When 17-year-old Grady Leneghan walked into a Greek Orthodox funeral last September in Cleveland, he expected to learn about different traditions. What he didn’t expect was the silence — no family, no friends, no mourners. The young man was there not because he knew the deceased, but because he wanted to honor them.
Leneghan is part of Saint Ignatius High School’s St. Joseph of Arimathea Pallbearer Ministry, a student-led program that provides pallbearers for funerals of those who pass away alone. “It makes you appreciate more of what you are, and who you are as a person,” he said.
Founded in 2003 with just a dozen volunteers, the ministry has grown into a movement of compassion. Today, nearly 400 students participate each year, serving at up to 180 funerals. Each student is trained not just in how to carry a casket, but in how to carry the weight of someone’s story — with dignity and grace.
At McQuaid Jesuit in Rochester, New York, junior Blaise Weidmann described their careful preparation: “We had to learn how the casket comes out of the hearse, how to walk with it, how to move in rhythm.” But beyond technique, they’re also taught reverence — to pray, to sing, and to be present for someone who might otherwise be forgotten.
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