High school named for late pope now has his ski jacket on display

Published: 2006-06-08

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. Cardinal Dziwisz provided the ski jacket, along with documentation that the pope had worn it.

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