Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D. Bishop | Archdiocese of Louisville

Prior to their big rivalry football game on Sept. 27, students from St. Xavier and Trinity high schools put aside competition to serve the indigent dead. A group of about 30 students, including some from Assumption High School and Sacred Heart Academy, spent a hot day on Sept. 21 at Meadow View Cemetery. They located 40 grave sites belonging to indigent and homeless individuals and laid headstones for them.

“The rivalry is important because it allows them to compete at their highest, but when it comes to faith we have a common cause and seek the common good,” said Ben Kresse, a theology teacher at St. Xavier. “This is a celebration of what Catholic schools and students can do.”

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

Students from Archdiocese of Louisville high schools have been serving the indigent dead since 2006 through their schools’ St. Joseph of Arimathea Society, said Kresse, who first heard about the idea on the radio and implemented it at St. Xavier.

Members of St. Joseph of Arimathea Society attend the funeral of individuals who die without family or the means to be buried. At the cemetery, students lead a prayer service.

Over the last few years, they’ve also been raising funds to purchase headstones. Kresse estimates that 600 or more students have taken part in weekly burials since 2006.

“A way for students to understand their faith is through a tangible act,” Kresse said. “You understand the celebration of Mass when you’re out doing the work. It takes the corporal acts of mercy to draw young people in.”

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

“It reminds me of my faith,” he said. “I’m always thinking about what Jesus would do. It makes me feel happy these people are in a better place.” Giving them headstones is a way of showing respect for them, he added.

Murphy Lee Schmidt, a junior at St. Xavier, said this project is a small way in which to satisfy the corporal work of mercy to bury the dead. “I know we’re not fully burying them, but we’re doing our part... Just cleaning off their graves and making it a reverent area, just keeping their name alive is really important,” he said.

Burial services and laying of headstones are organized through the Louisville Indigent Burial program, administered by Catholic Charities of Louisville since 2021. Before that, it was operated by local government since the late 1980s, most recently by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.

Jennifer Wilson, Indigent Burial Program coordinator at Catholic Charities, said the program provides services for individuals who are homeless or needy.

“The program is a way to put them to rest,” said Wilson. “We provide that warmth and closure for families.”

Wilson has led the program since June after previously serving in hospice care—a role she described as a “natural transition.” She hopes her experience will help families find closure.

Wilson also expressed hope that students will continue serving beyond their high school days.