February 09, 2014
11:00AM Sunday Mass
Sunday Mass was presided over by a very old Jesuit, although St Joseph's isn't a Jesuit Parish. We got there in time for the short but meaningful Homily on the "salt of the earth" theme. In typical Jesuit fashion, the Homily was short, to the point, and punctuated with humor. At the end of the Eucharist, the choir sang Happy Birthday to the old Padre and the congregation gave him a standing ovation.
We both figured that St Joseph takes the #3 rank in our favorite churches to date. #1 remains Week 7's St Elizabeth of Hungary followed by Week 3's St Ignatius Parish. Jesuit bias? Perhaps!
From St Joseph's website (http://www.stjoegold.org/history.html): St. Joseph Catholic Parish was founded in 1859 by Father Joseph Machebeuf. The first white-frame church structure was finished in 1867 on a site on the north side of 14th Avenue near Ford Street. Judge Jonas Johnson donated that site and in 1874 he donated another twenty acres (where the present church complex is located) as a cemetery and possible church site.
This tiny church was the second church built in Golden. The Baptist
(1866), Calvary Espiscopal (1869), Swedish Lutheran (1870), and First
Presbyterian (1870, now the Foothills Art Center) churches also served pioneer
Golden, a one-time territorial capital and urban rival of Denver. Golden
population peaked at 2,730 in 1880 and then its population declined when it
lost the territorial capital to Denver as well as its hopes of becoming the
Colorado railroad hub. Despite the dwindling population, St. Joseph's struggled
to stay open. Thomas McGrath became the first resident pastor in 1871, followed
by Fathers L. B. Lebouc (1872-1873), S. Duroc (1873-1881), Anthony J. Abel
(1881-1886), Martin P. O'Driscoll (1886-1888), George J. Morton (1888-1890),
and Daniel Lyons (1891). In 1891, Bishop Matz, with some relief, turned over
the poor, struggling parish to the Franciscans in Denver.
Bernard Spiegelberg, O.F.M., began an ambitious pastorate in 1891 and
in 1899 built a new $8,000 brick church on the east side of the original frame
structure. The Franciscans worked to pay off the parish debt and returned a
debt-free parish to the Denver diocese in 1913.
Father Robert Servant was appointed to St. Joseph Parish by Bishop Matz
in 1913 and he served until his death in 1924. He was followed by Father John
P. Moran (1924-1940) who built the mission of Christ the King (1936) in
Evergreen. Father Barry Wogan guided St. Joseph's until 1949, adding a $19,959
hall north of the church on East Street. This hall served Catholics and
non-Catholics alike.
After World War II, Golden's growth finally began to match the golden
hopes of its town founders. The town grew from 3,175 in 1940 to 7,118 in 1960,
and to 12,237 in 1980. St. Joseph's parishioners were overflowing the old 1899
red brick church by October 3, 1958, when Archbishop Vehr dedicated a new
$135,000, 450-seat church. Located across East Street from the old church, it
was designed by architect John K. Monroe as a basement church able to sustain a
traditional ecclesiastical superstructure if future growth required it.
The old church, rectory, hall, and grounds were sold in 1965 for
$130,749 to the Adolph Coors Company, which demolished the structures to expand
its parking lot for tourists, who came in ever-increasing numbers to inspect
the huge brewery and sample its products. Proceeds were used to begin
construction of a $227,870 eight-classroom school on the 10th Avenue and
Ulysses Street site.
Richard Mershon (1964-1970), Monsignor Thomas P. Barry (1970-1976),
Monsignor Edward A. Leyden (1976-1977), Father George V. Fagan (1977-1982), and
several interim pastors guided St. Joseph Parish through years of rapid growth
in Jefferson County, where it had once been the only parish. St. Joan of Arc
Parish (1967) in Arvada, and Our Lady of Fatima (1958), and Christ on the
Mountain (1975) parishes in Lakewood were established to care for
newly-suburbanized areas once within the boundaries of St. Joseph.
Even with these new parishes, St. Joseph's continued to grow. Angelo
Ossino, who became pastor on July 1, 1982, began working with the Council on
plans for a new parish plant on the twenty-acre expansion site on the north
side of the Golden Cemetery, which Judge Johnson had donated in 1874. The
result is a $1.6 million church and rectory. For the October 19, 1986
dedication, a procession of parishioners carried the crucifix from the old
church to the new. The old cornerstone and church bell of the 1867 church were
also brought to the new site and placed at the outside entrance.
The church is pinned to a hillside by more than 150 caissons and
designed to be warm and welcoming, to have the earthy feeling of the nearby
foothills. The pie-shaped structure seats over 500 with no one more than nine
pews from the altar. Designed by architects Keith Ames and Associates of
Longmont, the dramatic exterior of brick and raw wood rises to a central cone
over the altar. The exterior features a solar wall and garden, with a baptismal
font just inside the main entrance. Custom handcrafted furnishings adorn the
interior, including a suspended sculptural ceiling in the Eucharistic chapel
and Stations of the Cross carved in glass. Under its huge conical roof, the
complex contains a record vault, a reconciliation room, a chapel, offices, a
gift shop, and a kitchen.
Archbishop J. Francis Stafford anointed the altar with holy oil,
sprinkled parishioners with holy water, and set off the smoke detectors with
clouds of incense. Parishioners thanked the archbishop with a traditional
western "Howdy!" by presenting him with a Stetson hat. Thus, St.
Joseph, the second church to be built outside Denver by Bishop Machebeuf,
became the first new Colorado church to be dedicated by Archbishop Stafford.
Excerpted from Colorado Catholicism by Tom Noel, Copyright 1989 Archdiocese of
Denver
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