A Brief Encounter With Pope John Paul II Still Resonates In A Newtown Family

By Shannon Hicks

As people around the world began mourning and then gathered to watch the funeral Mass last weekend for Pope John Paul II, one Newtown family could not help but think about the personal connection they shared with the late pontiff.

Twelve years ago, when John Paul II visited the United States for World Youth Day, Sean Kerins was one of only 100 young adults granted a private audience with the pope. Today Mr Kerins, who is the husband of Maureen (Mo) Kerins, is the father of five beautiful and healthy children — including one who received a special blessing from the pope. Mr Kerins and his family relived that honor last week when they were visited by a film crew from the television show Good Morning America.

The Kerins family welcomed a camera crew and freelance producer into their Sandy Hook home on April 7 to talk about the pope and their connection with him. The resulting segment was then aired on GMA the following morning.

In addition to the interview with producer Brian O’Keefe, the family played some basketball and an abbreviated game of Scrabble while being filmed.

After sharing their story with Mr O’Keefe, Mr Kerins and his family shared their story with The Bee.

At the time of the pope’s visit to the United State in August 1993, Mr Kerins was the director of Orange County (N.Y.) Catholic Youth Organization. That is when he was selected to be one of the youth delegates for the upcoming World Youth Day. Of 100 delegates who were appointed from around the world, Mr Kerins was one of only seven delegates from the United States.

During the conference in Colorado that led up to World Youth Day, Mr Kerins participated in group discussions with other delegates.

“We talked about contraceptive issues, married priests, women as priests… you name it, we talked about it,” Mr Kerins said last week. “Name a big issue, we discussed it. And the pope wanted to hear what young people felt about these big issues, so we told him.”

For four days Mr Kerins kept finding himself within 20 feet of the pope. He was most nervous, he said, not with his face-to-face meeting of the Holy Father but when John Paul II first walked into Mile High Stadium for one of his first Masses.

“There were 400,000 people gathered for a Mass, and I was nervous about being in the same stadium,” Mr Kerins laughed. Mr Kerins later did a reading and met the pope with the full group of youth delegates. After dinner, there was a special Mass for the delegates and it was following that service that each of the delegates was granted a two- to three-minute private audience with the pope.

“By the time of that meeting I was very calm,” Mr Kerins recalled. “It felt like I was walking up to an uncle I hadn’t seen in a long time. He was very calming.”

Pope John Paul II was sitting in “a throne-type chair,” remembered Mr Kerins, who leaned down to kiss the pontiff’s ring before doing almost anything else.

His request to the pope was simple. Mr Kerins asked the pope to pray for and bless his wife, who was pregnant at the time.

Mr Kerins said the pope told him he was happy the Kerinses were expecting a child, and he offered his blessing to the young couple and their unborn child.

“Then he told me ‘I want you to always pray for other babies not yet born, and any babies who don’t make it to their birth,’” Mr Kerins said.

He also asked for the pope to bless four rosary beads he had with him. The pope did that, and then gave Mr Kerins a fifth set of beads. Each delegate was given a set of blessed rosary beads by the pope.

“Here’s the wacky thing,” Mr Kerins said. “I went there with the four beads and he gave me the fifth bead… and now we have five children.”

Johnny Kerins, the couple’s oldest child, was born in January 1994. He is now a fifth grade student at St Rose School, and says he feels special because of his blessing.

“When I tell my teachers, they get all excited,” Johnny, now 11, said last week during one part of the family interview for Good Morning America. “It’s pretty cool that I was the firstborn son and that my dad got to go up and talk to the pope one on one. It’s really sad that he died a couple of days ago.

“I didn’t hear too much about him for a long time, until he got sick,” continued Johnny. “We’ve all been blessed by one of the most spiritual people on the face of the Earth.”

His younger brothers and sister feel similarly.

“I feel special,” said Kathryn, 8. “I feel like it was special to be blessed by the Holy Father.”

“I feel like it’s really special to be blessed by one of the most religious people in the world,” said Ricky, 8.

Brian, age 6, said it made him feel “good” to think about his father’s request to the pope. The Kerins’ youngest child is Sean, who at 5 months can’t quite tell the world what he wants to eat, never mind how special it is to have been offered an extended blessing from Pope John Paul II.

The Good Morning America segment was aired last Friday morning. The Kerins family missed the original airing, unfortunately — but the VCR was set and everyone watched the segment when they were home from school and work that evening.

“I thought it was awesome,” Mr Kerins said this week. “I thought it was a very positive segment, and it was very tastefully done.

“And,” he continued, laughing, “it’s just amazing how many people saw it. We keep hearing from people all over the place who saw us on TV.”