Detroit — Two Catholic schools in the Detroit area — and teachers who ministered there — are holding their collective heads a little higher upon the ordinations of Bishop-designates Hanchon and Byrnes.

Bishop Hanchon, is a proud graduate of St. Mary’s School in Wayne, from where he entered Sacred Heart Seminary High School.

And while Bishop Byrnes’s grade school, St. Mary of Redford, is no longer operating, his high school, Detroit Catholic Central, is thriving on its Novi campus.

Administrators at both the schools take it as an honor that one of their former students is now walking in the footsteps of the apostles.

“The appointment of Msgr. Hanchon as bishop is a point of pride for St. Mary Parish, School, and the entire community,” says Don Lipinski, principal of St. Mary. “We are proud of the rich tradition and legacy of both the parish and school.”

At Catholic Central, it’s no uncommon story to have graduates go on to become priests. It’s happened there more than 100 times, says principal Fr. John Huber, CSB. But Shamrock Michael Byrnes — a solid student and captain of the football team in the class of 1976 — is the first to be a bishop.

“We are very humbled, and proud at the same time, that Michael Byrnes is going to be ordained a bishop,” Fr. Huber says. “That’s inspiring for us especially because we’ve been inspiring vocations here.”

The largest Catholic school in the state, Detroit Catholic Central has more than 1,000 young men currently attending, Fr. Huber adds. And seeing a bishop rise from the alumni means something to them.

“Michael’s ordination to become a bishop is inspiring our young men here to consider a vocation to religious life, to the priesthood, and even stressing their vocation as a husband and father if that’s what they’re called to,” he says.

Bishop Byrnes attended Catholic Central on its 6565 West Outer Drive campus in Detroit. He counts several of the Basilians among those who influenced both his childhood and vocation.

In his years there, he left an impression on the faculty and coaches, too, says Fr. Ken McKernan, a now-retired Basilian who taught Michael Byrnes in high school and coached him in the pole vault.

“He was just a delightful character,” Fr. McKernan says. “He seemed very adult in his ability to deal with other people — with coaches and other kids on the team.”

Fr. McKernan can even recall watching the young Michael Byrnes early attempts at the pole vault — something he tried when he’d already been captain of the football team.

“I was sitting in the stands and watching. Mike came running down the runway in the gym, and he went up and he almost got over. There were pads and uprights and crossbars going all over the place,” he recalls with a smile.

He says that was the same day the track and field head coach approached him and asked him if he would coach the pole vault, “because I want a priest there all the time.”

As for Bishop Hanchon, he shares a friendship and a favorite story with one of his teachers at St. Mary School, too.

Years after his priestly ordination, he was traveling to Winona, Minn., to see his friend Bishop Bernard Harrington be installed as the diocese’s bishop. On the bus ride, he ran into an IHM sister who introduced herself as Sr. Kate Seeidenwand. She had been Bishop Harrington’s second-grade teacher at St. Cecilia School in Detroit — and as such had prepared him for his First Communion.

Then-Fr. Hanchon started recalling his own preparation for First Communion and the IHM sister who taught him.

Through the course of the conversation, the two discovered that Sr. Seeidenwand herself had been Bishop Hanchon’s second-grade teacher, though she had been known then by the name of Sr. Mary Eugene, which she had chosen for religious life in earlier years.

“It was just a thrill for me,” says Sr. Seeidenwand, now living at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe. “You don’t know who you’re touching when you’re teaching, and I was just thrilled by it.”

Bishop Hanchon says he’s grateful for the chance reunion, and that they both enjoy telling the story.

Incidentally, Sr. Seeidenwand not only taught Bishop Harrington and Bishop Hanchon, she also taught for a stretch at St. Mary of Redford School, where she got to know the family of Bishop Michael Byrnes.