Tower Topics ~ Summer 2001

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Encounter draws 80 young men

Conception Seminary College’s Encounter With God’s Call, a three-day opportunity for young men considering the priesthood to sample seminary life, drew 80 young men from 16 dioceses March 17-19.

Represented were the dioceses of Cheyenne, Dodge City, Grand Island, Jefferson City, Joliet, Kansas City-St. Joseph, Knoxville, Pueblo, Salina, Salt Lake City, Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Wichita, and the archdioceses of Oklahoma City, Omaha and Kansas City, Kan.

Encounter participants joined seminarians and the monks of Conception Abbey for prayer, and met individually and as a group with seminarians, who told their own stories of seeking God’s will in their lives. A variety of recreation, including basketball, soccer, swimming and a musical by seminarians, as well as tours of Conception Abbey and the nearby monastery of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at Clyde, rounded out a busy weekend that concluded Monday when participants attended seminary classes.

“This is the largest group to attend an Encounter since I began working here,” said Keith Jiron, CSC’s director of admissions and recruitment since 1997. “And there is a continuing trend toward younger men considering a vocation to the priesthood. There are more and more high school students attending every year.”

Encounter is traditionally a successful recruiting effort for Jiron. He says about one in four who attend the weekend eventually attend Conception.

For more information on Conception Seminary College, or the next Encounter With God’s Call (Nov. 3-5), phone the Director of Admissions and Recruitment at (660) 944-2886, or reach him by e-mail at vocations@conception.edu.

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