Diocesan Conference Oct. 31-Nov. 1

The Thirst Eucharistic Conference is back in 2025. 

The Bismarck Diocese conference, first dreamt up and carried out by Servant of God Michelle Duppong in 2013, is returning and will be held the weekend of Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at the Bismarck Event Center.
 
The schedule and other details are still being finalized, but doors will open Friday afternoon with activities offered into the evening. Doors open again Saturday morning, with events and speakers through the day, ending in a closing Mass that evening. Each day will include Mass, speakers, events for children and more. Additional opportunities at the event include adoration of Our Lord, prayer and an opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. The three main speakers are: Bishop Austin Vetter, of the Diocese of Helena Montana; Jesse Manibusan, singer and entertainer; and Brad Farmer, speaker and evangelist.
 
Those attending will have a chance to peruse vendor booths and take in additional breakout speaker sessions scheduled throughout the day. There will also be a designated area focusing on Servant of God Michelle Duppong. The theme for the 2025 conference is centered around the lives of the saints, how we are all called to be saints and be pilgrims of hope.
 
The first afternoon and evening of the 2025 conference is Halloween (Friday, Oct. 31), followed by All Saints’ Day (Saturday, Nov. 1). Many may not know Halloween has significant Catholic roots. The word Halloween is a contraction of the words All Hallow’s Evening, the vigil of All Saints’ Day. The solemnity of All Saints’ Day is a significant day in the Catholic Church, as it is a day in which we celebrate the communion of saints (the saints who have gone before us, all of us who strive to live now as saints and those we intend to pass the faith on to as future saints).
 
November 2 is All Souls’ Day, on which the Church commemorates, and prays for all the faithful departed still in purgatory. The three feast days of All Saints’ Eve (Halloween), All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day combined are known as Allhallowtide. To mark these feast days, we celebrate, give honor to, thank and pray for the intercession of the saints in heaven. As Catholics, we are obligated to attend Mass on the Feast of All Saints to contemplate how we can all become saints. Attending the 2025 Thirst Eucharistic Conference is the perfect opportunity to commemorate these beautiful feast days.
 
About the speakers
 
There are three keynote speakers highlighting the conference. All three will be featured in the main exhibit hall at some point in the schedule as well as offer additional opportunities for break-out sessions on various topics.
 
Bishop Austin Vetter is scheduled to offer a keynote address on both days of the conference. Having been born and raised in south central North Dakota, Bishop Vetter was ordained a priest for the Bismarck Diocese in 1993, serving in different roles at different parishes. During this time, he was also a faculty member at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University and the Director of Spiritual Direction at Pontifical North American College in Rome. In October 2019, Pope Francis appointed him as the bishop for the Diocese of Helena, Montana and he was ordained and installed as their 11th Bishop on Nov. 20, 2019.
 
Another featured speaker is well-known singer, songwriter, catechist, storyteller, humorist and evangelizer Jesse Manibusan. He holds a master’s degree in multicultural ministries and is known as a dynamic speaker having spoken at national and diocesan conferences throughout the U.S. Jesse has multiple songs and albums and will be sharing his love of Christ from his heart, getting people of all ages, young and old, to laugh, pray and open their hearts to God.
 
Attendees will also enjoy hearing Brad Farmer, the co-founder of APeX Ministries. He is a nationally known Catholic evangelist and apologist, combining juggling, comedy and theology to look into the lives of the saints. Brad has spoken in all 50 states, Canada, China and Peru and presented at the visit of Pope St. John Paul II to St. Louis in 1999. 
 
Event planners are also working on an Allhallowtide-themed children’s schedule of activities as part of the event to include learning, treats and a festival. The event’s main speakers are suitable for all ages, and will focus on the lives of the saints, how we are all called to be saints, be pilgrims of hope and much more!
 
The conference is free for all to attend. Lunch will be provided to all registered guests on Saturday afternoon. Visit the diocesan website bismarckdiocese.com/thirst to learn more as updates are added.
 
History of Thirst
 
The first Thirst Eucharistic Conference in the Bismarck Diocese was held more than a decade ago in the fall of 2013. With approval and encouragement from Bishop Kagan, the conference was conceived and established by Servant of God Michelle Duppong when she was an employee of the diocese. With much hard work by Michelle, diocesan employees and volunteers, a successful three-day Eucharistic conference took place at the Bismarck Event Center. 
 
Afterwards, Duppong put into writing her observations and explanations for planning for future Thirst conferences. She encouraged future planners and volunteers to keep everything immersed in prayer daily, to trust the Lord and He will amaze all with what can be accomplished. The original vision of the Thirst conference was to bring people to an encounter with Christ and His unconditional love for them, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.
 
After 2013, the initial plan of Thirst was to hold a three-day conference every three years with a one-day conference on each of the years between. Michelle was diagnosed with cancer in late 2014 and died a year later Dec. 25, 2015. She did not live to see another three-day Thirst conference that she worked so diligently to establish.
 
In the 11 years since that first Thirst conference, the event has evolved, but the vision has not changed—for people to feel drawn into a deeper relationship with Jesus. A few changes have taken place including improvements to and varying of the schedule and differing themes and speakers. The past events have included kids and youth programming and youth conferences, Vacation Bible School for kids, perpetual adoration, spiritual direction, opportunities for reconciliation and more. Most of those features have remained but vary in depth and scope.
 
When Michelle was in the beginning planning phase of Thirst and making a few of the bigger decisions, she noted that the name Thirst was chosen because it was seen as something a wide audience could relate to—Catholic and non-Catholics of all ages who were quenching the thirst for something more. That something more can only be found in Our Lord Jesus. In her original words in a planning document, Michelle wrote, “We wanted the people in the pew not only to desire to come so that they could be fed, but that they would invite others they knew that were hungering and thirsting for something more in their lives.”
 
Michelle’s vision was for Catholics, those practicing and those who had fallen away, non-Catholics and even non-Christians to be drawn to come to the Thirst conference. This vision remains. All are welcome to the upcoming Thirst Eucharistic Conference 2025. Plan to join us Oct. 31-Nov. 1.