’s calling, and, as the Holy Father talked about, to give nothing less than their lives to Jesus, then we will have done our jobs.”

Learn more at steubenvilleconferences.com.

Watch Pope Leo XIV’s video at steubenvilleconferences.com/pope.