Last week, Blessed Sacrament Catholic School received a surprise of papal proportions.
Back in February, Nancy Lowell’s first grade class wrote some letters to Pope Francis. This assignment was two-fold: to show off their newly learned penmanship skills and ask the Holy Father questions only the innocent minds of first graders would think to ask – questions such as asking Pope Francis to tell God to help a student’s cat so they “don’t need to send her back.”
Last week, they got a letter in response from the Vatican.
“We got a response back from his secretary that the Pope read the letters,” Blessed Sacrament principal Dr. Carla Dire Capstick said. He was very impressed with our students and blessed them.”
The letter in response read: “His Holiness Pope Francis was pleased to receive your kind messages. He thanks all of you for writing to him and he is grateful for your prayers. The Holy Father will pray for you and your teachers, and he sends his blessing.”
The kids in Mrs. Lowell’s class were very excited and surprised, as they expressed when 9News interviewed them.
While it normally can take months to get a response from the Vatican, this one came after just four weeks.
“To get a response as quickly as we did, that these kids could enjoy knowing that the Pope wrote them back and it was a heartfelt response was very impactful and heartwarming for our kids,” Dr. Capstick said.
It was a small gesture from the Pope that made a big impression on the students of Blessed Sacrament.
“A little Catholic school in Denver, Colorado, many thousands of miles away from the Vatican actually had an impact on the Pope,” Dr. Capstick said. “To know he responded is very impactful [in] our Blessed Sacrament community.
“It’s highly likely that we’ve set a tradition that Ms. Nancy Lowell will be doing this annually with her kids once they learn how to write complete sentences.”
To learn more about the exciting things happening in Denver’s Catholic schools, visit denvercatholicschools.com.
