2026 Catholic Schools Week Supplement
The love and faith of others help guide a student to share the same with her peers
Mary Claire McCarthy smiles in her interactions with visitors to Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis, the place where the senior has grown as a person, including in her relationship with God. (Submitted photo)
By John Shaughnessy
To understand the impact that Mary Claire McCarthy tries to have on other people’s lives, you have to know the essential belief about God she has learned to embrace:
He often makes his presence known through the people he puts in our lives.
That reality frequently happens in the most heartbreaking and challenging times that people face, like the one that overwhelmed Mary Claire when she was in the third grade.
“My dad passed away in a car accident when I was in third grade,” says Mary Claire, now a senior at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis. “It was really hard for my family because it was so sudden.”
A child then, she saw how that devastating tragedy tested and strained some people’s relationship with God. She also felt the impact it had on her in other ways.
“For a while, it was harder for me to trust God because I had a lot of anxiety about what if someone else dies. Anytime my mom left the house, I was really stressed, thinking she’d get in a car accident or something like that.
“I had opportunities to connect with God, but it took me a while to get there. I really saw a change in my relationship when I was going into high school. I just learned more about how much God loves me. I opened my eyes to all the things that God has given me, and how much better my life is with him in it. I started to see the ways that God has put people into my life along the way.”
She mentions “the great example” of her mom, Stacey, saying, “I trust her, and I can talk to her. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
She also glows when she talks about her aunt, Moira McCarthy, the youngest sister of her dad, Kevin.
“She reminds me a lot of my dad as a person, which is really comforting for me. She’s also a good mentor for me. She’s the one who got me to start praying the Surrender novena. That definitely helps with my anxiety—to let go and let Jesus take the wheel helps a lot.”
She also smiles when she talks about her grandparents, especially her grandfather, Kevin McCarthy.
“He has taught me the most about my faith. From day one, he’s always done his best to encourage me to pray and go to church and all that.”
And there’s also the influence of the family for which she has served as a nanny since her freshman year.
“Now they’re like a second family to me. And the dad has even told me that he’d be happy to act as a father figure for me if that’s what I want or need. He also knows he could never replace my dad. He just wants to be there for me if I want someone. And that’s been really helpful.”
All those influences—passed down through the generations—have led her to want to be there for others, to help her fellow high school students draw closer to Christ too.
‘Just finding ways to let God bring peace’
Mary Claire has pursued that hope as a peer minister during her years at Bishop Chatard.
“We’re like spiritual mentors for younger students,” says Mary Claire, who previously attended St. Luke the Evangelist School in Indianapolis and is a member of that parish. “Part of that is I’ve led freshman, sophomore and junior retreats. I like it because it helps me connect them to God. And at the same time, I’m connecting to God.”
She views her involvement as a combination of giving back and living her faith.
“I feel as a peer minister, it holds me accountable. I know if I’m teaching other people to grow closer to God or helping people to do that, I need to be strong in my faith, too. I can’t be skipping Mass or not praying. I need to have a relationship with God if I’m going to try to teach other people to do that as well.”
She put those thoughts into practice again this past fall as she helped lead a retreat for juniors. During that retreat, she shared her own faith journey, including her struggles with the death of her dad—and the love and faith of the people who have been there for her ever since.
“During the junior retreat, there was a lot of really deep conversations. We also had small groups. We just had a lot of spiritual breakthroughs with people. I also gave a talk. Talking about my journey and the struggles I’ve faced and also the times I’ve seen God in that. And how I found God at my lowest points and how God has shown me everything I have at my highest points.”
She now describes her relationship with God as “the best it’s ever been.”
“I’m just prioritizing God and trying my best to influence other people around me. I take my little sister to church on Sundays. I pray about every little thing. I used to think if you prayed over things that are really small or silly, you’re just wasting God’s time. But now I’m like, he doesn’t care, he just wants you to talk to him and trust him.
“Like if I’m going to bed at night, I’ll say a prayer so I don’t oversleep in the morning. That kind of thing. Just finding ways to let God bring peace.”
‘I felt like I made a difference’
She sees the difference that her 13 years of Catholic education have made in her faith journey, her life.
“It’s taught me a lot, and I’m really thankful for it. I don’t know if I’d be as strong in my faith if I didn’t have the experience I’ve had. Especially coming to high school where I was taught about the personal connection you can form with God.”
Her smile grows even wider as she talks about one of her latest efforts to lead younger students closer to God.
Looking for an opportunity to connect again with the members of the small group she led at the junior retreat, Mary Claire proposed a few options, but there were too many conflicts. She nervously offered one more possibility, saying, “Hear me out. We could all just go to Mass.”
“They were actually excited,” she recalls. “I talked to them on the retreat about the importance of going to Sunday Mass, and how I understand that when you’re in high school, it can be hard to go. Because a lot of them struggle about how hard it is to go to Sunday Mass.
“I just decided I need to take them to Mass. I’ll plan it and take them. The best way to encourage someone to do something is to do it with them.”
It’s a lesson she has learned from the people who love her, including her dad who she knows is still with her.
After Mass together, the youths shared brunch at a restaurant.
“It felt like I made a difference, like I actually had a little bit of an impact on them, and that I had done something right,” Mary Claire says, beaming. “I did something. I tried.” †
