A record number of college-age students, priests, bishops, religious brothers, sisters, and more are attending this week’s SEEK24 conference in downtown St. Louis with anticipation already building for 2025’s conference, set to be held in Salt Lake City.

The conference, which is being held by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) for a second straight year in St. Louis, has attracted nearly 20,000 young people for presentations and talks related to the Catholic faith from world-renowned speakers as well as opportunities for Mass, confession, and Eucharistic adoration. As of Tuesday evening, the conference had 19,707 paid attendees registered, a 28% increase over last year.

The keynote address Tuesday evening, presented in the former NFL stadium attached to the convention center, was delivered by Monsignor James Shea and Sister Mary Grace.

“If you’re sad, anxious, burned out, or overwhelmed, maybe you’re not dead wrong. Maybe you’re responding reasonably” to the fact that Satan is real, said Msgr. Shea, who is president of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.

“But Jesus came to break the power of Satan!” Msgr. Shea continued, to thunderous applause. 

“The wound of sin is deep in us, but it’s nowhere near the deepest part of us. Much deeper in our baptized soul is a place for God … and we’re capable, through baptism, of life with God and God living in us.”

Wednesday morning’s session featured separate tracks for male and female attendees. During the men’s session, Catholic comedian and speaker Paul J. Kim spoke passionately about the importance of cultivating brotherly relationships, using the image of a soldier dragging a comrade off a battlefield.

“We’re all involved in spiritual battles. And the stakes are very very high. I don’t know if you know this, and if you don’t, you need to become aware of this very very quickly,” Kim told the young men in attendance. 

“Some of the happiest, most joyful, amazing men of God that I know on this planet are totally sold out for Jesus Christ. And there’s no shame. What is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul, gentlemen?

This year’s SEEK participants come from hundreds of universities and also include active-duty servicemen and women based at installations across the country. There are also 44 bishops attending this year — a doubling of the number who showed up last year — as well as 450 seminarians registered, up from 250 last year.

Anna Sturtin, a freshman at Hillsdale College in Michigan and a St. Louis-area native, told CNA that she has noticed a joy and a pride among the young Catholics who are at SEEK that has also caught the attention of others in the city. 

“People in St. Louis who know nothing about this are seeing the signs, seeing all the people in town and the craziness, and they’re like, what is this? What is SEEK?” Sturtin said. 

“I bet a lot of people are researching it and finding out that this is a Catholic youth conference … and that contradicts the secular narrative that the faith is dead. It’s a great witness to our faith … and I think that is really wonderful just for the city of St. Louis.”

The conference continues all this week, wrapping up with a closing Mass on Friday morning. 

On Wednesday evening, Catholics from the St. Louis area were scheduled to join conference attendees for a massive session of Eucharistic adoration. FOCUS spokesperson Kate Milligan said they expect to surpass 24,000 attendees for this year’s adoration session.