SEEK26, an annual conference hosted by FOCUS and held in Columbus this year along with two other locations, continued to draw a significant number of seminarians.

The number of men in formation for the priesthood attending the conference was a 46 percent increase from last year’s conference, according to FOCUS.

In a recorded video played the opening night of SEEK26, which runs Jan. 1 to 5, Pope Leo XIV encouraged attendees to be unafraid in answering Christ’s call. The Holy Father noted that all young people are called to a vocation, and for some, that is the priesthood.

FOCUS reported that 16,115 attendees were present at the conference in Columbus as of Jan. 2. More than 5,000 attendees are attending the conference in Denver and another 4,000-plus in Fort Worth, Texas.

“When you see (nearly) 20,000 people in one spot who all just love the Lord, there’s a lot of hope,” Columbus diocesan seminarian Nick Arnold, 27, said.

Reaching as many of those individuals as possible is an important component.

Father Michael Haemmerle, 31, who serves as the vocations director for the Diocese of Columbus, said he hopes to attract strong men to the priesthood.

His efforts sparked an idea that drew hundreds to the diocese’s vocations booth set up at SEEK26. A pullup bar stationed next to an information table challenged young people with the number of chin-ups they could achieve.

“Guys love showing off how strong they are,” Father Haemmerle said with a laugh. “So that’s something to draw people over so that we can then have good conversations.”

The pullup bar is also intended “to draw guys who want to be excellent,” he noted. “Guys who are wimpy and soft don’t want to do chin-ups. We want strong – doesn’t matter physically so much – but strong men for the priesthood.”

After putting their strength to the test, young men had a chance to speak with Father Haemmerle and diocesan seminarians.

“The goal is to talk to them: ‘Have you thought about the priesthood?’ Then you see where the conversation goes,” he explained.

“When you start asking those questions, you never know where it’s going to go. It’s gone all sorts of different places.”

The first day of the conference, Father Haemmerle noted, the vocations booth had four sheets filled with names and e-mail addresses, equating to about 100 people. He estimated that the second day of SEEK26 brought several hundred more attendees to the pull-up bar.

Father Haemmerle said he plans to contact individuals who provided their information and share with their diocese’s vocations director.

Seminarians at the Columbus diocese’s vocations booth also handed out seminarian posters to attendees and asked them to pray.

For men currently discerning a call to the priesthood, SEEK appears to be an affirmative experience.

“When you come here, you see not only other seminarians from across the country but then a lot of faithful Catholics. They’ll stop and want to talk, and they’re very supportive of vocations. So it just kind of reaffirms everything for me,” said Absalom Hall, 39, a seminarian for the Diocese of Columbus.

Hall, who belongs to St. John Paul II Scioto Catholic Parish, is in his first year of theology and studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum on the north side of Columbus.

SEEK offers a “Seminarian Experience” designed for men discerning the priesthood. The special track includes a welcome dinner, evening reception, dedicated location for Morning and Evening Prayer (part of the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours prayed daily), seminarian-only impact sessions and a hospitality suite.

Several diocesan seminarians at the conference take part in the procession during Masses and assist at the altar.

“It’s just been fantastic,” Arnold said. “Being a Columbus seminarian, we’ve had a lot of role in the liturgy, whether serving Mass or had the opportunity to emcee the late-arrivals Mass, and then Morning Prayer.”

Arnold, who belongs to Granville St. Edward the Confessor Church, is in pre-theology and studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West in Cincinnati.

This year’s SEEK conference held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center is a special treat for the diocese’s seminarians.

“I’m so used to traveling somewhere far away,” Arnold noted. “It’s great just to have it here at home.”

“Oftentimes, events like these are in other cities – a lot of times, bigger cities – but having it here in Columbus is great,” Hall added. “Families from Ohio, especially in the Diocese of Columbus, are able to make it that otherwise wouldn’t.

“The diocese as a whole is very good about encouraging our young people to come to events like this, and this just makes it easier and more affordable for them. Hopefully, it continues.”