PHOTOS | Beacon on the hill: St. John Paul II Parish breaks ground for new church
- Aaron Lambert
- 1d
- 5 min read
At high noon on Sunday, May 25, the faith community of St. John Paul II Parish in Thornton joyously celebrated an occasion that it once seemed might never come: the groundbreaking for their new church building.
It’s been a long time coming — over eight years, to be exact. After countless hurdles, haltings and hang-ups along the way, parishioners rightly gave thanks to God and breathed a collective sigh of relief as the shovels broke into the dirt lot at the southwest corner of 144th Ave. and Detroit St.
Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila celebrated a special Mass with the congregation earlier in the morning at Frassati Catholic Academy in Thornton, where the parish has gathered for worship since its inception. In 2017, he announced the establishment of St. John Paul II Parish, in addition to St. Gianna Molla Parish in Green Valley Ranch, which broke ground for its church last September. Following Mass, the parish community gathered at the site of its future home for a blessing ceremony with the archbishop.
“I remember the first time I visited this property to see it. It was a crystal-clear day. It was absolutely spectacular, and I really thought how it will be a beacon of hope because of how much you could see and how people will be able to see this church,” Archbishop Aquila remarked. “[This church] is very much countercultural in the times in which we live [because] it's pointing to the truth of Jesus Christ and how his message is one that is eternal. That certainly was the message of John Paul II, and bringing young people to Christ. In this Jubilee Year of Hope, [this church] will live as a sign that our hope is Jesus Christ and him alone. My deep gratitude to each and every one of you for all that you have done to bring this to reality. For many generations to come, it will be that light of Christ for our world.”
A local couple donated the 24-acre plot of land to the archdiocese some years ago. Father James Spahn, pastor of St. John Paul II Parish, shared a story about how, one day 12 years ago, while serving as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Northglenn, the couple took him for a drive to the property.
“12 years ago, [they] said we need to go for a ride,” Father Spahn recalled. “So we rode in the car and drove up on the little hill, and they said, ‘Right here we need to build a church.’ At the time, I thought, ‘Yeah, someone someday will build a church there.’ Little did I know it would be me and it would be called St. John Paul II Parish.”
Since they celebrated their first Mass on the feast of St. Joseph eight years ago, the need for a parish in the Thornton area has only become more pronounced. The area has experienced a huge boom in growth, with new neighborhoods and housing complexes popping up everywhere.
(Photos by James Baca/Denver Catholic)
But as the area has grown, so has the burgeoning community at St. John Paul II Parish. In addition to three consistently full weekend Masses, the parish is host to a growing number of ministries, including a budding youth group, weekly bible studies, men’s and women’s groups, and a robust family faith formation program.
The parish had originally hoped to break ground in 2023 after developing and selling a part of the land to help offset the costs of construction. However, they scaled back the original building plans and decided to move forward without selling the land so that the church could be built sooner. They are hoping that the parish will be completed by Christmas 2027, but that date could change. The total cost of the parish will be around $17 million.
The parish launched a capital campaign several years ago, and in addition to securing pledges from parishioners, donors from outside the parish community have donated to the campaign to help the project move forward. In fact, Father Spahn shared that there have even been out-of-state visitors who’ve been generous with contributions because they love St. John Paul II and can feel the warmth of the parish community when they visit.
The church was designed by Integration Design Group, a local architecture firm that specializes in sacred spaces and has designed several parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver. Horizon West Builders, owned by the Nietenbach family, will oversee the church's construction, also having worked on many projects for the archdiocese. Several members of the Neitenbach family also happen to be parishioners at St. John Paul II.
Dale Sanders, the church’s chief architect, thanked parishioners for their patience and faithfulness in bringing this project to fruition, and he further highlighted the parish’s deep connection to St. John Paul II, whose visit to Denver in 1993 sparked a spiritual revolution in the local church that is still bearing fruit to this day — this new parish being one of them.
“In the patience that we have had, God called for this day and this time for us to be able to break into this ground and begin to see the beacon on the hill, this parish, St. John Paul II Parish, where you all will be able to be at the front doors and on a non-cloudy day see Mount Meeker, where St. John Paul II came and climbed,” Sanders said.
Indeed, the parish’s patron has been guiding them along the way with his intercession. Now, as they stand on the precipice of a parish home to call their own, this great saint’s legacy here in Denver will be further solidified — and the people of this parish with his namesake will heed his call to “Be not afraid!” and faithfully carry out the mission that’s been entrusted to them: to be a beacon of Christ on the hill.
“In many places in the United States, they’re closing parishes. And here, we not only opened a parish that is doing really well and once we build will just explode and take off, but there’s also the excitement that it’s named after one of our great modern popes who came to Denver for World Youth Day and really transformed our archdiocese by his presence and now through his intercession,” Father Spahn previously told the Denver Catholic. “Having him as the patron saint is a tremendous blessing. God’s hand in it, really. It’s an exciting time for the parish and for the archdiocese.”
