“Father Steinhauser wrote his doctoral thesis in the 1930s about the ideal American Catholic high school. He had theological, educational, and civic values incorporated into what he wanted this school to be. When he founded this school, he knew what he wanted it to be. Everyone else just had a piece of the action, they had a notion. He had the whole picture.”

Trinity Chaplain Fr. Dave Zettel’s description of Monsignor Alfred Steinhauser’s vision for the St. Matthews school that would open in 1953 comes with firsthand knowledge.

Zettel, who graduated from Trinity in the school’s second graduating class (1958), said, “Our mission has not changed; it’s just gotten bolder.”

Zettel has witnessed the growth of Trinity during the past 63 years. One thing that’s remained constant is the school’s Catholic mission to educate and strengthen the faith of its students.

He said of Trinity’s early years, “There were more clergy around and there was a higher percentage of Catholic students. In those days it was 99 percent. It was just taken for granted — if you went to a Catholic grade school around here, you came here. That was just a given. Now it’s kind of open, and we get students from everywhere. It was much more of a predictable system in those days.”

Zettel said as “changes in culture, changes in the Church, changes in the civic community” occurred, more students of various faiths came to Trinity. He said, “In the ‘50s and ‘60s, when this school was founded, there was a postwar move to build up the East End of Louisville.”

After his ordination, Zettel returned to his alma mater in 1966 at the request of Archbishop John Floersh.

As a priest, teacher, counselor and chaplain, Zettel has for the past half century seen students take theology classes, attend school Masses, take part in retreats and perform service hours throughout their four years at Trinity. During that time, students have gone and continue to go on personal journeys with faith.

Trinity Assistant Campus Minister and Service Coordinator Chris Luken said, “Regardless of whether someone is religious, spiritual, or not, there is a natural curiosity that develops in the teenage years. I try and fuel that as much as possible, foster the discussions and questions, and allow my students to experience their faith through questioning to know ‘What do I believe; what do I not believe’. Questioning your faith is an essential process. You don’t want blind faith.”

Senior Brandon Attaway said he doesn’t feel drawn to any religions right now because “there’s a lot more questions in life I have got to figure out before I can.”

Luken felt drawn to teaching adolescents about spirituality when he was a freshman in high school. “I had a really influential religion teacher,” he said.

Luken said many students start to explore their faith more critically once they have gone on senior retreat. Luken has always enjoyed retreats, be it through youth ministry or school. When he came to Trinity, he planned on getting into the retreat program because he already knew the impact it has on people.

Luken said, “They understand the meaning and the value that their family plays, that their friends play, this school plays, and understand not necessarily a greater respect for organized religion, but in spirituality and faith, which I think leads into finding your place within a set group or religion. When you take a group of guys away from school for three and a half days, you make them seriously look at it when all they have is themselves and each other.”

Senior retreat does not benefit only students. Adults who lead retreats take just as much out of the experience as students.

Luken said, “The primary goal is to be there and help (seniors) grow as students, as young men. But you always gain something yourself. It’s a big sacrifice to leave family, young kids, wife, for three and a half days. Get the sub plans done, come back to all the late work. But when you’re there, and you come home, you come back a better husband, a better father, a better teacher, a better man, a better friend. You gain stuff from it, too, even though you are primarily there to serve others.”

The retreat program was implemented at Trinity in the early 1970s with the help of Zettel.  

Zettel said, “We had had retreats for a long time of different sorts, for seniors and others. We’d heard about this program. Fr. Ron Domhoff visited another school and came back and said, ‘This is a good idea. I want to do this.’ He went to Fr. (Thomas) Duerr, who was the principal at the time, and said, ‘I want to try this.’

“Duerr said, ‘Why don’t you get Zettel to help you.’ We went around and recruited some people in February of ’74.  We took them down to Nazareth in Bardstown and had a great experience with Christian Awakening. We found out really quickly that it answers a lot of needs for seniors.”

Zettel said the retreat program opened the door for students to experience their faith and attend Masses with their hearts as well as their minds: “I think (today) there’s a lot more heart in it. People do it because they have to but also because they want to.”

Luken cited changes in the Church as having significant impact: “The decade before, we saw massive amounts of change in Vatican II, 1962 to 1965. It opened up Catholicism to the people in a way that hadn’t been opened up maybe since the time of Jesus and the early Apostles. In the wake of that there was this yearning for not just a faith or a religion but a depth of spirituality. Numerous types of these retreat programs — all these were in direct correlation to the changes in the accessibility that Vatican II allowed the people.”

The personal growth through retreats cannot be denied, according to Luken: “The retreats allow the heart-based, open dialogue — that face-to-face, person-to-person communication that we miss in the textbooks, that we miss when we’re doing the papers and the tests and all those necessary things — by answering the simple questions of ‘Who am I, who is God, how am I going to respond?”

Trinity theology teacher Mr. Josh Kusch struggled with answering the “simple questions” throughout his twenties. Kusch was raised nominally Presbyterian, but he stopped going to church altogether once he was old enough.

Kusch said, “Basically, I kind of reached a crisis in my life in my early twenties, and so I set out on a quest for truth — even though I really didn’t know what that meant. I started dabbling in spirituality and started looking at Eastern traditions. I didn’t take it seriously. I was a Buddhist for two weeks or something.”

Kusch said he started taking his journey seriously when he discovered Christianity.

“I had a friend who was talking about Christianity,” he said, “and I thought that was the last place I’d ever find truth. One of the things that really caught my attention was that I was encountering all these Christians, and there’s something unique about them, there’s something different. It had this peace. You could almost identify them when you saw them walking.

“I started exploring the Christian tradition, and I looked at different churches and traditions. I came to believe that the Catholic Church was the fullest expression of Christianity, that it can trace its connection back to the Apostles and the early Church, and ultimately to the Bible itself.

“There’s an idea that’s prevalent that you’re Christian because that’s what your parents taught you, that’s how you were raised. Some people are raised in secularism. You kind of just adopt what you’re parents tell you. It is true that a lot of people just take it for granted. For me, it was definitely a very personal choice. It wasn’t just something I kind of fell into or anything. It means everything to me.”

Zettel said he feels his faith became part of his identity while he was at Trinity. He said, “There were a lot of priests around. They were so committed to what they were doing, they spent so much time with us, we had so much fun. They were were such an inspiration to me that I decided at the end of high school that I wanted to be one of them.”

Just as with teachers, no two students at Trinity will have the same journey with faith. A student may enter Trinity as a Catholic and leave a Catholic, but his relationship with his faith may change.

Luken said, “The older you get — the more mature you are, just across the board — the more freedoms you are given as an adolescent and the more you try to develop yourself, there is a natural psychological pull to move away from your parents, to move into the masses of your own culture and age, to find yourself. Part of that process is the questioning of faith.”

Sometimes that questioning can lead to confusion and crisis. Kusch said those crisis moments are what bring a lot of people to faith.

Kusch said, “For 14-year-olds, (faith) is not at the forefront of their minds. Maybe when they get a little older and have, maybe, an existential crisis and they’re looking — ‘Which direction am I going to take my life?’ But at this age, I don’t think very many of them are really concerned with ultimate things or what is the ultimate meaning in their life.

“In our culture, there’s a lot of distractions, so I don’t think it’s at the forefront of their minds. The ultimate question is why is there anything at all, why do we exist. When you follow that question to its logical conclusion, you get to a necessary being, a being that has to exist.”

For students not going through existential crises, Kusch said the key to staying consistent with their faith is to keep it simple. Getting involved in their church and praying daily are some of the keys for success. He said, “Small steps — you’re not necessarily going to have a St. Paul on the way to Damascus moment, a dramatic conversion.”

Senior Logan State said daily prayers and weekly Masses during grade school (he went to both St. Gabriel and St. Aloysius) are what helped him develop as a Catholic. After fifth grade, he went to a non-Catholic grade school. He said he was glad to get back into a “godly” school once he enrolled at Trinity.

State describes his own faith as traditional and said Trinity is a traditional school, in terms of adhering to Catholicism. He goes to Church every Sunday and reads the Bible. Some Catholic students he talks to at Trinity are not as devout as he. He said, “The ones that I know, they tend to not be as practicing, which is unfortunate.”

State said Trinity has helped him expand his understanding of faith. He said talking to friends who don’t believe as he does helps him stay consistent in his faith.

“Theology classes have really taught me a ton that I didn’t know about the Church — and about God. I’ve learned a lot about the meaning behind the Sacraments,” State said. “I really enjoy the Trinity Masses because Father Zettel does a great job with them, and because there is a deep brotherhood at Trinity.”

Freshman Lucean Redinger was raised Catholic, went to a Catholic grade school, and is now attending Trinity, where he feels as though he gets a wholesome Catholic education. “I’ve been doing more service hours and am going to Church more. I’ve been trying to pray more.”

Attaway was raised in a more secular environment. He said throughout his life, he has believed in Christ but doesn’t consider himself a part of any major religion. He views himself today as agnostic but has studied Hinduism in the past.

“I could choose my religion when I hit a period of my life where I was able to discern the separate religions,” Attaway said.

Attaway still sees value in religion. He thinks Catholicism is great because it helps build community, especially at Trinity. “Trinity’s not a traditional, Bible-beating school. It’s got Catholic elements but, as far as I can see, all the good ones — helping your community, just being kind, helping your fellow man, everyone’s equal no matter what their practices may be — the works of Christ.”

Attaway says that taking morality class with Mr. Mike Domzalski his junior year opened his eyes to “how useful Catholics are in the community, how much they do.”

Regardless of their faith, Zettel has one thing to say to students: “Walk with us. If you put yourself in this culture, every day, from 8 to 3, you’ll grow with it.”

Though Trinity continues to uphold positive traditional virtues of Christianity, some are worried the Church as a whole is shifting along with the culture of the West.

“I feel like Christianity is accepting too much of the moral relativism,” State said.

Kusch said, “Culturally, we are often described as Post-Christian. Entertainment is Post-Christian, the media is Post-Christian, the academics and people who influence culture are. Being faithful in this time and place requires being counter-cultural. The Catholic Church at large and America have kind of drifted with the current. There’s a lot of Catholics in the United States, but if you look at Mass attendance, that’s a basic indicator.”

Zettel said, “There are options today. Take retreat. When I went here, we had a senior retreat. I had to do it. Senior retreat (today) is well-attended, but it’s optional. I think we give students a little more leeway in terms of ‘Here’s what we’d like you to do; we hope you do it.'”

Zettel points out that providing options to students has not dampened Trinity’s incredible generosity: “We require (service), but you can do more if you want.  Look at Dare to Care, a record amount of money (donated) this year. I think 40 percent of students in this school are on financial aid because they can’t afford it, and yet we have a Dare to Care campaign, and they raise $15,000. The more things change, the more they stay the same.”