Fears About Downtown St. Louis Were Overblown, Says Conventiongoer

Grace Peterson visited as part of a Fellowship of Catholic University Students convention

Jan 8, 2024 at 6:00 am

Grace Peterson was enjoying the sights in downtown St. Louis in January 2024. RYAN KRULL

Around 19,000 young Catholics descended on downtown St. Louis last week for the annual Seek conference, put on by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students at the Dome at America's Center. The conference promised five days of life-transforming speakers and a performance by Judah and the Lion. We caught up with one conference-goer, college student Grace Peterson, to see if the conference and its host city were living up to expectations.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What kind of stuff goes down at the Catholic Conference?

We have mass every day. There's, like, over 20,000 of us there that we celebrate with. We've also had lots of guest speakers coming in, sisters, fathers, all sorts of different people. It's been really good to get different insights from different people. There's also been quite a few who might have struggled with their faith earlier in life. They've talked about that moment where everything seemed to fall into place.

Wow, 20,000 people at a mass. Does that feel like a concert? Does it get pretty loud?

Yeah, not really. We have that respect that we know that we need to have going into mass. So, yes, the singing parts get loud. We're all getting excited in there. But whenever it's time to be serious, everybody's being serious and respecting each other.

Presumably there's like a social element to the conference. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

That's been really nice. I'm from Northwest Missouri State University and I spend lots of time at my Newman Center on campus. But even there, it's not that big of a group compared to the rest of the student body here. It's been really nice being here with all of these other Catholics. I know everyone around me has the same beliefs and values and that we're all here to celebrate the same thing, for the same reason.

Have you been able to explore the city much?

Today, there's a group of us who are going up to the Arch. Then we're getting dinner somewhere as well.

What do you think of downtown?

Honestly, it hasn't been as bad as, like, my mom was telling me going into it. There have been a few nights walking back at like 11:30 at night where I'm kinda just a little nervous, especially passing some dark alleyway. But overall it's been good. I've been traveling with groups. I'd say it's pretty safe.

When there was a Mormon youth convention here a few months ago, I was surprised by how big of a Mormon Instagram influencer community there was. Is there a Catholic youth influencer community, too?

I think there's lots of Catholic influencers on Instagram. I don't know how many of them have that big following. I personally follow quite a few on social media, not only Instagram, but also like TikTok and Facebook.

Are many of those influencers here?

Yes.