Statewide summit for young Catholic adults to be held on Feb. 28, 2026, in Jefferson City
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An entirely free day for young Catholic adults from all over Missouri to encounter God, enjoy each other’s company and have a lot of fun is coming to Jefferson City.
The Missouri Catholic Summit will take place on Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph and surrounding buildings.
It will be an opportunity for young Catholic adults, ages 18 to 25, to celebrate Christian life and community.
“It will be a bunch of college-age people getting together to recognize the goodness that our King offers to us,” said Emma Johnson, a University of Missouri senior who’s helping organize the event.
The theme will be “Sheer Goodness.”
An innovative Catholic ensemble known as the Vigil Project (thevigilproject.com) will lead the music throughout the day.
Featured presenters will include:
- Pete Burak, vice president of Renewal Ministries (renewalministries.net) and the director of their young-adult outreach;
- Father Paul Clark, diocesan director of vocations and director of seminarians and chaplain at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City;
- Brian and Liz Miller of St. Louis. Mr. Miller is currently director of apostolic development for Amazing Parish (amazingparish.org), and formerly senior director of evangelization and discipleship for the St. Louis archdiocese; and
- Sister M. Karolyn Nunes FSGM, vocation director for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George (altonfranciscans.org) in Alton, Illinois.
There will be keynote presentations, breakout sessions, specific talks for young men and young women, lunch, dinner, venues for fun and fellowship, and Mass with Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell.
The day will close with a reverent, uplifting experience of Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
“There will also be time to just have a good time and get to know everyone,” said Thomas McCauley of Jefferson City, who graduated from the University of Missouri this past December.
Visit diojeffcity.org/mo-catholic-summit to register.
Although the summit is for college-aged young adults, people need not be in or have attended college to participate.
Students from St. John Henry Newman Parish in Columbia and the Catholic Newman Centers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla and Truman State University in Kirksville have been planning the event for over a year, with help from the diocesan Religious Education and Youth/Young Adult Ministry.
“It’s right here in Missouri. There’s no cost. Young people from all over the state will be here together,” said Maureen Quinn, diocesan director of Religious Education and Youth/Young Adult Ministry.
“Most importantly, you’ll have an opportunity to experience encounter with the Lord in a fun and communal way,” she said.
Toward greater unity
Kayl Gough, a sophomore at Truman State, said the summit will draw people from various backgrounds — ranging from heavy involvement in dynamic Catholic communities, to tangential connections in smaller communities with fewer opportunities.
There will be a special emphasis on building up Catholic communion anywhere someone calls home.
Catechists, parish directors and parents who attend will have their own session on how to create an environment for young adults and help them integrate more fully into parish life.
“Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, this will be a chance to see that you’re not alone,” said Mr. Gough. “You come and you get that spark, and then you go and help put together a community who wants to run the race of faith with you.”
He believes a Saturday in Lent is a perfect time for a spiritual reset.
“It’s important to reset ourselves and focus on what it means to be Catholic and on the sheer goodness we are all called to engage in,” he said.
Mr. McCauley said the environment will be much like the high school summer Steubenville Conferences in Springfield or the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)’s annual SEEK conferences.
He recalled traveling two hours to St. Louis to attend a SEEK conference in 2024.
“It was one of the biggest blessings to see so many people of faith around me and worship with them and laugh and love God with them,” he said.
He recalled the raw power of adoring Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament with 20,000 other young Catholics.
The Missouri Catholic Summit won’t draw that many people, but the same kind of warm, faithful camaraderie will prevail.
“Hopefully, it can be an encounter or reencounter with God’s amazing love for those who attend,” Mr. McCauley said, adding: “Hopefully, they share the love they find on the Summit with those they encounter back home!”
Sheer goodness
The event’s theme comes from the Preface to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.”
“That sums up our whole faith journey in a really beautiful way,” said Mr. McCauley. “It meets us where we’re at, wherever we’ve been from the beginning to the end.”
Archbishop Shawn McKnight, formerly of Jefferson City, met in the fall of 2024 with a small group of college students from the Columbia, Kirksville and Rolla Newman Centers.
Their discussion turned to organizing an all-day event for young Catholic adults to renew their faith, meet other people and learn ways to ignite their communities, wherever they live.
“Basically, one day to remind us all who God is, and an opportunity for us to meet him where we are at,” said Mr. McCauley.
Archbishop McKnight assured them of the needed resources and urged them to start planning it.
A group of college students from Columbia, Kirksville and Rolla took responsibility for organizing the event and getting the word out to parishes throughout the state.
They brainstormed on what kind of messages young adults need most to hear right now.
Many young people are worried about measuring up and finding their way at this particularly stressful time in history. Hence, the message of “God’s sheer goodness.”
“We’re created in his supreme goodness for salvation, out of love,” Mr. Gough noted. “That’s something good to think about in the days leading up to the event.”
Organizers picked Jefferson City for the location because it’s close to the center of the state.
“My hope is that there will be so many people that we’ll all be a little overwhelmed with joy when we arrive,” said Miss Johnson.
“Even if you have to drive two or three hours both ways, it will be worth it to gather with people your age and really celebrate the goodness we have here.”
Where to begin
Miss Johnson believes everyone who puts themselves fully into this event will take something powerful from it.
“No matter where you stand with God right now, you can always go deeper,” she said. “We want everyone to come away convinced of the sheer goodness of our King. He is so good and wants to change our lives in the best possible way, if only we let him.”
Mr. McCauley is confident that everyone who takes part in the summit will leave with a deeper understanding that they are not alone in their joys and struggles.
“We’re all different, but each of us is struggling with something and needs to be affirmed in our faith,” he said. “It’s good to be able to discuss that and know we’re not alone.”
Mr. Gough emphasized that the Missouri Catholic Summit won’t be an end in itself.
“It will hopefully be a springboard for getting involved and taking responsibility for growing in your faith,” he said.
“It would be nice if it were easier, but Christ calls us to continual conversion, not just a one-and-done thing!” he said.
