{"id":245067,"date":"2026-07-16T18:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/245067\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:07:10","slug":"young-pilgrims-encounter-christ-at-steubenville-conference-diocese-of-scranton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/245067\/","title":{"rendered":"Young pilgrims encounter Christ at Steubenville Conference \u2013 Diocese of Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"

STEUBENVILLE \u2013 More than 150 young people, clergy, and chaperones from parishes across the Diocese of Scranton spent the weekend of July 10-12, 2026, discovering they are far from alone in living their Catholic faith.<\/p>\n

A Diocesan delegation of 155 pilgrims \u2013 including 113 youth, 35 chaperones, one deacon and six priests \u2013 traveled by bus to the Steubenville Youth Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.<\/p>\n

\"\"A total of 155 pilgrims represented the Diocese of Scranton at the Steubenville Youth Conference in Ohio on the weekend of July 10-12, 2026. The pictures above show young adults participating in workshops and Eucharistic Adoration. (Photos\/Dominick Costantino)<\/p>\n

Through engaging speakers, Eucharistic Adoration, worship, music, and the Sacraments, the students joined thousands of other young Catholics from across the country for a weekend centered on growing closer to Christ. <\/p>\n

For many, including 18-year-old Hannah Rocco of Saint Eulalia Parish in Roaring Brook Township, it was their first experience at the nationally recognized conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super excited,\u201d Rocco said before departing. \u201cI\u2019m excited to meet people from other parishes. I\u2019m hoping for good Adoration and prayer time, but mostly the connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

That desire for connection was echoed by brothers Michael and Ayden Biagi, who participate in the life of Saint John Paul II Parish in Dunmore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to growing in my faith,\u201d Michael said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to bring a whole lot of people together that are all the same age and show us that it\u2019s okay to not be like the rest of the flock and follow what the world wants and instead follow what God wants us to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

His younger brother, Ayden, looked forward to meeting other Catholic teenagers who openly share their faith.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never done an experience like this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m excited that you can profess your faith and not be like \u2013 is this person going to judge me based on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Thomas Dzwonczyk, Assistant Pastor of Saint John Paul II Parish, accompanied the Biagi brothers and several other young people from his newly consolidated parish, calling the conference an opportunity for them to deepen their faith while forming lasting friendships.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cFor them to experience this and say it\u2019s okay to be \u2018on fire\u2019 for Jesus, and then to bring that back here to the Diocese of Scranton, it\u2019s going to be wonderful,\u201d Father Dzwonczyk said. \u201cI hope they realize there are people right here who are taking the faith seriously and want it to be a major part of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they returned home, the pilgrims expressed their gratitude to the faithful of the Diocese of Scranton for their prayers and support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal which makes experiences like this possible. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STEUBENVILLE \u2013 More than 150 young people, clergy, and chaperones from parishes across the Diocese of Scranton spent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-245067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}