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CNS Story:
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JPII-JACKET Jun-8-2006 (370 words) With photo. xxxn
High school named for late pope now has his ski jacket on display
By Andy Telli
Catholic News Service
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville carries the name of the late pope, and now it also houses the black ski jacket he wore during visits to the mountains.
Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of Buffalo, N.Y., who headed the Nashville Diocese when the school opened in 2002, returned to the school earlier this year to deliver the jacket.
"I hope it gives a little human connection to the pope," the bishop said.
Since the school was built, Bishop Kmiec had made several attempts to acquire a personal item of Pope John Paul that could be housed at the school, but was unsuccessful.
Even after he left Nashville to become bishop of Buffalo in October 2004, Bishop Kmiec kept trying. He approached a priest in the Buffalo Diocese who knows Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland, who was the late pope's personal secretary and a constant presence at his side throughout his papacy.
Cardinal Dziwisz provided the ski jacket, along with documentation that the pope had worn it.
Pope John Paul was an avid skier and outdoorsman as a young man and often visited the mountains on vacation while he was pope.
The jacket will be displayed at the school, said its principal, Hans Broekman. "Having some material item that was his and we can take care of is special," Broekman said. It also is special, he said, that Bishop Kmiec pursued securing a personal item of the pope's even after leaving the diocese.
With "a little bit of Pope John Paul II here, you're going to have a little connection here," Bishop Kmiec told students who gathered in the school's auditorium for the presentation.
If the late pope is ever canonized, the jacket would be considered a second-class relic, Bishop Kmiec said. Second-class relics are anything used by a saint during his or her life.
The jacket is "a little touch of a great man," he said. "I hope he continues to be an inspiration to you."
And, with a chuckle, Bishop Kmiec told the students: "Yeah, if you're wondering, I tried it on. It fit."
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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