JOHN XXIII (1967)

A century after Colorado State Agricultural College was founded in 1878, the "Aggies" had evolved into Colorado State University (CSU) with 15,000 students pursuing practically every subject under the sun.

Among the academic possibilities at CSU were Catholic Inquiry, Christian Family Movement, and Theology classes offered by Leonard G. Urban. Father Urban transformed the CSU Newman Club into the Catholic Campus Ministry and became its first full-time director. Initially, he held Sunday services in the Engineering Building Auditorium, only to find all 400 seats filled; a house was acquired at 222 West Olive Street and converted to a center for activities and daily Masses. The next step, taken with the help of Thomas J. Gleason, president of the First National Bank of Fort Collins, was acquistion of a large site at the west end of the campus.

As plans for a full-scale parish complex were drawn up, Archbishop Casey authorized creation of a new parish in 1967. At first, it was called St. Paul's but since an Episcopal Fort Collins church already had this name, it was changed in 1968 to honor Pope John XXIII. As the third parish in Fort Collins, it would serve primarily the students, staff, and faculty of CSU and spread the "Good News" of Vatican II.

The new center was completed and used for the first Mass on September 15, 1969. When Father Urban transferred to another parish, Thomas L. McCormick took over at John XXIII in 1975, followed in 1979 by Reinhold B. Weissbeck, and in 1984 by Richard Ling. Father Ling reported in 1986:

John XXIII University parish is dedicated to its historical mandate to be the Catholic community in Ft. Collins serving the kingdom of God in and around Colorado State University. It has supported the Theologian-in-Residence program at CSU and has provided a full-time director of university ministry. It also provides traditional ministries to and with residential parishioners, while making the effort to bond both university and residential parishioners in a collaborative effort to foster the kingdom of God.

Father Leonard Urban returned as pastor in 1988 to the parish he had founded. "There's an interesting inscription on the bronze plaque of our parish center," he noted in 1988. "It's from Henry Cardinal Newman's Idea of a University Defined and ends with:

`Oh parting soul how has thou used thy gifts,
Thy inspirations, the lights poured around thee.'