Amid COVID-19 surge, throngs of Catholic youth descend on Springfield for conference
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As COVID-19 rages through southwest Missouri, due in part to the spread of the delta variant, about 2,000 Catholic youth from the Midwest are descending on Springfield this weekend for an annual conference.
The event, Steubenville St. Louis Mid-America, is an outreach of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, in partnership with the St. Louis Archdiocesan Office of Youth Ministry. Steubenville St. Louis Mid-America holds two conferences every year in July on the campus of Missouri State University.
The first conference was July 9-11, and the second runs Friday through Sunday.
Described as “a high-energy youth conference where thousands of teens are invited to encounter Jesus Christ through dynamic speakers, engaging music, the Sacraments, small group discussions, and fellowship with other teens,” the gathering is one of a series of 25 Steubenville Youth Conferences held across North America every summer. Other cities with conferences include Denver, San Diego, Dallas, Orlanda, Atlanta and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Some worry that events like the Springfield conferences are potential COVID super spreader events. Southwest Missouri has become the epicenter of the latest COVID surge, with rising hospitalizations pushing medical providers in Springfield to the breaking point.
On Thursday, the director of the National Institutes of Health told McClatchy that the situation in Missouri is “raising alarms” for federal officials.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis said late Thursday that protocols were in place to keep attendees safe.
“As a sponsor of the event, ensuring the safest possible environment continues to be a priority for us, and in some instances where participants were indoors or in close quarters, this included the use of masks and social distancing protocols,” said Peter Frangie in an email to The Star. “We have worked with our participating families to address any concerns they may have.”
Frangie said the estimated number of participants for each conference was about 2,000 from dioceses in the Midwest, including all four of Missouri’s dioceses. Among those in attendance last weekend were Bishop Edward Rice of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, who spoke to students and celebrated Mass.
Frangie said the conference was canceled last year because of the pandemic.
“This year’s conference has been met with great enthusiasm, and while the number of participants was capped at a lower number than previous years, turnout has been strong,” he said.
Facebook live streams from last weekend’s Springfield event show maskless teens gathered in an auditorium, sometimes singing with their arms around each other. The auditorium wasn’t jam-packed as in previous years, but social distancing was still sporadic.
It is unclear how many youth and adults are attending the conferences from the Kansas City area. The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said it was not aware of anyone who was involved, and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said Thursday it left the decision up to individual parishes.
“The Diocesan Office of Youth Ministry does not lead a group to Steubenville because it has been a more naturally progressing experience for the parishes to attend the conference,” it said in an email to The Star.
“The KCSJ diocese is aware of attendees from area parishes who attended the conference last weekend, and some planning to attend this weekend. The Diocesan Office of Youth Ministry has not been contacted by any parents voicing concern about upcoming events.”
One area parish that sent a delegation was St. James in Liberty, according to a note from the Rev. Mike Roach in the parish’s July 11 bulletin.
“We ask for your prayers for our teens heading to Springfield, MO, for the annual Steubenville Youth Conference,” he wrote. “Let’s pray for these young people and their chaperones, that they will be guided by the Holy Spirit to come back and enrich our parish community.”
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, said people need to seriously consider the risks when deciding whether to attend large functions such as the Springfield conference.
He said the increase of COVID-19 cases across the country is most likely due to the delta variant, but also to human behavior.
“There are no mask mandates, there are no restrictions in place, so people are gathering more,” Hawkinson told The Star. “From a public health and a medical standpoint, we do understand that the more people you have together, the more risk of you having more people with that virus and spreading it to those susceptible populations.”
The vaccine will protect people from the delta variant and should significantly decrease their ability to transmit the disease, he said, “but those are questions we don’t have the full answers to right now.”
“I think with just the overall spread in that specific area (Springfield), but also knowing that there is increasing spread in cases here in the metro area, everybody needs to take a hard look at what is going to be the risk and benefit of my child individually going down there, especially if they’re not vaccinated. And bringing it back to other susceptible, but also high-risk, people or populations.”
Organizers of any large function, Hawkinson said, should strongly encourage all participants to be vaccinated.
“Because at this point in time, either in Springfield or here, if you’re having large numbers of people, you have to assume that there will be people who actually have coronavirus — maybe pre-symptomatic, maybe asymptomatic — but can still spread it to others,” he said.
The website for the Springfield conference says numerous steps were taken to prevent the spread of the virus.
Attendees are assigned an entrance to the building and are to use it for all sessions. They are told not to congregate at entrances and only use restrooms on their side of the concourse. Dining halls are to be at 40% capacity, with the option to get meals to go.
Conference participants are required to sign a COVID release form as part of their registration. It includes a list of COVID symptoms and says that “if you suspect a participant may have COVID, please immediately visit an urgent care.” And if a test comes back positive, it says, “it is possible that other members, or the entire group, may be asked to depart from the conference in addition to the positive case.”
The website says Greene County has no mask mandate but that the conference will follow the county’s recommendation that those who are unvaccinated wear a mask.
“We ask that each group leader speaks to their parish pastor and the parents of the youth and make a well informed decision for your group,” it says. “Regardless of vaccination status, we also encourage group leaders to consider masking during times of high traffic in and out of buildings, within the PSU (student union), and when social distancing is not possible.”
Aaron Schekorra, spokesman for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, said the agency routinely receives calls of concern about large gatherings being held in the area, but he wasn’t aware of the youth conference.
“We don’t approve or disapprove of events,” Schekorra said when asked if the conference was a safety concern. “The health department specifically doesn’t have control over that, unless it has something to do with food or something like that.”
He added, however, that “we continue to push out and urge that those who are not vaccinated need to be continuing to practice prevention measures including masking, including physical distancing and to avoid large crowds.”
“And we encourage anyone that has any COVID-19 symptoms to not interact with others, to immediately isolate and get tested.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 12:49 PM.
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