ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (1956)

A Newman Club was established at the University of Colorado by Father Agatho Strittmatter, OSB, pastor of Boulder's Sacred Heart of Jesus parish. Out of that club founded for university students, staff, and faculty on October 25, 1908, evolved St. Thomas Aquinas University parish.

At first, Newman Club Catholics met in private homes and held social functions in the Boulder Knights of Columbus Hall in the Sullivan Building at 14th and Pearl streets. Beginning in 1940, university Catholics convened in the lovely chapel of the Mount St. Gertrude Academy. In 1946, Father Charles Forsythe, OSB, was appointed the first full-time Newman Club chaplain. Father Forsythe had been educated at Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Boulder, at Fordham and St. Louis universities, and at Holy Cross Abbey in Canon City. As an army chaplain, he had been awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart after losing a leg in the 1945 Easter Sunday battle of Luzon in the Philippines. Over the next twenty-seven years, he would transform a small Newman Club into a parish.

University students and faculty, neither of whom were noted for their financial resources, found an angel in the John H. Phelans, a Beaumont, Texas, couple who summered in Boulder. In 1946, the Phelans donated their summer home at 1609 15th Street as a Newman Club center. In 1950, the club built a chapel nearby at 898 14th Street and converted the house at 904 14th Street to a rectory for Father Forsythe. The Phelans donated $30,000 to this project, while Julie Penrose, the Colorado Springs philanthropist, gave $3,000. Archbishop Vehr blessed this chapel on May 19, 1950. Fortunately, architect John K. Monroe had designed the chapel with possible expansion in mind, for the university Catholic community soon outgrew this little garden level church.

The Phelans donated another $27,000 to convert the chapel to a handsome church made of the same Lyons sandstone, Italian Renaissance style architecture that distinguished the University of Colorado campus. A red tile roof, Romanesque entries, and a single, stocky, corner tower adorned with a seven-foot statue of St. Thomas Aquinas enhanced the new church. St. Thomas, the great medieval theologian, is the patron of scholars, and the stained glass windows commemorated various academic pursuits from music to medicine, from chemistry to drama, from law to the military arts. Behind the altar a thirty-five-foot mosaic served as the backdrop for a life-sized crucifix, which, like the altar reredos, was carved by artists of Bolzano, Italy. The old basement chapel was converted to a kitchen, lounge, game area, and meeting rooms.

After the new church was dedicated in 1956, it welcomed students--no matter how badly they needed haircuts. Guitar Masses were initiated in 1967, leading one elderly parishioner to groan, "I should have died while this was still a Catholic church." The University of Colorado, which started with twenty Newman Club members in 1908, had attracted about 1,800 Catholic faculty and students by the 1960s. Recognizing this tremendous growth, Archbishop Casey changed the university chapel to the university parish in 1968.

The Paulist fathers took over the parish in 1977 and found an ally in Sister Sheila Carroll, OSF, who became a full-time campus chaplain in 1985 and announced that she was engaged in "hand-to-hand combat on campus," wrestling with students to make them "feel a part of this parish." Since the 1960s, St. Thomas has sponsored a theologian-in-residence who, among other duties, teaches classes for the university's Religious Studies program.

Under the leadership of David W. O'Brien, CSP, the first Paulist pastor, several changes were made. Women associates were added to the staff, and made valuable contributions. Through the voluntary labor and contributions of many parishioners, the house owned by the parish at 889 15th Street was transformed into a residence for the Paulist priest. This freed the rectory for parish offices and activities.

On October 9, 1985, an arsonist set fire to the interior of the church. Fire fighters saved the exterior but the interior was gutted. Father John J. Kenny, CSP, pastor since 1984, and the other priests and sisters of the parish began holding services on campus.

Finding good even in the tragic fire, Father Kenny reported that by "moving into student territory," the staff at St. Thomas increased Mass attendance by several hundred a week. "For weddings, funerals, and large meetings, all the Boulder Catholic parishes, as well as First United Methodist Church and Trinity Lutheran Church have lent us their facilities."

In 1986, St. Thomas received permission from Archbishop Stafford to spend up to $850,000 rebuilding and enlarging the charred church. After meeting in campus buildings, student dormitories, at Protestant churches, and at Baseline Junior High School, St. Thomas Aquinas parishioners cheered the news. They raised over $300,000 to reconstruct the church, which was rededicated on April 16, 1988, by Archbishop Stafford.