This week’s featured program, Extraordinary: The Bill Atkinson Story, is an equally remarkable reminder that showcases how a former athlete-turned-seminarian managed to become the first quadriplegic to become a Roman Catholic priest and a beloved high-school teacher. (Airs 5:30 p.m. ET, Friday, March 7, with a re-air at 2:30 a.m. ET, Saturday, March 8, on EWTN, EWTN.com/everywhere.)

Philadelphia-born Bill Atkinson was the third of seven children, good-looking, a natural-born athlete, and the center of his large family. He had everything going for him. Because of his natural athleticism and athletic build, some might have thought he would follow in the footsteps of his older brother Al, who had been drafted into the NFL.

Instead, Bill chose the road less traveled. Instead of an athletic career, this natural-born athlete decided to become a priest. He chose the Augustinians of the Order of St. Augustine in New Hamburg, New York, where he began his novitiate with a year of solitude and reflection.

Most would think a career with the New York Jets would have been the more dangerous path. While seminary studies were interspersed with occasional sports, the level of roughness is nothing like the grueling physical competition in the NFL.

Unfortunately, Bill’s relatively idyllic existence was about to change. During the first year of his novitiate, there was a snowstorm, and the seminarians were excited to take their toboggans and go sledding. Bill was happy to be among the group. He jumped on a sled and started downhill, but things went horribly wrong. The fresh snow blowing in Bill’s face caused him to go off course and plow headlong into a tree.

Bill almost died several times. The accident was so severe that the Augustinians allowed Bill, who was only a novice, to profess his vows before completing the novitiate. That’s a privilege that is only allowed when a person is in danger of death.

Miraculously, Bill didn’t die, but his diagnosis was devastating: He suffered a broken neck and severely damaged his spinal cord and would soon discover he had become a quadriplegic.

For most people, that would be the end of their vocation story. In fact, the Code of Canon Law of 1917 stated: “Paralytics and a person suffering from similar diseases are absolutely irregular and cannot be advanced to orders without a special dispensation, which is very seldom granted.”

That was an understatement. In fact, no one in Bill’s condition had ever been granted such a dispensation. But Bill was determined to become a priest. Was this heroic or was he setting himself up for failure? After all, this was the 1950s. There was no Americans with Disabilities Act. How could a person in his condition study? How could he write papers or take an exam? How could he contribute meaningfully to the priesthood?

Even though his superiors couldn’t imagine that Pope Paul VI would grant Bill a dispensation, the order decided to give Bill a chance.

The dispensation would be granted, but why? Why did the Pope decide to make an exception in this one case? What convinced him? How did Bill not only become a priest, but a high-school teacher?

Tune in to the program for answers to these questions and more.

Father Atkinson died in 2006, and the process to explore what was needed for him to become a saint in the Catholic Church began the following year. The case was approved and remains in process. As one priest explains it: “What the Church is looking for in the canonization process is someone who has lived his or her life with heroic virtue, meaning that they are worthy of being held up as an example for their own life and as an example of true hope for others.”

Extraordinary opens with a quote from Father Atkinson:

“All I can tell you is this. At 6 a.m. this morning, God sent me a huge cross to crush me. That much I’m sure. But, at 6:01 [a.m.], he sent a lot of people to help me carry it.”

Michelle Laque Johnson is director of communications at the EWTN Global Catholic Network; this is a shortened adaption from the “EWTN Wings” weekly programming email. To have info about EWTN shows and specials sent directly to your inbox, sign up at EWTN.com/wings.