May 6, 2011
John Paul the Great High School
Jasper Catholic high school celebrates beatification
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
More than a million people were in Rome last Sunday for the beatification ceremony for the late Pope John Paul II.
That ceremony held special significance for the students, parents and teachers at John Paul the Great High School in Jasper.
“This is a very special event for us here at John Paul the Great Catholic School as our namesake is beatified on the path to becoming a saint,” said Elizabeth Flatt, principal.
“We recognize the huge positive impact he had on the youth and evangelization during his papacy and continue to honor his work in all that we do.”
Angie Greulich is the campus minister at the high school. She said, “Our school has embraced feelings of anticipation and joy as we have begun celebrating the beatification of Pope John Paul II!
“We are overjoyed at the miracles that have taken place, and we continue to actively seek his intercession at the beginning and end of our classes. In order to commemorate John Paul II’s beatification, students attended the Divine Mercy Devotions at St. Mary’s Church in Ireland on May 1.”
She said the students have all “researched John Paul II and have turned in reports in their theology classes. They especially enjoyed this project as many of them discovered new things about him. We also are watching a series of videos on his life, mission and passions.
“We are so ever humbled to have John Paul II as our namesake, and our students hold him very dear to their hearts.
With the discussions on how he loved everyone, how he enlivened youth in church and how well he articulated the teachings of the Church to the laity, our students have been excited to celebrate his beatification!”
Mark Ginter is vice-president of the school board. He explained that John Paul the Great High School was “hatched out of an idea by Father Tony Ernst and Sam Eversman.
“Father Tony was associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Parish at the time. The first public meeting about the idea happened in November of 1999 in the K of C Hall. The persons who showed up, about 150 or so, only found out about it through word of mouth because it predated the widespread use of e-mail.
“In December of 1999, the initial steering committee met . . . Most of us had grade school children and were planning for their Catholic high school educations, but we had no options.”
Ginter said the steering committee met with Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger on Oct. 9, 2000. “At that time, he endorsed our efforts, provided us with encouragement, insisted that we be as bilingual as possible, and that we consider status as an ‘independent’ school with his formal recognition.”
In response to the bishop’s request that the process be bilingual, Ginter suggested to the committee that it close meetings with the “Hail Mary” in Spanish and that Our Lady of Guadalupe be the school’s patroness. “The committee accepted the proposal and that prayer has closed most of the meetings ever since.”
He also proposed calling the school “Pope John Paul II Regional Catholic School.”
The name of the school was “enthusiastically welcomed by everyone.” He remembers the words of fellow committee member Sara Fritch who said, “Who has not been touched deeply in their Catholic faith by this great pope?”
Ginter said that by the pope’s death in 2005 “he had already been dubbed ‘John Paul the Great’ in print, and the words of Cardinal Ratzinger at his funeral already gave a tacit endorsement for the rest of the world to embrace the moniker of ‘John Paul the Great.’”
He added, “We met with Bishop Gettelfinger on Feb. 1, 2008, after the Catholic Schools Week Mass at Holy Family. At that meeting, he enthusiastically endorsed the name and suggested the additional word of ‘Catholic’ to make it John Paul the Great Catholic High School. The use of the word ‘Catholic’ could only be granted by his canonical authority, and he was willing to give it if JPGCHS was willing to comply with all diocesan policies as an independent, Catholic school.”
The “unique characteristic of JPGCHS is that we are a school of the new evangelization. The new evangelization is woven into our Mission Statement.
“Since so many Catholics are unschooled in evangelization, we need to start fresh, and there is no better teacher of evangelization in our time than that great pope, John Paul II.”