Detroit — “Pope John Paul loved Orchard Lake, and Orchard Lake loved him back,” says Fr. Timothy Whalen, chancellor, summing up the relationship between the late pontiff and the Polish-American Catholic institutions known as the Orchard Lake Schools.

"Priest, Pope, Saint" The Orchard Lake Schools are celebrating the beatification of Pope John Paul II, Polish Constitution Day and Divine Mercy Sunday with a two-day series of events April 30-May 1. Saturday, April 30 Constitution Day program, Old Gym, 2 p.m.; followed by picnic-style dinner in the Quad, 4 p.m.; with campus tours at 4:45, 5:30 and 6:15 p.m. Pope John Paul II beatification vigil beginning at Grotto (in Shrine Chapel if bad weather), 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sunday, May 1 Procession from Grotto, 3 a.m., to Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake to watch beatification ceremony from Rome on large screen, 4 a.m. Then breakfast in the dining hall, 6:30 a.m. Call (248) 682-1885 to make breakfast reservations. Polish Mass in seminary chapel, 9 a.m. Annual Mass for Henry Ford Trade School Alumni, Shrine Chapel, 11 a.m. Divine Mercy Sunday observance begins with confessions and speakers via Internet from Rome, 1 p.m.; rosary at 1:30 p.m.; Mass celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Francis Reiss, 2 p.m.; Divine Mercy Chaplet, followed by Eucharistic Procession to Pope John Paul II monument at the Grotto, 3 p.m. Polish Easter Dinner in dining hall, 4 p.m. Purchase tickets in advance at campus book store or online at www.polishmission.com.

Pope John Paul visited the campus twice, in 1969 and 1974 when he was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, Poland.

Fr. Whalen, then a senior at St. Mary’s Preparatory, had the opportunity to meet the future pope during that first visit in 1969.

“We’ve become used to Polish cardinals coming here in recent years, but back then, before the fall of the Iron Curtain, this was huge,” Fr. Whalen says.

Not only did Cardinal Wojtyla love the institutions, he also loved the lake itself, going kayaking in it, Fr. Whalen recalls.

Now, the Orchard Lake Schools are expressing their love for the first Polish pope with “Priest, Pope, Saint,” an overnight program of prayer at the Grotto on camps, a spot where their guest particularly liked to pray, and the early-morning viewing of the live satellite transmission of his Vatican beatification ceremony on a large screen in the Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake.

 “He is certainly one of the greatest figures in the history of Poland, and embodies everything Fr. Joseph Dabrowski envisioned when he was creating the seminary back in 1885,” Fr. Whalen says.

A banner being erected on campus will carry one of the late pope’s strong endorsements of the Orchard Lake Schools, his exhortation “Fill Orchard Lake! Fill it to capacity! We need Orchard Lake!

“I pray to John Paul every single day, for myself and for the schools. I really do believe his intercession has helped us to get over some mountains, and has had a lot to do with the success of the schools,” Fr. Whalen adds.

The Orchard Lake Schools include SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary and St. Mary’s Preparatory, as well as the Polish Mission.

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More celebrations of John Paul II’s beatification and Divine Mercy Sunday can be found online at www.aodonline.org.