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Landon King, Braxton Brice, Alex Monagan, Frederick Lane and Christopher Buford pose as Brandi Boles snaps a photo. (Stacy Graning/The Natchez Democrat)

Liza Gregg, Madeline Fielder, CharlotteBook, Lacey Welch, Allie Grace McGeehee, Sally Linton, Lauren Lambeth and Ella Samrow pose before the ceremony. (Stacy Graning/The Natchez Democrat)

Jade Goods, Emma Smith and Sarah Grace Stewart were all smiles before graduation. (Stacy Graning/The Natchez Democrat)

Graduates Trey Dillon, Tate White and Jackson Webb before the ceremony. (Stacy Graning/The Natchez Democrat)

Landon French, Alex Monagan and Ethan Keith pose for a photo while Lizzie Verucchi and Madeleine Fielder finish donning their caps and gowns. (Stacy Graning/The Natchez Democrat)

Clayton Atkins and Ella Samrow were among the graduates passing out flowers to important adults who supported them throughout high school. (Stacy Graning/The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ – Speakers wove themes of expectations and climbing the mountains of life as the 45 members of Cathedral Catholic School Class of 2025 graduated on Friday.

Addressing her classmates, salutatorian Elizabeth Ashley Gregg talked about how the challenges they have faced so far in their young lives, as well as those that lie ahead. “We’ve learned how to climb and stand on top of the mountain,” she said. “And in the next few years, you’ll do it again. Don’t stop making the climb.”

Gregg, a standout athlete who will attend Millsaps University, acknowledged how intimidating the challenges ahead may be. “Always remember that everything looks taller from the bottom, but the higher you climb the smaller it looks,” she said. “And when you do reach the top of that mountain, extend a hand down and help others climb up behind you … because remember, everything you own is temporary and everything you are is your legacy.”

Valedictorian Joseph Braden Starr spoke of the current in St. Mary Basilica, where hundreds of friends and family gathered to celebrate the graduates. “It’s a current of electricity in the air … a sense that something momentous is about to happen,” Starr said. “But that expectation is not just a passing moment. It’s a potent and shifting current” that will weave through the lives of the Class of 2025 throughout their futures.

“And we walk into a future full of new and different expectations,” he said. “We will face uncertainty, opportunity and change. But one thing remains constant: what we expect of ourselves and, more important, what God expects of us … We are called to live lives of compassion, selflessness and stewardship.”

Starr, who plans to attend the University of Southern Mississippi to study biomedical sciences, reminded his classmates of the parable of the talents in the New Testament, urging them to share the gifts they have received from God in ways that “not only meet expectations but strive to exceed them in love, integrity and purpose.”

Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz echoed the theme of expectations as the graduates celebrated “where education began in the diocese back in 1847.”

Drawing on the background of Pope Leo XIV, who is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, the bishop referenced St. Augustine’s wisdom that “our hearts are restless until we rest in God.”

“There’s a holy restlessness that keeps us climbing, keeps our expectations up, that goes on throughout our whole lives,” he said.

And before tthe 178th graduating class of Cathedral headed out, High School Principal Whest Shirley reminded the newly minted alumni that “the world needs your energy. It needs your voice. It needs your vision.”

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