Students put aside their football rivalry to lay gravestones for the destitute dead

Before their big rivalry football game on September 27th, the students of St.

A group of about 30 students, including some from Assumption High School and Sacred Heart Academy, spent a hot Sept. 21 at Meadow View Cemetery. They located 40 grave sites of needy and homeless people and laid gravestones for them.

“The rivalry is important because it allows them to compete at the highest level, but when it comes to faith, we have a common cause and strive for the common good,” said Ben Kresse, theology teacher at St. Xavier.

“This is a celebration of what Catholic schools and students can achieve,” he said.

On a day when the temperature soared into the 90s, students used shovels to dig up makeshift plastic grave markers bearing the name of the person buried there. Then they dug deeper and laid gravestones made of concrete covered with a cement polymer.

Archdiocese of Louisville high school students have been caring for the destitute since 2006 through their schools’ St. Joseph of Arimathea Society, said Kresse, who said he first heard about the idea on the radio and implemented it at St. Xavier.

Members of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society attend the funeral of individuals who die without family or the option of burial. The students lead a prayer service at the cemetery.

In recent years they have also raised funds to purchase headstones. Kresse estimates that 600 or more students have attended weekly funerals since 2006.

“One way for students to understand their faith is through a tangible action,” Kresse said. “You understand the celebration of the Mass when you work outside. It takes physical mercy to attract the young.”

Among the students who helped lay the headstone on Sept. 21 was Owen Strebel, a junior at Trinity.

“It reminds me of my faith,” he said. “I always think about what Jesus would do. It makes me happy that these people are doing better.”

Giving them headstones shows them respect, he added.

Murphy Lee Schmidt, a junior at St. “I know we’re not burying them completely, but we’re doing our part. … It’s really important to clean up their graves and make it a place of reverence and keep their name alive,” he said.

Funeral services and headstone laying will be organized through the Louisville Indigent Burial Program, administered by Catholic Charities of Louisville. Catholic Charities has been running the program since 2021. Before that, it had been operated by local government since the late 1980s, most recently by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.

Jennifer Wilson, coordinator of the Indigent Burial Program at Catholic Charities, said the program provides services to those who are homeless or in need.

“The program is a way to calm them down,” Wilson said. “…We offer families this warmth and unity.”

Wilson has led the program since June. She previously worked in hospice care, so this role seemed like a “natural transition,” she said. “I hope that I can use my hospice experience to help families.”

Wilson said she hopes the students will continue to serve beyond their high school years.

By Ruby Thomas

Reprinted with permission from The Record. This article originally appeared on their website on September 25, 2024.