In laughs and tears, Dennis Southerland’s connection to CYO is filled with emotion

By John Shaughnessy

Let’s start with a humorous story about Dennis Southerland because he loves a story, especially one that leads to a laugh.

It was May of 1974, and he had just received a phone call from Bill Kuntz, his former football coach at Arlington High School in Indianapolis who had just been named as the new executive director of the archdiocese’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO).

As Southerland and his wife Cathy congratulated him, Kuntz told his former player that he wanted him to be his assistant executive director.

“I said, ‘You know we’re not Catholic,’ ” Southerland recalls. “He said, ‘I’ve already talked to the archbishop [George J. Biskup in 1974], and it’s fine.’ Cathy and I were both on the phone. We had a newborn baby. I said, ‘What can I expect?’ He said, ‘Well, I know you’ve been working about 25 hours a week and making a lot of money, so you’d work about 50-60 hours a week, and I’ll pay you about half of what you’re making now.”

Southerland pauses for a laugh and says, “Cathy and I looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

That agreement led to a funny moment on Southerland’s first day on the job—at the CYO’s annual track and field meet. As hundreds of children waited to be organized for their events, Southerland was told to take them to the starting line and line them up by their parish. The non-Catholic asked, “What’s a parish?”

From that humorous, humbling moment, Southerland dedicated himself to the CYO for the next 10 years—“the best job I’ve ever had because I got to hang out with the best people.” And ever since, his commitment to the CYO has continued as a board member, a fan and a supporter, which leads to another story that unfolded earlier this year—50 years after that life-changing conversation with Kuntz.

This story begins with a letter to the Southerland home from Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, a letter noting that Southerland was chosen as one of this year’s recipients of the St. John Bosco Medal, the highest honor from the archdiocese’s CYO.

“My wife intercepted the letter,” Southerland says. “We’ve got five kids and 12 grandchildren, and most of them were over at our house one day. One of the grandsons, the 13-year-old, said, ‘Hey, I want to read this letter to you.’ He started reading this letter from the archbishop that said I would be one of the recipients of the St. John Bosco Medal. I started bawling.

“I was very involved in handing out the St. John Bosco medals when I joined the CYO in 1974. To say that somebody thought I was in the same category of some of the most important people in my life, people who have made a difference in this community—it means a great deal to me, and we’re not Catholic.”

Still, Southerland proudly says that Catholic connections touch every part of his life in a positive way, from his friendships, including with priests and religious sisters, to the influence of his maternal grandmother, who was Catholic.

“I grew up in Little Flower,” he says, referring to the neighborhood around St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Parish in Indianapolis. “I had a brother who was dying of leukemia. She didn’t have much money, but when she would come over to our house, she’d give me a nickel. She’d say, ‘Here, take your bike, take this nickel, and go over and light a candle at the church. And kneel when you light the candle, and put the nickel in the place where you put the money in.’

“That was really meaningful to me. I still do that to this day when I drive by Little Flower. I’ll park my car, run in real quick, and light a candle So, it’s had a big impact on me.”

So did the evening of May 14 when he received the St. John Bosco Medal from Archbishop Thompson at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. Naturally, Southerland adds a touch of humor to the emotional moment for him.

“When they asked me to come up, and the archbishop put the medal over my head, I gave him a hug and said, ‘I do know what a parish is now.’ ”

A second later, he says about the honor, “It’s just a wonderful thing.”†

 

See more Catholic Youth Organization award winners