Madeline Newhouse calls the Virginia Catholic Campus Ministry Summit “the best 24 hours.”
The conference, returning after a pandemic-related hiatus last year, was packed with talks, Mass, adoration and opportunities for confession for the 425 Catholic college students who attended. The conference was hosted by the Richmond diocese and held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center Feb. 11-12.
“I need community and the community at Summit was amazing everywhere you looked,” said Newhouse, a student at Old Dominion University in Norfolk and a parishioner of St. Matthew Church in Spotsylvania. “You will be tired, but spiritually rejuvenated.”
For many, it was a welcome chance to be with a large group of fellow Catholics. “It’s definitely hard being in college and not having a lot of support,” said Marjorie Looby, a student at Longwood University in Farmville and a parishioner of St. Patrick Church in Fredericksburg. “(The campus culture is) definitely not super kind to religious folk. I definitely know a lot of religious people (but) it’s taken a while to find that group.”
The togetherness at Summit felt spiritually uplifting, said Samantha Smith, a student at Old Dominion and a parishioner of St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville. “Being part of a big thing with a lot of people for the first time since before Covid just reminded me that we are here to lift each other up, we’re in this together.”
“(Summit) is a nice boost, an acknowledgement that I’m not alone,” said Cooper Boyles, a student at Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden-Sydney and a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Manassas. “To be in that space where it’s a bunch of people my age — (you feel like) you have the largest organization on earth behind your back.”
Adoration, led by Richmond Bishop Barry C. Knestout, was a highlight for many. “It’s so overwhelming and for me, it’s the part where I feel most enveloped by the Holy Spirit,” said Boyles.
Savannah, also an Old Dominion student and a St. Francis parishioner, was moved by the number of participants, priests and seminarians present. “God is so good to join all these people here,” she said.
