by Moira Cullings
moira.cullings@theleaven.org
ROELAND PARK — Nearly eight months after the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting that took the life of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, the St. Agnes School community here turned again to faith.
“I think it’s a very powerful lesson for the kids to see the power of prayer and to see all the community coming together,” said principal Jane Sullivan.
“You don’t just pray that minute that something tragic happens,” she added. “But you keep [praying], and you keep remembering and you keep going through.”
Community of faith
St. Agnes held a living rosary on Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, in the school gym.
The annual event is organized by the Lighthouse Team, a leadership group made up of 16 seventh and eighth graders.
Each year, the team selects a person to dedicate the rosary to, and this year they chose Lopez-Galvan.
The suggestion came from her nephew, Mario Reyes, who’s an eighth grader on the Lighthouse Team. His sisters Melia and Madison were injured during the shooting.
“We all agreed,” said seventh grader Fiona McGroder of the suggestion. “We knew that she was an important person to our St. Agnes community, and we wanted to show respect to her and her life.”
Reyes was moved by the support for his aunt.
“It meant a lot,” he said, “especially since both her kids went here and she went to Miege, and both her kids went to Miege.”
Lopez-Galvan’s son Marc graduated from St. Agnes in 2015 and her daughter Adriana in 2019. Both went on to attend Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park.
Adriana, who attended the living rosary, was touched by the experience.
“It was really beautiful,” she said. “It was really cool. I love the technique that they [use] — they make an actual huge living rosary with all the kids.”
The rosary began with the second graders presenting roses in front of a statue of the Blessed Mother.
Students in second through eighth grade were seated in the shape of a rosary surrounding the statue. One by one, they stood in groups representing the decades of the rosary, taking turns to lead its various prayers.
For Adriana, ongoing gestures like the rosary are uplifting.
“It’s a very big, loving feeling for sure,” she said. “I feel all the support from everybody in the community and all of my family that come out with me during these events.”
Adriana said her mom was a devout Catholic who instilled a strong faith in her family.
“Every Sunday, we would always go to church,” she said, “and we would always pray every morning together.
“She would always say to ‘Pray your three Hail Marys.’”
Father Pat Sullivan, pastor of St. Agnes, emphasized the power of prayer.
“We always need to be praying for the faithful departed,” he said, “and this is a beautiful way to do it for a very beautiful person who we lost.”
Prayer can also be a source of comfort, he added.
“When we do things like this — memorialize or dedicate a rosary to somebody that we love or someone we don’t even know — it helps in the healing process,” said Father Sullivan.
Yoly Nordling, St. Agnes teacher and Lighthouse mentor, said Lopez-Galvan made a lasting impact on the school community.
“Lisa was a mom here,” she said. “She was a volleyball coach, a basketball coach, an amazing human being.
“So, to have her [family] come back and to know that they’re loved and we’re thinking of them during this whole time is very powerful.”
Leading by example
Maddie Joerger and Jordan Lynch, teachers and Lighthouse mentors at St. Agnes, said organizing events like the living rosary is a unique learning opportunity for the student leaders.
The team is part of the school’s Leader in Me program. To get involved, students apply and go through an interview process.
“Throughout the year, they help lead spirit assemblies at the school,” said Lynch.
“They help with a living Stations [of the Cross] that we have during Lent,” added Joerger. “We do a sock drive in November.”
The seventh and eighth graders said being on the Lighthouse Team is an honor.
“Ever since I was a kid, because I’ve gone here my whole life, I’ve always looked up to the Lighthouse people,” said eighth grader Austin Oropeza.
Eighth grader Hanna Hyde was excited to be a role model for the younger students.
“This is the chance to get to show other people how to be a leader,” she said.
The students also appreciate the ability to practice their faith at school, like through the living rosary.
“It brings us all together in a way that’s very, very special,” said McGroder.
“We get to go to Mass, and we pray the rosary,” said Oropeza. “It’s cool that I get a chance to go to a Catholic school.”
Reyes agreed.
“I feel very blessed that I’m able to have this education,” he said.
To view more photos from the living rosary, click here.
