Archdiocese of Denver history

In 1868, Father Machebeuf was appointed as bishop of Colorado and St Mary’s became the Cathedral.

In 1902, ground was broken for the new Cathedral.

In 1905, an energetic assistant, Hugh L. McMenamin or Father Mac, came to the Cathedral and organized fund raising efforts for the work to continue.

The twin 210 foot spires were capped in 1911.

On October 27, 1912, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was dedicated.

The parish of Curé d’Ars was created in 1952.

By 1953, over 800 families had enrolled in the new parish that was bounded on the south by 28th Avenue and on the north by 46th Avenue.

In 1963 there were two events that impacted the decade old parish.

John Canjar, who had become pastor in 1969, insisted that “the parish is not physical buildings, but where the parishioners congregate for services and meetings”. It was with this spirit that the Curé d’Ars parish moved into Park Hill Congregational Church where it shared a space with Temple Micah.

The 1970’s found Curé d’Ars serving approximately 200 predominantly Black families.

In 1974 the church plant was sold to Union Missionary Baptist Church.

Fr Joseph is a native of Vietnam but he and his family had been in the United States since 1975.

He was assigned to Curé d’Ars until his death in 1982.

Lloyd Schmeidler became the seventh pastor of Curé d’Ars in 1986.

McDavid became Deacon McDavid in 1987 and was assigned to his own parish.

Marion Weinzapfel began serving as Pastoral Assistant in 1991.

John Cousins assumed the leadership of the Curé d’Ars community in 1992.

In the wake of St John Paul II’s visit to Colorado for World Youth Day, and with the unfortunate closing of St Joseph’s Catholic School in 1993, the Archdiocese of Denver and several community leaders joined forces to create an organized, funded mechanism to support Catholic education in Denver.

On June 23, 1997, the east spire of the Cathedral was struck by lightning.

Zero substantiated allegations against Archdiocesan priests since 1999.

Cousins’ tenure ended in 2000, Curé d’Ars was without a pastor to succeed him.

The creation of Ofcom was announced in the Queen's Speech to the UK Parliament, in June 2001.

Ofcom launched on 29 December 2003, formally inheriting the duties that had previously been the responsibility of five different regulators:

In December 2004, a new parish center, located just west of the church on Martin Luther King Boulevard was completed and occupied.

Dedicated on January 23, 2005, the center consists of office space, a library, kitchen and a multi-purpose room.

In 2006, Archbishop Chaput opened one of the nation’s very first independent reparations programs that sought to provide resources and healing to survivors of historical sexual abuse through a compassionate and non-adversarial independent Outreach Panel.

On 22 July 2011, it was reported that Ofcom had begun an investigation into whether the phone-hacking scandal may have changed BSkyB's status as the "fit and proper" holder of a UK broadcasting licence.

Under the leadership of Archbishop Samuel Aquila (2012-present), the Archdiocese continues to train thousands of employees, volunteers, children, and teenagers every year in how to properly prevent and report potential abuse and neglect.

In April 2015, Ofcom announced that telephone companies would have to provide customers with a set charge for the cost of calling numbers starting 084, 087 and 09.

In 2016, recognizing there are families who may qualify for Seeds of Hope assistance at additional schools across the Archdiocese of Denver, the decision was made to expand the mission.

In 2018, as the spotlight returned to historical issues within the Church, the Archdiocese voluntarily began conversations with the Colorado Attorney General to conduct an independent historical review of the Church in Colorado.