The Papal Slippers of a Catholic Saint in an Oshawa High School's Principal's Office

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On October 28th, 1958, a dark-horse candidate was elected Pope.   He was Angelo Roncalli who took the name of Pope John XXIII or John the Twenty-Third.  Pictured above, are the papal slippers he wore, at his consecration and coronation as Primate of the Catholic Church.  Because of his age, 77 years old at the time, he was elected as a stop-gap pope.  He turned out to be anything but.  He modernized the Catholic Church with the Vatican Councils.

On April 27, 2014 Pope John XXIII, was canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church. So how did the Consecration Slippers of a Catholic saint end up in the principal's office of a school in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada?

From 1921 to 1925, the future pope was head of the Society for the Propagation of Faith in Rome.  There he met a young seminarian from Parry Sound, Canada and they became fast friends.  That was Paul Dwyer, who went on to become a parish priest in Oshawa Ontario.  I don't need to recount how Monsignor Dwyer was responsible for the Oshawa Catholic High School, now the Monsignor Paul Dwyer High School in Oshawa.  Then-Father Dwyer served as chaplain as air force chaplain in World War II in England in 1941 and in 1945, he was assigned as Chaplain for the Eastern Canada Command.

Father Dwyer was sent to both Vatican Councils as a clergy representative, and renewed his friendship with the now-Pope.  In 1961, Father Dwyer was elevated to the office of Domestic Prelate carrying the title of Monsignor.  At the time there were 14 distinct offices of Monsignor, however the Domestic Prelate was considered a honorary member of the Papal Household.  As such he received a gift from his old friend's household -- the slippers in which Angelo Roncalli was consecrated as Pope.

On the death of Monsignor Paul Dwyer, certain personal effects were bequeathed to the school, including the Papal Consecration Slippers. And that is how the Papal Slippers of a Catholic Saint ended up in the principal's office of a relatively unknown Catholic School in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

I can just see it now.  The school becomes a massive Catholic pilgrimage site in North America.