Margaret Wright was 11 when she moved to Denver from Arkansas with her mother and sister in 1962 and began attending St. Ignatius Loyola Church. Now 73, Wright still worships at the stately Gothic church at the corner of 23rd Avenue and York Street, which will soon mark its 100th year.
Wright chairs the committee organizing the centennial celebration. Her parents were divorced, and although her mother was a church-going Methodist, Wright and her sister converted to Catholicism at St. Ignatius when they were teens. The parish means “family” to Wright.
“It's the only parish I’ve been a member of. Basically, I grew up in the parish—the people there raised me,” Wright told the Denver Catholic. With a soft laugh, she added, “My sister and I have been daughters to more families in that church.”
Leading up to the St. Ignatius' centennial anniversary Mass, the parish has held a mini-pilgrimage tracing its history, tours of the church, a Spirituals Project concert, a sing-along and on their patron saint’s feast day, a light-hearted swag-bag fundraiser and solemn vespers.
Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila will be the main celebrant of the 100th anniversary Mass set for 10 a.m. Oct. 13. Concelebrants will include current pastor Father Francis Therese Krautter, C.S.J., and former pastor Father Thomas Cwik, S.J. A reception will follow. All are welcome. (RSVP at www.stignatiusdenver.org/RSVP by Oct. 4.)
“This is a great milestone,” Father Krautter said, noting that people reflect on the past and look forward to the future at such landmark moments. “What do we want for the next 100 years?”
History
St. Ignatius was born from Denver’s oldest operating church, Sacred Heart, on Larimer Street downtown, built by the Jesuit Order in 1879. Overflow crowds at Sacred Heart led to the building of a small church on Ogden Street in 1910 called Loyola Chapel. In 1921, Jesuit Father Charles McDonnell, pastor of Sacred Heart, sold Loyola Chapel to build a much-needed full-size church on the west side of City Park. Named after the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius Loyola Church was dedicated on Oct. 12, 1924.
Featuring two elegant 110-foot towers, five exquisite stained-glass windows in the sanctuary, Carrara marble, oak and a modern-day Celotex ceiling, the new red-tile-roofed brick church was the largest in Denver, with seating for 1,200 people.
The Great Depression delayed the start of a school until 1938, when the church basement was divided into classrooms. A brick school was built in two stages in 1950 and 1954. The first through eighth-grade school was staffed by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. After 73 years, it closed in 2011. Today, it is leased to the French American School of Denver, a tuition-free public charter school.
In 1944, St. Ignatius Loyola Church was elevated to parish status. In 1996, it was added to the National and Colorado State Registers of Historic Places. In the early 2000s, it was made accessible to people with disabilities, and a new altar, baptismal font and three additional stained-glass windows were installed. Currently, the choir loft is undergoing restoration and an organ installation.
“She’s old and probably a little bit falling apart, but she still has a graceful, dignified look for her hundred years,” Wright said about the church. “She’s still beautiful.”
Changing demographics
St. Ignatius Loyola Church originally served a predominantly Irish and Italian congregation. After World War II, many African Americans sought better opportunities and moved into the area west of the church—part of the 1910 to 1970s great migration of Blacks from the South to the North, Midwest and West. The pastor, Jesuit Father William Markoe, insisted on an integrated church and school. Ensuing decades-long pastor Jesuit Father Edward Murphy did the same and earned national awards for his integration work.
In the 1960s, Father Murphy also famously pastored and counseled heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston, who had relocated to Denver from Philadelphia after experiencing racism and trouble with the law there.
“(Liston) would donate and help to build up the school,” Father Cwik said.
Over time, the congregation went from being integrated to being predominantly African American. Today, the surrounding Whittier neighborhood identifies as 53 percent white, 25 percent African American or Black, 16 percent other races and 5 percent mixed race.
The diversity of the congregation is what Father Cwik said he most enjoyed about the parish when he served as pastor from 2011-2017.
“We had African Americans, Sudanese, Nigerians. Also, Mexican Americans, Anglos and Indians,” he said.
He described the Jesuits' decision to withdraw from the parish in 2023 after running St. Ignatius for 99 years as “sad but realistic,” citing a decline in the order’s priestly vocations and an aging priesthood.
“It was hard, but I understood,” he said.
Transition
Homemaker Rosa Salazar joined St. Ignatius in 2016 when she and her husband, Kelley Thompson, moved just three blocks away and stopped in for the anticipatory Mass one Saturday evening.
“We loved it,” Salazar said. “We felt really welcomed.”
Noticing there was no music—the choir was on a month-long break—Salazar, who since childhood has played flute and guitar and did music ministry in college, volunteered to help.
“Father Cwik said, ‘Can you start next week?’” Salazar recalled with a laugh. Today, she volunteers to co-direct the Saturday choir, which includes Gospel and Spiritual hymns in the repertoire. She also belongs to the parish's Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary. Early on, she was involved with social justice issues.
“When our son was born in July 2018, we felt like there was a lot of spiritual support for him. It felt like he was the community’s baby,” she said, adding that Leandro, now 6, has church friends, too, as the parish offers “children’s church” on Sunday mornings.
The past year has been one of transition for the parish, with the Jesuits leaving and a different order, the Community of St. John, taking the helm. Community of St. John Father Krautter said about half of the congregation left with the Jesuits.
“There’s been grief; there’s been loss. I feel called to stay and to continue to serve,” Salazar said. “I’ve felt the Spirit of Christ here since the first day I walked in the door.”
Looking forward
Father Krautter is a musician, composer and member of several choral groups. As a board member of Gaudium Verum, he promotes education in sacred music. He has introduced Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony to St. Ignatius' Sunday morning liturgies. A chant class is starting, and parishioners are invited to sing vespers with the brothers weekly on Thursdays.
The architecture of St. Ignatius was built for the arts of the Church, including sacred music, the pastor said.
“I want to emphasize the importance of worship—the primacy of adoring God and making sure our liturgies are beautiful,” Father Krautter said. “In that way, in the neighborhood, there’s an oasis of prayer where people know they can come in throughout the day, throughout the week and worship.”
He heartily supports St. Ignatius' St. Vincent de Paul Society ministry and food pantry and urges knowing and serving the people, schools and hospitals in the area.
“We have to look at who are the people near to us, as Mister Rogers says,” Father Krautter said. “Who are the people in our neighborhood.”
Like Wright and Salazar, 44-year parishioner Mary Leisring describes St. Ignatius as “extended family” that supported her through illness and the loss of her beloved husband, Charles Leisring, three years ago. Both were involved in liturgical ministry and served on the parish council at different times. Deeply appreciative of the famed spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Mary trained through the Lanteri Center to become a spiritual director.
“God is allowing us to incorporate things we learned from the Jesuits and now to incorporate things from the Community of St. John,” she said about the change in Loyola leadership. “The one-hundredth anniversary is saying: We’re here to stay because this is where God is. God didn’t leave when the Jesuits left. He’s still here. As long as he’s here, I’ll be here.”
St. Ignatius Loyola Church Centennial Mass Celebration
When: Sunday, Oct. 13, 10 a.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila. Reception to follow.
Where: St. Ignatius Loyola, 2301 York St., Denver
RSVP: www.stignatiusdenver.org/RSVP by Oct. 4
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