Young adults: A powerful way to start the new year—and the hopes and the challenges ahead for them
By John Shaughnessy
The pure joy of the experience still shines through in the smile and the eyes of Meagan Morrisey as she talks about the powerful way that 20,000 young adults from across the country began the new year.
For five days, Morrisey was among those gathering in St. Louis for SEEK, the annual conference led by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, a Catholic outreach organization better known as FOCUS that invites people into a personal relationship with Christ. (Related story: Young adult conference gives Archbishop Thompson a feeling of ‘hope and joy’)
From Jan. 1-5, Morrisey saw college students seeking to grow in their Catholic faith. The 28-year-old director of young adult and college campus ministry for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis also noticed the growing number of young married couples who came with their small children, and even older adults who were drawn to witness the young Church so alive.
Best of all for her was seeing those groups join in the daily celebrations of the Mass with campus ministers, deacons, seminarians, hundreds of priests, parish and diocesan leaders, and more than 40 bishops, including Archbishop Charles C. Thompson.
“Getting to go to Mass with that many people, you hear everybody singing and responding at the same time, which is very powerful. And obviously the best part of Mass is receiving Jesus,” Morrisey says. “We need something like that every so often. Just to remind you that you are not alone in the Church. It’s just so beautiful to see everybody there together.”
That insight is part of a conversation that The Criterion had with Morrisey about the impact of this year’s SEEK conference, which drew about 250 people from the archdiocese. The conversation also captures the surprising thoughts she has about this generation of college students, the plans she has for continuing the momentum of the conference into the year ahead, and the hopes—and the challenges—she has for young adults in the archdiocese.
The following is an edited version of that conversation.
Q. What was one of your favorite parts of SEEK this year?
A. “This was my ninth SEEK, and there’s something different every time. I think the best part this time was that we brought people with us. It was great to be able to accompany them. It’s so much better when you bring people with you, just to see people really encounter Jesus. To be able to walk with them, to see people fully alive and very joyful in receiving the sacraments. And of course, the liturgies at FOCUS conferences are just amazing.”
Q. Seeing 20,000 young adults from across the country come together for SEEK, what are some of the impressions you have of them?
A. “I’ve really been frustrated recently about people telling me, ‘Oh Gen Z, they’re not showing up.’ I think people haven’t taken the time to actually get to know anybody in that group [which includes college students and young adults up to age 27]. Certainly, it’s good to do studies of generations and give general trends, but these college students who were at SEEK are Gen Z. They took a week of their Christmas vacation to go to a Catholic conference. They paid a lot of money, or they fundraised it. And they want answers.
“They don’t want people to hold back from them, even if it’s a really hard truth. Or they’re really bought in, and they need to know they’re not alone. They want the culture to be better. They want their peers to be better. I just think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about who is this group of people. They’re very passionate.
“They want to take ownership, and I think we set the bar too low for them. What they really want to respond to is a really high bar, that it’s going to be really hard to follow Jesus, and they’re willing to make that sacrifice. They’re willing to take ownership and responsibility. And sometimes I think we’re not offering that to them.”
Q. When you see the level of involvement they want to have and the commitment to their faith that they do have, how does that shape what you try to do?
A. “That’s a great question. We’re trying to figure that out right now. I think we could be asking more of the people we work with. A challenge always for our office is that we don’t always have direct relationships with those young adults. So how can we form lay leadership to accompany them? Whether it’s a young adult who is a volunteer at their parish or a young adult or an older person being paid at the parish. Regardless, can we form them as a leader and walk with them, pray for them and accompany them so that they can do that with young adults?”
Q. You’ve mentioned that the contingent from the archdiocese included students from Butler University, DePauw University, Indiana University, Marian University, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and the University of Indianapolis. The archdiocese was also represented by campus ministers, college chaplains, priests, parish leaders, archdiocesan leaders, seminarians and the archbishop. Your office brought all of them together for a dinner at SEEK. Why was that important for you?
A. “I really wanted that to happen. There’s something to be said for investing in the place where you live. So many students never think about the diocese. They maybe don’t even know what a diocese is or what we do. They don’t know that we’re there to support them or we’re praying for them. I wanted them to have the opportunity to see that we, as an archdiocese, care really deeply about them. And that we have tasks for them.
“We don’t just want them to receive all these resources and financial help from the archdiocese. We actually want them to evangelize—and that we could reach the whole Archdiocese of Indianapolis, no problem at all. With 250 people there, it would not take that much time. But they have to say yes to that. And I wanted a chance to invite them into that mission.”
Q. Talk about the importance to you of having Archbishop Thompson at the dinner.
A. “I really wanted Archbishop to be there for both ends of it. I wanted Archbishop to see how many people from his archdiocese are invested in the work that the Church is doing and who want to help him do his job well—to shepherd everybody and evangelize. And I wanted them to see that Archbishop cares about them and that he has the same goal, which is to reach people for Christ and his Church—that we’re all aligned in that.
“He gave a 10-minute address at the beginning and talked about the need for everybody to be missionary disciples. It was really cool to see him go around the room and say hello to everybody. Something I’m already thinking about for next year is that it would be cool to have a table where each of the campuses picks a student to sit with Archbishop. He’d have the opportunity to hear their stories, why they came to SEEK, and what’s it’s been like for them to be Catholic as a college student, and how they’ve come to know Jesus or maybe how they’re still getting to know him.”
Q. How do you build off the momentum and the energy of the conference?
A. “One mistake you can make is to think a conference like that will feed you for the whole year. You really have to have plans in place. One of the things I would mention is that all the talks at SEEK this year are totally free online for anybody, which is something new. Seekreplay.com is the web address.
“Anybody can create a free account. Then you have access to all of the content from SEEK. So that’s a great resource to listen to, share with other people or to watch in a small group and discuss. There’s something for everybody on there, truly.
“I know the energy will go away, and that’s OK. It’s not all the mountain-top moments. At the end of the day, I know I have to be faithful to all the small things I set out to do—go to daily Mass, make time to pray every morning, spend time with other people in Bible study.”
Q. What are some of the plans and goals that the Office of Young Adult and College Campus Ministry has for the year ahead?
A. “Registration for volleyball will open soon. We’re already planning for Theology on Tap. Another project we’re working on this year is how to figure out how we get everybody in a Bible study. No small task, but that’s our hope and our dream—that anybody who comes to Theology on Tap this year will be invited into a Bible study. IndyCatholic.org is the best place to access that information. You can also sign up for our newsletter on that.”
Q. What’s your hope for young adults this year, and how can you help young adults achieve that hope?
A. “My hope for them is that they would have the opportunity to know Jesus deeply and that they would feel empowered by our office to share the Gospel—and to invite their co-workers, their roommates and their friends in a bold way into a relationship with Jesus.
“Something that I worry about is that I see a lot of young adults who come from wonderful campus ministries and then they come to Indianapolis or wherever they move to, and they find all their Catholic friends and that’s it. And that’s not the point. I don’t mean that in an accusing way, but what good is it to pray every day if your co-worker is living a life of sin and they have an eternal soul, and you never took the time with them?
“Not that we have to convert everybody, but making an effort, getting to know them, getting to know their story and inviting them to hang out with your friends. Maybe even eventually inviting them to Mass or inviting them into a small group.
“I want people to know who Jesus is, and I don’t want them to have to continue to live a life of fear and anxiety and sin. I want them to live fully alive. I want them to have authentic relationships with other people. I think people need more than ever the message of Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. That’s what I want for people.” †