2026 Catholic Schools Week Supplement
A senior’s plan to lead others closer to Christ touches his own life
By John Shaughnessy
Liam Matta wanted to get to know people at his high school better.
He also wanted to explore his faith and his relationship with God on a deeper level—and invite his fellow students to do the same.
So, in his sophomore year at Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville, Liam did something unusual. He started a faith-discussion group, hoping that other people would be drawn to the opportunity to talk about their spiritual life—one teenager to another.
“I feel it’s a good mission,” Liam says. “As Catholics, we’re called to preach the Gospel to everybody. And I think it’s a really great opportunity to do it in a way that’s more casual and conversational—that people don’t feel they’re being talked at. We’re all just sitting around and sharing our experiences. I thought it would also be a good opportunity for me to share about my faith and get to know other people.”
Now a senior, Liam feels blessed that his effort has continued to have an impact on him and others—“whether they’re practicing the faith, whether they’re Catholic or not.”
“I get to learn from so many other students, especially if they have a different perspective,” Liam says. “I’ve had conversations with people who don’t necessarily believe. We just talk about what they might believe about heaven or God. It also forces me to know what I believe really well, when people have questions. It gives me opportunities to look into different things about our faith. And to be supportive of one another because everyone is in a different place.”
Liam views that combined opportunity to get to know God and his fellow students better as a reflection of his educational and spiritual experiences at Providence, the high school in the New Albany Deanery that has long fostered an atmosphere where family, community and faith are at the forefront.
“It’s a smaller school, so everybody knows each other very well,” says Liam, one of 99 seniors at Providence. “It’s amazing to just get to meet so many awesome people. All of the teachers are great. All of the students are great. It is a really nice community. So that’s been really impactful. But I’ve also learned a lot academically. And I’ve become friends with kids from different grades. I haven’t always had that.”
Providence has also given him opportunities to explore different interests, including being involved in the speech team, joining the school’s pro-life club and working behind the scenes in theater productions.
“Especially with the theater shows, even though I’m not involved with acting, just running the sound or running the lights you become very involved with the people who are super passionate about what they are doing,” says Liam, a member of St. Martin of Tours Parish in Louisville, Ky. “We all go out to eat before the shows. Through that way, I’ve become a lot closer to some of my friends who I don’t have classes with.”
He also says he has become closer to God by attending Mass before school on Thursdays and participating in eucharistic adoration and the sacrament of penance.
“You’re not required to take advantage of those opportunities, but having them there and being able to invite other people to go with you really allows you and your friends to experience the faith together.”
That focus on faith is helping him through some of the uncertain elements of his senior year.
“I’m working on trust in God, especially as I’m super unsure about where I’ll even be living in a few months once I graduate, where I’ll be going to school, what I’ll be studying,” he says. “I’m just having a lot of confidence that God has a plan and that it will be good.”
He is also certain that his parents’ plan to have him attend Providence has given him the foundation he will need for the future.
“More than anything, it’s been the connections you form with other people,” he says. “From a spiritual perspective, that can really strengthen your faith. It’s been a lot of meeting really great people who otherwise I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to know. And that’s really allowed me to draw closer to God and inspect and strengthen my faith further.” †