By Veronica Ambul | Colorado Catholic Herald
Msgr. John Slattery, the first vicar general of the Diocese of Colorado Springs and founding pastor of St. Patrick Parish, died Nov. 28 at age 87. Msgr. Slattery had been residing at Mount St. Francis Nursing Center.
Msgr. Slattery was born in Denver on July 5, 1931. He attended Annunciation School and enrolled in St. John Vianney Seminary in 1949. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Denver on June 1, 1957, by Archbishop Urban Vehr.
Shortly after his ordination, he was named assistant pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Denver, where he remained in until 1966. He was then named pastor of St. Mary Parish in Breckenridge, where he served until 1970. He served as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish from 1970-1976. He was then named pastor of St. Jude Parish in Lakewood, where he remained until 1981.
In 1981, at the request of Auxiliary Bishop Richard C. Hanifen, Msgr. Slattery was named the founding pastor of a newly-created parish in northeast Colorado Springs — St. Patrick. For the next six years, he celebrated Mass in a retail space on North Academy Boulevard, while overseeing the planning and construction of St. Patrick Church. The site of the new church — a roughly five-acre property on Brook Park Drive — had been donated by prominent Colorado Springs businesswoman Bonnie Fitzpatrick, owner of the Dublin House restaurant.
“It was a challenge; I loved it,” Msgr. Slattery said of starting the new parish. “It was probably the premiere experience of my priesthood.”
In January 1984, Msgr. Slattery was named vicar general of the newly-formed Diocese of Colorado Springs, a role that he held while still serving as pastor of St. Patrick. In 1987, he became administrator of St. Paul Parish. In 1991, his term as vicar general ended and he was named rector of St. Mary’s Cathedral, where he remained until 1997. He then served at Divine Redeemer and Corpus Christi parishes until his retirement in 2000.
In 2009, he was one of three priests in the diocese to be designated a Prelate of Honor by Pope Benedict XVI. With that, he gained the title of “Reverend Monsignor.”
Msgr. Slattery “will go down as a ‘founding father’ of the diocese,” said Bishop Emeritus Hanifen.
Bishop Michael Sheridan said that “Father Slattery’s service in the Diocese of Colorado Springs is legendary. I know how much Bishop Hanifen relied on him in those early years, and I am deeply grateful for all that he has done to serve the mission of the Church in our diocese.”
