 |
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1912)Catholics in the northwest Denver neighborhood of Berkeley built one of the loveliest churches in the archdiocese and had a glorious time doing so in what they nicknamed "the carnival parish." Even the Ku Klux Klan could not stop St. Catherine's from holding its lavish and lucrative bingo parties, according to Judge John J. Dunn. Judge Dunn's mother, before her marriage, was John Galen Locke's nurse, and his father happened to be a long time patient of Doctor Locke, the KKK grand dragon. It was Locke who arranged bingo permits for St. Catherine's with Denver's anti-Catholic chief-of-police, William Clandish. The "carnival parish" was born and raised in the Bungalow Theater, a large home with a basement theater still operating at 4201 Hooker Street. Bishop Matz created St. Catherine of Siena parish in the spring of 1912, in a letter responding to "a petition signed by many Catholics who live in the vicinity of Harkness Heights, North Denver." Bishop Matz appointed as first pastor William W. Ryan, assistant pastor at Annunciation parish. Father Ryan, a graduate of Denver's Sacred Heart School and St. Thomas Seminary, was a devotee of St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine, a fourteenth-century Dominican mystic, did historically memorable work, not only with the poor, but also helping Pope Gregory XI end the captivity of the papacy at Avignon, and promoting peace between Rome and Florence. In a May 21, 1952, letter in the archdiocesan archives, written a month before his death, Father Ryan says he named the parish "after my mother and (of course) St. Catherine of Siena in the year 1912." For the first Masses, Father Ryan rented the theater on Hooker Street. On Friday and Saturday nights, this space was used for live theater, and during the week it housed the George S. Swartz Shakespearean School of Drama. Beginning on Sunday, May 19, 1912, about fifty families attended the little theater services for which a big wooden packing box was converted to an altar. Some, according to Judge Dunn, worried about falling off gangplanks over the orchestra pit on their way up to the stage to receive Communion. In 1913, St. Catherine's completed its first church, a Romanesque $7,000 brick structure with a large rose window facing Federal Boulevard. Construction had begun on January 5, 1913, and the first Mass was said in June, though the interior was not fully completed and not dedicated by Bishop Matz until February 21, 1915. Poor health forced Father Ryan to retire in 1921, and Bishop Tihen replaced him with John Raymond Mulroy. A year later, Edward John Mannix was appointed pastor, and Father Mulroy stayed on as associate pastor. Father Mulroy persuaded the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet at St. Patrick's to open a school in the fall of 1921 in the basement of the small church. The sisters rode the streetcar each day to school, where each of them taught two grades in the four basement classrooms. When St. Catherine Hall and Gymnasium was completed for $40,000 at the southeast corner of Federal Boulevard and West 43rd Avenue in 1923, cardboard partitions were used to create additional classrooms for the overcrowded school. Father Mannix launched St. Catherine's famous carnival with a modest August gala in 1921, featuring spaghetti dinners under a big tent on the tennis courts. By 1924, the carnival had become a three-day event on the last weekend in August, and St. Catherine Hall was converted to a banquet hall. Among the numerous attractions were raffles of bicycles, Shetland ponies, automobiles, and even the two lots of land south of the church. Entertainment included the forty-four-piece Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad band, tightrope walks by Ivy Baldwin, and the Denver Police Department sharpshooters--who blasted cigarettes out of the mouths, ears, and fingers of brave volunteer targets. The climax came when a specially built tower was set afire. Just in time, according to Father Mannix in his 1933 booklet, "Carnivaling for God," three crack companies of the Denver Fire Department "roared into the Carnival grounds with sirens screaming and red lights gleaming." Chief John F. Healy's smoke eaters would quickly put out the fire and then demonstrate their rope work, pontoon drilling, and net jumping. Such sensational attractions helped lure over 5,000 to the carnivals, which by 1933 had raised $150,000 for St. Catherine's. The "carnival parish" used its earnings to purchase lots on West 42nd and 43rd avenues in 1926 and build a $12,737 convent and a $39,000 parish school dedicated on May 29, 1929. Now the nuns, freed from daily commuting, could spend more time with the eight grades, which filled rapidly. Father Mannix was a large man and a fine orator who proved to be as aggressive about building up parish athletics as he was about fund raising. Father Mannix would urge the whole parish to turn out for the Sunday afternoon baseball games in which St. Catherine's often trounced other parishes. Father Mannix also coached the St. Catherine's girls' basketball team, the Red Sox. You could always find Father Mannix, be he visiting the school, promoting the carnival, or coaching basketball in the gym, by the perfume of his perpetual cigar. Father Mannix remained pastor until his death on December 16, 1934. Delisle A. Lemieux, JCD, the next pastor, launched a building program to replace the overcrowded old church, which was demolished. Architect John K. Monroe designed a Lombardic Italian Renaissance church of blonde brick that matched the school and convent. The basement phase was completed in 1935, but the Great Depression and then World War II helped delay completion of the grand superstructure. Not until November 27, 1952, did Archbishop Vehr dedicate the gorgeous, $390,000 church. A handsome exterior features a massive single square bell tower, and a large rose window faces Federal Boulevard, depicting St. Catherine as the Protectress of Rome. The blind arches or tympanum over the main entrances are done in gold foil. They feature in bas relief the attributes of St. Catherine--the Papal Keys, her writings, and the cross and thorns of her mystical stigmata. The breathtakingly beautiful interior features stately brick and stone under massive, exposed ceiling beams. Stained glass windows honor several popes and Mother Francis Cabrini, a favorite of the many Italian parishioners. "St. Catherine's had many Italians," recalled former assistant pastor Father John V. Anderson, "and they tried on several occasions to persuade the city to rename Federal Boulevard as Francesca Cabrini Boulevard." Among the many colorful assistant pastors at St. Catherine's during these years was Bartalo Paolazzi, who directed the choir and favored the parish with his musical abilities. Father Paolazzi was a priest of the Archdiocese of Venice, Italy, and Cardinal Roncalli was his ordinary. When Cardinal Roncalli was elected Pope John XXIII, he had Father Paolazzi come to the Vatican as one of his assistants. St. Catherine's, with its architecturally harmonious church, school, gym, and convent wrapped around an interior courtyard, now occupies the block across from McDonough Park. Under the pastorate of Monsignor Lemieux, who was known for his excellent administrative ability and foresight, St. Catherine's parish and school flourished and became one of the outstanding parishes of the archdiocese. Monsignor Lemieux resigned as pastor in 1966 and was followed by Theodore Haas (1966-1974), Matthias Blenkush (1974-1977), and Raymond N. Jones. During his first decade as pastor of St. Catherine's, Father Jones raised $500,000 to endow parish educational programs, a feat in the best tradition of the "carnival parish." "We celebrated our seventy-fifth anniversary on April 26, 1987," Father Jones noted,
|