ST. ELIZABETH ANN SETON (1981)

In January 1981, Kenneth J. Koehler, VF, founded the fourth Catholic Church in Fort Collins. With a startup membership of 150 families, Father Koehler bought a house at 1200 Wheaton Drive and transformed it into a church, offices, and rectory.

Sunday Masses were begun in the Fort Collins High School auditorium starting April 5, 1981. Our Savior Lutheran and St. Luke Episcopal churches offered their facilities for Saturday evening and Holy Day Masses, two generous offers accepted by Father Koehler.

Father Ken was officially invested as pastor on October 18, 1981, and the parish was dedicated to Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first U.S.-born saint. Born in New York City in 1774, she was a wealthy and attractive debutante, a wife, mother and widow, then a nun who founded the Sisters of Charity. Appropriately, a Sister of Charity named Margaret Seton showed up in the summer of 1981 to help Father Ken start Seton parish.

Groundbreaking for phase one of a parish plant came on September 23, 1984. This parish hall was to be the first step in developing the thirteen-acre site, with an $850,000 building containing a chapel with adjacent multipurpose area seating 500, a nursery, classrooms, and kitchen. The multi-level, modern structure with Romanesque arch entries occupies a spacious suburban site with a fine view of the foothills. "It is certainly a privilege," reflected Father Koehler, "to have the opportunity to build this parish in the `Choice City of the Front Range.' I have made a commitment to the parishioners of this new parish to see this project completed, and with the support of everyone, we will see the fruits of our labor very soon."

Next, Father Koehler turned his attention, in 1988, to the homeless of Fort Collins, spearheading an ecumenical effort of nearly 100 Larimer County churches and synagogues to raise money for the Mission. Catholic Community Services purchased the site for the Mission in the spring of 1988 and made plans to include a Hostel of Hospitality, Hope Job Bank, the Hospitality Kitchen, and an Elderly Outreach Program. The $764,000, two-story, 8,600-square-foot Mission, designed by John Dengler & Associates of Fort Collins to look homey rather than institutional, opened in 1989 to sleep forty, feed 100, and provide employment and personal counseling.

"The Mission," Father Koehler told the Denver Catholic Register of November 11, 1987, does not serve

primarily transient people as much as it helps neighbors and local citzens. They are 65% of the people helped. Many are persons who had good jobs, who want to work and who take pride in caring for themselves and their families. Because of conditions beyond their control, they are experiencing great difficulty doing this.

With completion of St. Elizabeth's parish plant and the Mission, Father Koehler's parish showed that it, like Mother Seton, could launch good works that snowballed into not only parish but also community assets.