Over 100 students from Carroll College, and another nearly 200 folks from the Diocese of Helena, kicked off the new year joining over 17,000 other people from across the nation in Salt Lake City for the 2025 FOCUS SEEK Conference, January 1-5. This year, SEEK was divided into three locations, also including Washington D.C. and Cologne, Germany, to encourage and celebrate the Catholic faith of thousands of people worldwide in five days of beautiful shared prayer in mass and adoration, powerful teaching through impactful speakers, and opportunities for fellowship and connection with other students, clergy, religious, and lay-leaders.
"To see the Church thriving brings joy and hope to the soul! We can get so narrow sighted being in our own small world all the time, but God’s Church is so big and full of faith. I wish everyone at Carroll could have seen and participated in the beauty of 17,000 people worshipping Our Lord at Mass and in Adoration. I know our students who went to SEEK will bring new life to campus."
~ Fr. Tyler Frohlich, Carroll Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry
In addition to mainstage talks from well-known and loved keynotes such as Fr. Mike Schmitz and Sister Miriam James Heidland, Diocese of Helena representatives from Carroll, MSU, UM, Western and many Montana parishes enjoyed a dinner together with our own Bishop Vetter on Friday night of the conference, and a highlight was definitely getting to cheer on Bishop Vetter when he celebrated mass for the conference on Saturday morning. You can catch a bit of his homily in this moving video.
"Adoration was very impactful, and the talks were fantastic. It was great getting to see so many familiar faces from Carroll and our diocese. It gave me a lot to think and pray about."
~ Justin Forseth, senior
For the past four years, Caroll has been blessed with FOCUS teams who, in collaboration with Carroll Campus Ministry, have done a tremendous job of being present to students and inviting them into the love of Christ and a deeper knowledge and passion in the Catholic faith. We are so appreciative of the missionaries’ leadership in bringing record numbers of Montana participants to SEEK this year in a great celebration of faith!
“More than anything, SEEK helped me realize that having faith brings such immense optimism and joy to life because my hope is in God–I don't live on bread alone but on every word of His!! The speakers and people I met were absolutely on fire for God, who gave us the ultimate definition of sacrificial love. I loved celebrating Mass with 17,000 other college students. Also, I enjoyed meeting many Catholic vendors, religious orders, and organizations who I had never heard of before but who are doing beautiful work. For example, I met St. Thomas Mission who work at a Catholic school in Iraq serving the community's historic Catholic population, also I met a Catholic organization who are feeding millions of kids worldwide. It was a beautiful way to start the year!!”
~ Natalie Bahou, junior
“One thing that really stuck with me was the easy conversations I made with random people each day. Each day God brought a new blessing through them. One of the interactions completely threw me a curve, when I met a girl who knew Bishop Vetter back when he was in North Dakota. It just showed me that nowhere is too far to reach our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
~ Sydney Forrey, sophomore