The Diocese of Owensboro Rainbow Mass returned for the first time since 2019 on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, with several Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph present to support the students.

The Rainbow Mass began shortly after Bishop John McRaith named Ursuline Sister Amelia Stenger as superintendent of Catholic Schools in 1984. Sister Amelia told Bishop McRaith that when she attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy, all of the students in the diocese came to the Owensboro Sportscenter for a Mass and celebration of the Catholic Students Mission Crusade. Bishop McRaith wanted to recreate that, which resulted in the first Rainbow Mass, so called because all the schools had different colored uniforms, and when they were in the Sportscenter, they became a rainbow of color.

This year’s Rainbow Mass continued that tradition at the Sportscenter. It has been canceled the past two years due to Covid.

One-third of the priests and deacons in the diocese processed in ahead of Bishop William Medley as the students, teachers and supporters sang “Here I am to Worship.” The Mass was the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and Bishop Medley said during his homily that whenever he visits the Catholic schools in the diocese, someone always asks him why he wears such a big cross, known as a pectoral cross.

“I tell them I wear it to keep the cross of Jesus close to my heart,” Medley said.

Here are some photos from the day.