CV News Feed // While marketed as an event for college-age students, the FOCUS SEEK conference has attracted other groups and individuals, including members of the US military.
The FOCUS SEEK conference is a four-day young adult conference that has drawn over 20,000 participants from across the United States and the the world to hear from a variety of well-known speakers, attend Mass, and participate in Eucharistic adoration.
This year, one group decided that they wanted to expand their presence—the United States military. In coordination with the Archdiocese of Military Services, a variety of young military men and women traveled to SEEK to grow in their faith.
Caroline Odell is a freshman at the Coast Guard Academy. She came to SEEK after a friend invited her to attend. During the first semester of college, Caroline found herself drifting from her faith as she struggled to adjust to military life.
But SEEK gave her an opportunity to rekindle her faith and fall more deeply in love with the Lord.
“We were sitting outside of the adoration chapel just waiting for somebody to talk to,” Odell told CatholicVote. “We were waiting for 45 minutes for the perfect person, and I finally found this lady. I went up to her, and she is also in the military, and she is also struggling to balance military life and having a family.”
Through this encounter and others like it, Odell realized that she was not alone in her struggle to balance military life with her Catholic faith.
“It was just insane the parallels that we found in each other’s’slives and the clarity that she brought to mine,” said Odell.
Odelll was one of 155 students to come from one of the United States’ military academies. Active Duty members also came to SEEK, encountering the Lord and rekindling their faith during the experience.
These attendees were joined by leadership from the Archdiocese of Metropolitan Services, including priests and Archbishop Timothy Broglio.
Throughout the week, the Archdiocese of Military Services hosted a variety of panels and discussions to serve its students, including a panel about evangelism in the military and a social for various participants to meet fellow military students.
Dr. Mark Moitoza shared that SEEK has been a great opportunity to meet not just students in US military schools but also in the military’s officer training program, ROTC, across the country.
“Being able to connect with ROTC cadets from around the country permits the AMS to share that the Catholic Church is there for them wherever they are called to serve,” Moitoza said. “All of the FOCUS participants who stop at the AMS booth are being invited to pray for more priests to serve in the U.S. military by writing a small prayer on a dog tag and tying it to a camouflage wall in the booth. The visible sign of prayer is helping all to practice ‘Being the Light.’”
