COLUMBUS, OH — Dozens of future U.S. Military leaders were among a record gathering of more than 26,000 Catholic young adults to encounter Christ at SEEK 2026, an annual conference hosted by FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). The Jan. 1-5 conference took place under the theme “To the Heights!” in three cities where groups were linked simultaneously by live video feed: Columbus, OH; Denver, CO; and Fort Worth, TX.
At the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Ohio, more than 60 cadets and midshipmen from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, took part in the five-day celebration of prayer, daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confession, and fellowship. As in the other two locations, they also interacted personally in keynote sessions, talks, workshops, and exhibits. Other future military leaders, including those currently enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at colleges and universities nationwide, military personnel serving on active duty, in the reserves and the National Guard, and some seminarians already in priestly formation also participated in Columbus and at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Denver and the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, TX, near Fort Worth.
Thanks to a generous benefactor, Mrs. Nancy Smith of Philadelphia, the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), held exhibits featuring a compelling informational video at all three locations, promoting the AMS mission, Serving Those Who Serve. Mrs. Smith’s son graduated from West Point where she says he experienced the strong Catholic community and the pastoral care of the AMS. She spoke of her joy at seeing the many opportunities for faith expression and practice, worship, and fellowship at the academy as her son began his studies. She said those spiritual benefits continue today as her son serves as a U.S. Army major whose marriage was witnessed by an AMS-endorsed Catholic military chaplain. Thanks to Mrs. Smith, at the AMS exhibit booth in Denver, Father Patrick J. Riffle, CHC, LCDR, USN, was interviewed on EWTN and gave a tutorial on the use of a field Mass kit.
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, was present among those gathered in his native state of Ohio, where he hosted a box-lunch forum on Friday, Jan. 2, explaining to attendees the purpose of the AMS—to provide pastoral care to Catholics in the U.S. Military, the nation’s VA medical centers, civilian federal contractors serving beyond U.S. borders, and the families of these populations. In Denver, a military couple spoke of the joys and challenges of military service, emphasizing the need to embrace suffering while giving witness to others. The Defense Department’s Catholic chaplain recruiters were on hand at the three-site conference, along with AMS Vocation Director Father Paul-Anthony Halladay, to engage with young men contemplating the possibility of becoming Catholic priests and U.S. Military chaplains.
In a pre-recorded video message to those gathered in all three locations, Pope Leo XIV said, “Today, Jesus directs the same question to each one of you. Dear young people, what do you seek?” Father Halladay, focused on raising the next generation of Catholic U.S. Military chaplains, observed: “In association with that question, one must also ask the question, ‘What does God want me to do?’ For many, that is to answer a call to religious life and priesthood, and more specifically, the military chaplaincy”–challenging thoughts for anyone considering the “vocation within a vocation,” serving God and Country.