As the first Catholic high school in the northern region of Colorado, St. John Paul II High School eagerly welcomed a visit from Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila in February.
After a year-long feasibility study and an even longer wait, St. John Paul II High School was opened in 2020 at the behest of and with the blessing of Archbishop Aquila, fulfilling a longtime desire to open a Catholic high school option for those families and students who live up north. The school began as part of the Chesterton Academy network of classical Catholic schools but became its own, independent entity in 2022.
During his Feb. 23 visit, Archbishop Aquila offered Mass for the school and engaged in seminar on the USCCB-penned document from 2021, “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church.” The archbishop sat in on classes for the day to observe and participated while school was in session. Following his visit, the archbishop wrote a letter to the school in which he thanked them for hosting him.
“I enjoyed my visit and I was deeply impressed by our conversation and participation in the Mass,” Archbishop Aquila wrote. “As I said in Mass that morning, it has long been a dream to have a Catholic high school in northern Colorado, and I am grateful that it has finally been realized. You students are coming up in an age when the faith is decimated by our culture. Although people will claim that our beliefs are backwards or regressive, they cannot escape the fact that we are made for God.”
Blaise Hockel, the high school’s headmaster, expressed that they were “wildly excited” for the archbishop to visit.
“It’s not every day that you get to welcome your spiritual father into your home,” Hockel said. “And of course, because he has such an invested interest in education in northern Colorado, this was particularly important to us. It was a day of great excitement.”
The school’s faculty chose the USCCB’s document on the Eucharist to discuss with Archbishop Aquila in part because the culture and mission of the school is oriented around the Eucharist, Hockel explained.
“We see it as necessary to be in the presence of the Eucharist as frequently as possible,” Hockel said. “It’s the source and summit of all grace. How are we supposed to be able to do God’s work if we’re not actively pursuing his will and being present when he calls us? So we have the daily Mass, and on Mondays there’s no priest in the building, So we get to have adoration.
“If I were trying to encapsulate this briefly, what is the nature of the Eucharist to the school or why do we place the emphasis on it that we do? The emphasis that we place is that it is the culmination of all of our work and that it is a great gift that we’re able to bask in its presence — bask in his presence — when we’re here doing our labors. It’s this opportunity where it makes manifest the reality of transubstantiation and gives us the opportunity to wholly and totally give ourselves over to the mission.”
St. John Paul II High School currently rents space from Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Windsor and is in the process of closing on a plot of land located at the corner of Highway 34 and County Road 13 for their future, permanent home. Next month, they will celebrate the commencement of its first graduating class. There are currently 38 students enrolled and the school expects the class to grow to 50 students for the next academic year. The faculty has also grown from four staff members in the inaugural year to its current 11, including six full-time teachers.
For more information about St. John Paul II High School, visit jpiihs.com.
