LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Catholic community in Louisville honored first responders with the annual Blue Mass.

Church bells signaled the call to Mass on Sunday, but it was also a call for the community to honor Louisville's first responders past and present.

"I hope they experience in this mass God's care and concern for them and the care and concern of this community for them," Archbishop Shelton Fabre said.

Fabre lead the Blue Mass at Cathedral of the Assumption in downtown Louisville. The procession started with bag pipes as service hats represented Louisville's various agencies were displayed with honor.

"The Blue Mass has its focus and goal to call down God's protection on them as they serve the community," Fabre said. "It's also a way of telling them thank you for their selfless service to the community."

The annual service is strategically held in September. It is the month of the feast for the patron Saint of first responders, St. Michael the Archangel, but also a few days from 9/11.

"Certainly on the forefront of all our minds," Mayor Craig Greenberg said. "Whether folks that were serving our country here domestically in cities like Louisville or abroad that have given their life so that all of us can be free."

Louisville Fire Chief Brian O'Neill is grateful for a chance to remember.

"It means a lot to actually be out here to show respect and we remember those that we lost," O'Neill said.

O'Neill hopes others see it as a call to recognize all that was done before the fallen died.

"Don't focus on the fact they died or how they died but that they lived," O'Neill said.

Representatives from the Louisville Metro Police Department, Louisville Fire Department, Louisville Emergency Medical Service, MetroSafe 911, Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, Louisville Metro Alcohol Beverage Control, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Kentucky State Police were honored on Sunday. 

The Blue Mass has been held nationwide since its creation in 1934 in Washington, D.C. 

Related Story:

Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.