ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA (1947)

St. Anthony parish was formed on February 24, 1947, by Archbishop Vehr, to serve 175 families in fast growing West Denver. Michael A. Maher, the founding pastor, held the first Mass on August 3, 1947, in the Westwood Skating Rink. Subsequent services were held in the banquet room of a historic West Alameda Avenue tavern, the Aeroplane Club. Another local business, Westwood Cleaners, housed early meetings of the Holy Name Society and also made room for Father Maher's Saturday confessions, which inspired the slogan, "Cleaning Clothes as Well as Cleaning Souls."

By Christmas of 1947, when Mass was celebrated with the debut of the parish choir at the Aeroplane Club, Father Maher was saying three Sunday Masses. On September 29, 1948, the parish finally moved into its brand new church.

Since an estimated 1,200 Catholic school children lived within the parish boundaries, Father Maher's flock also undertook to build a school. Sisters from Presentation parish conducted religious education classes until November 8, 1954, when Archbishop Vehr dedicated a three-classroom school, built as a $72,000 annex to the church. A Junior Newman Club was founded to promote religious education and vocations, as well as parish activities such as the first St. Patrick's Day dance and the first bazaar, both held in 1948. In this young parish teeming with children, religious education was conducted with the help of the Sisters of Loretto and the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Victory, as well as the Sisters of Charity.

Father Maher traveled to Rome in 1950 and returned with a special papal blessing from Pope Pius XII for St. Anthony parish. Eight years later, Robert E. Kekeisen became the second pastor and launched an $80,000-a-year campaign that led to construction of a new school auditorium and classrooms.

In the fall of 1959, St. Anthony's began work on a larger, new church, designed by Langhart and McGuire of Denver and built by the Frank J. Kirchoff Construction Company. The handsome new edifice, made of burnt-orange brick, was ready for Christmas services in 1960.

The same year, Father Kekeisen undertook a unique Confraternity of Christian Doctrine program--Operation Door Knock. This effort to interest any and all Westwood neighborhood children and adults in religious instruction added 150 families to the parish rolls and brought the number of children receiving religious instruction to over 1,400. A parish convent was completed in 1964, and the School Sisters of St. Francis were recruited to live there while they expanded St. Anthony of Padua's school to a full eight grades. For its youth, the parish also launched a softball program that, as of 1988, has fielded fourteen teams.

Patrick V. Sullivan, pastor from 1976 to 1987, was confronted by declining enrollments and closed the school in 1979. Sister Gloria Fews, SSSF, softened the loss by opening the Southwest Montessori Preschool in St. Anthony Convent. The school uses the system developed by Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and educator who died in 1952. This school for students aged two to six had ninety students and a waiting list in 1988.

Father Sullivan became an activist advocate for the neighborhood, which includes many low-income Hispanics. Among the many programs he offered were sessions with Céssar Chávvez, the heroic founder and long-time leader of the United Farm Workers. Chávez, crusading for an end to pesticides, which he claims endanger as many as 300,000 farm workers, thanked "Father Pat who brings us in, feeds us and gives us a special Mass."

Father Sullivan launched an Hispanic studies and a health program at the parish, a food bank, and Christmas basket operations. His work on many fronts earned him Denver's 1986 Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award for his leadership and dedication as a volunteer with Options, Inc., Shalom House, Denver Family Corporation, Metropolitan Organization for People, Denver Family Housing, and Denver Catholic Community Services. Poor health forced Father Sullivan to retire in 1987, when he was succeeded by Joseph Sullivan.