Summer 2025 marked 50 years since the start of Steubenville Conferences at Franciscan University. But reaching this anniversary wasn’t even a thought when the late President Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, hosted the very first conference.
“We might be tempted to think Father Scanlan and the College of Steubenville in 1975 had a master plan for the next 50 years,” says Brian Kissinger ’04 MBA ’05, executive director of Conferences. “But what really happened was Father Michael agreed to host a one-time priests conference, and then that conference had too many registrants for the space. He could have thrown up his hands and said, ‘No, we can’t accommodate so many attendees.’ Instead, he prayerfully gave his yes to what God was doing, and then said, ‘We’ll need a big tent.’ It was a response to what was being asked of him and the College to serve the Church in that present moment. The rest of the story all flows from that act of receiving the call and then following through on a new adventure.”
The fruit of that yes can be seen in the many testimonies from participants of lives changed; healings of body, mind, and soul; and reconciliation with God, the Church, and family members. Kissinger especially notes the way conferences have inspired vocations to the priesthood and religious life and bolstered the faith of those in ministry.
Kissinger says, “One priest I met told me, ‘I’m so grateful for Franciscan because I first felt the call to the priesthood at a conference 20 years ago.’ And he apparently was not alone!”
According to Kissinger, 2025 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) surveys found 15 percent of men ordained to the priesthood this year and 14 percent of women and men who professed final vows with religious orders had attended a Steubenville Youth Conference. And this is far from the only year this connection has been highlighted.
This year’s CARA report on ordinands also noted regarding Steubenville Youth Conference, “Between 2010 and 2025, their share has averaged 13 percent and ranged between 8 percent and 16 percent,” and said if the trend continues, Steubenville Youth Conference attendees will constitute 18 percent of all respondents in 2029.
“That’s statistically significant,” Kissinger says, “and we want to find ways to keep building upon that success. We also know the faith of so many individuals, marriages, and families has been strengthened through the conferences, and the founders of so many organizations and apostolates have told us their conversions or ministries were due to encountering God at Franciscan’s conferences.”
Patrick Reis ’06 is one of them. The cofounder and executive director of Encounter Ministries served as a youth leader and took high school teens to many Steubenville Conferences.
“I watched students return with renewed love for the Eucharist, deeper openness to the Holy Spirit, and a contagious desire to evangelize,” he says. “These conferences helped shape and inspire, in a profound way, the work God has called us to do through Encounter Ministries. That same grace touched my close friend and Encounter Ministries co-founder, Father Mathias Thelen, whose own conversion began at a Steubenville Conference.”
Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York, is another whose life was touched through the conferences. At his episcopal consecration in 2022, he said, “God truly is a Father, and it was seven years ago, at the University of Steubenville, where I learned what that was, and the love of the Father, and my life has not been the same. My life was changed, especially when I was baptized in the Spirit.”
The Conference Office continues to seek the Holy Spirit as they carry the University’s evangelistic legacy into a changing world.
“How do we take what we have been given and follow in the footsteps of Father Michael and the men and women who came after him? What is God asking us to say yes to today?” Kissinger says.
Part of the answer is to introduce new conferences, such as the GLORY Women’s Gathering led by popular podcaster Heather Khym this past summer, which offers a space for women of all ages to encounter God’s love. Another part is to continue the longstanding Power and Purpose Conference, Priests, Deacons, and Seminarians Retreat, St. John Bosco Conference for Catechists, Applied Biblical Studies Conference, Defending the Faith Conference, and Youth Conferences for teens across North America.
Youth and adult conferences in Steubenville and throughout the United States and Canada drew over 43,000 this year. Franciscan University’s Be Light Strategic Plan aims to raise that number to 100,000 by 2035.
“Our adult and youth conferences are encounters with Jesus that reach both the head and heart,” Kissinger says. “They invite the whole person to fall in love with Jesus and to be his disciple. We see God working through these events in so many people’s lives year after year.”
Another part of answering this call is taking the conference experience out into the world, says Franciscan University President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, who has a 30-year history leading and speaking at the Steubenville Conferences.
“In 1996, at the invitation of Bishop Sam Jacobs, we held our first off-campus youth conference in Alexandria, Louisiana. Now, they’re in 14 cities across North America in addition to Steubenville. We couldn’t stay in our comfort zone. We needed to follow where the Holy Spirit was showing us a need in the Church we could help meet. We are in a similar moment with the adult conferences now.”
Beginning in March 2026, a new initiative called Revival will export the adult conference experience through day-long evangelistic events around the U.S.
“We want to bring the in-person experience of adoration, prayer, praise, and encounter with Christ to those who can’t make it to Steubenville for a whole weekend,” Kissinger says.
“Father Dave Pivonka, Bishop Espaillat, Heather Khym, and Chris Stefanick will be keynote speakers. We hope that, by coming to those who are not able to come to us, we can help them become more engaged in the life of the Church and part of an authentic community centered around Christ as his disciples.”
Father Dave says he’s excited to join the Revival team and eager to see how God works through this extension of Franciscan University’s conference ministry.
“We all need continued encounters with the Lord to stir our hearts and move us to seek more of him and what he has for us. I pray Revival events will bring many into a deeper relationship with Jesus and his Church, encouraging them in a life of ongoing conversion,” he says.
Revival SoCal, hosted by the Diocese of Orange, will kick off the new event on March 28, 2026. The next event, Revival Dallas, will be at St. Ann Catholic Parish in Coppell, Texas, on November 14, 2026.
Kissinger explains, “We go where we have an invitation from local bishops and priests. We want Revival to be from the heart of the Church, closely connected to the local pastors and shepherds, to empower the faithful in their parishes and dioceses.”
It’s all to grow the evangelistic reach of Steubenville Conferences for the future and, God-willing, another 50 years.
“We are looking for more and new ways to invite more people to encounter Jesus Christ. As Father Scanlan did throughout his tenure, we continue to seek the best ways to communicate to the youth and adults of our day and be open to the opportunities God sends our way, while faithfully remaining rooted in the tradition and ancient truths of the Church.
“When we are faithful to our call,” Kissinger concludes, “the Lord works in ways we could never think of on our own.”
Visit the Steubenville Conferences website to learn more about upcoming events.
