Q&A: Gift, Joy and Surprise: Nearing Retirement, Archbishop Aquila Reflects on His Ministry
- Roxanne King
- Sep 17
- 11 min read
Updated: Sep 18
Grateful for his unexpected but joyful time shepherding Denver, he aims to keep serving post-retirement
By Roxanne King
Archbishop Samuel Aquila spoke to the Denver Catholic about his ministry in the Denver Archdiocese as he approaches his 75th birthday (Sept. 24), when he is canonically mandated to submit his request to retire to the pope, which may be accepted quickly or temporarily set aside. Recently, the archbishop marked 49 years of priesthood, 38 of which he spent here, and his 13th anniversary as archbishop. His episcopal motto has led his service: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).
DC: What has it been like to serve as archbishop of the archdiocese where you were ordained a priest in 1976?
+Aquila: It has been an incredible gift to be able to serve here as the archbishop. I oftentimes run into people whom I knew as a priest. I've had couples come up to me and say, “Archbishop, you did our wedding 45 years ago or 48 years ago!” I think to myself, I don't even remember! It's such a great blessing because you see that they’re still practicing their faith, are still married, and have lived the sacrament of marriage.
Or young people will come to me and say, “You baptized us!” There are many families that I have not only baptized their children but also performed their weddings.
It's very satisfying to be able to observe the fidelity of people, the living out of their faith and the joy that it has brought to them.
Then there are all the various experiences I've had within this archdiocese.
I served as a parochial vicar (in two different parishes from 1976 to 1982) then as pastor at Guardian Angels Parish (in Denver) from 1982 to 1987 and then went on to graduate studies.
World Youth Day 1993 stands out as an event in terms of its impact on the archdiocese and New Evangelization, especially with one of its fruits being all the lay apostolates that have begun here — the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, the Augustine Institute, Amazing Parish, Families of Character, Endow, the list goes on and on — and all the fruit those apostolates have borne.
You can really see Jesus' faithfulness to his promise that if you stay attached to the vine, you will bear fruit. So, it's really important to stay attached to Jesus Christ in that personal relationship with him, and with the Father and the Holy Spirit living in that community of life. It has been a great gift and blessing to help people enter into that and to see the fruit of it in the parishes and in the young men who have become priests. And being able to ordain men to the diaconate and to the priesthood is a great gift and blessing.
DC: July 18 marked the 13th anniversary of your installation as Archbishop of Denver. What are some of the key highlights from your time as archbishop?
+Aquila: First, strengthening the Catholic identity of our schools and helping people recognize the importance of living out their faith, impacting society and culture and really evangelizing. We have to participate in the mission that Christ has entrusted to us and that we hear in Matthew 28 (paraphrased): “Go out and teach everything I have commanded, baptize and know that I am with you always.”
So, I’ve focused on helping people to have confidence in the promises of Jesus Christ and the fruit that encounter with Christ will bring about — especially, personally, the joy that it brings about, the peace that it brings about.
Second, establishing two new parishes: St. John Paul II in Thornton and St. Gianna Molla in Denver, by the airport. We are mission territory; we are growing; we’re not closing parishes.
With that are the changes in population and demographics that are taking place. When one looks at the population pyramids for Colorado and even for the United States, it does not bode well in terms of the lack of children, a smaller number of children.
Third, helping people prepare for marriage, see the gift and dignity of human life and have a worldview as seen through the eyes of Scripture, having a biblical worldview.
The Lord has given us the gift of creation. We are to recognize that gift, take care of that gift. That includes the gift of our bodies, the gift of the intimacy between husband and wife, the gift of children and honoring that. Pro-life ministry has always been very important to me — giving testimony to the dignity of human life throughout all stages, from conception through natural death.
Then, also, strengthening within the presbyterate our identity as priests, what it means to be priests and really encouraging a deepening of our spiritual lives through pursuing healing within our own personal lives as priests, but also bringing that healing — the healing that only Christ can give — into the lives of others, especially through the sacramental life of the Church. The sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation can bring about tremendous healing when we open our hearts to those sacraments.
Restoring the age of confirmation to before First Eucharist has also been important in helping young people and their parents understand that the sacrament that sustains us throughout our lives is the Eucharist. It is the Eucharist that completes the sacraments of initiation; it's not confirmation.
Additionally, in the last five years, we brought in the Rescue Project and ACTS XXIX and really looked at the kerygma: What is the kerygma, and how do we live it? We did the Rescue Project with the priests over a three-day clergy convocation. We went through the Created, Captured, Rescued and Response structure, and many of the priests really appreciated its clarity. That Advent season (2021), we preached to help people understand the kerygma. Laypeople and even some priests said it was the first time they felt they had really heard the kerygma, which is just an incredible gift.
The ACTS XXIX team has helped tremendously in giving a very clear, concise, memorable way of presenting the kerygma so that we, as priests, are able to preach on it and call people to it.
Another aspect would be the emphasis on surrender and the importance of surrendering and giving our lives completely to the Lord — that discipleship is costly. Discipleship means — and the Lord is serious when he says — you must leave everything to follow him.
It’s essential to look at the question, “Who is my God?” Are material goods my God? Is money my God? Is power my God? Or is Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man? Is he truly Lord of every aspect of my life? Do I really die to myself so that Christ can live in me? That's where the surrender comes.
So, the promotion of the Surrender Novena (by Father Dolindo Ruotolo), the promotion of the prayer of St. Charles de Foucauld and his Prayer of Surrender or Abandonment for priests and for the laity. We distributed (Father Ruotolo’s) prayer in all the parishes. People still tell me they pray it every day. They just keep cycling through the nine days. It's an easy prayer. It's one that could be done in five minutes. But it makes a difference because it's a reminder to give our lives to Christ each day.
DC: What have been the greatest challenges during these past 13 years?
+Aquila: The greatest challenges are the secularization of culture and how socially liberal our state has become. It truly breaks my heart that we live in a state that now has embedded abortion into the constitution as a right and that promotes euthanasia. That really undermines the dignity of human life and the human person. Those have been the greatest challenges.
COVID was a challenge, and yet, we got through that. Thankfully, we're back to our pre-COVID numbers in our parishes. But the world situation is extremely difficult. It's complex.
The other challenge is that people are sometimes more faithful to an ideology or a political party than they are to their faith in Jesus Christ. Christ is the one through whom we should look at the world, truly living out the Ten Commandments, truly living and carrying out the Gospel and faithfulness to it. Many in society today totally reject any kind of religion or any kind of faith.
You're starting to see a little bit of a turn. Young people are so dissatisfied with what they’re receiving, either in public education or the universities or the culture, and they’re turning now to faith and to God. It’s a sign of hope, and there’s great potential.
I think of what the Fellowship of Catholic University Students has done and accomplished. I see the hunger in young people. When their hearts are truly resting in Christ, that is when they find joy. They find peace in living out the Gospel. That doesn't mean that everything is going to be perfect because we all have our trials and sufferings because of our humanity, but we are given by Christ the grace and the tools to address whatever those sufferings may be.
DC: What would you most like people to understand about their mission as disciples of Christ in a post-Christian world?
+Aquila: What I would hope for is that Catholics would know and embrace the Gospel. We're blessed here within the archdiocese to have the Catholic Biblical School and the Catechetical School. Both are extremely important and helpful in changing culture, giving people a faithful, biblical worldview — capable of seeing the world through the eyes of Scripture.
So, the importance, first of all, is the personal encounter, when Jesus gives the invitation. The invitation is to “Come, follow me.” The disciple, the Christian, must know and follow the person of Jesus.
We must answer the questions, “Is Jesus my best friend? Has Jesus truly formed my heart and my mind?” My hope would be that every Christian would open their heart and mind to being formed by Jesus — not by some rhetoric or political party or ideology, but by the Gospel and the living out of the Gospel. That is what the post-Christian world needs the most.
It needs disciples who point to Jesus as John the Baptist did — disciples who say, “He must increase while I must decrease,” bringing people into that deeper relationship.
DC: Two recent initiatives tied to hallmark topics in your ministry are the Called by Name campaign to increase homegrown priestly vocations, and true to your devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the standing with Mary at the Foot of the Cross icon and novena to help the faithful prepare for the 2033 Jubilee year marking the 2,000th anniversary of the Paschal Mystery. What would you like to say about those projects?
+Aquila: In the Gospel, the Lord has told us to ask the Harvest Master for more workers in the field, and so every Catholic is responsible for praying for vocations, praying to the Father for vocations to the priesthood, religious life and marriage. We’re also responsible for asking the Lord to open people's hearts to discover God's plan for their lives. Not, what is my plan? But what is God's plan?
When I used to work with couples in marriage preparation, I wouldn't ask them right away, but during the course of their marriage preparation, I would ask, Do you really believe it is God's will that you marry this woman, or that you marry this man? They would always look at me kind of stunned, like, “What are you talking about? What does God have to do with this?” Well, God’s got a lot to do with it, as it’s he who has brought you together!
The Called by Name campaign encourages homegrown vocations because when we look at our priest stats, which we just did and shared in the Denver Catholic, we have very few homegrown priests. Many of them come (from other places). It's like me. I didn't grow up in Colorado; I grew up in California. But I became a priest of this Archdiocese. Called by Name invites young men to know that somebody sees something in them that they may not have even thought about. That is important.
With the Mary at the Foot of the Cross icon and novena, in 2033, we’ll be celebrating the Jubilee year of the 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the gift of redemption. Mary is the disciple par excellence. It was at the foot of the Cross that she suffered tremendously, but also where she was given to every disciple as their mother through John. The Lord said, “Behold, your mother!”
Do we really receive Mary as our mother so that she can lead us more to Christ? Mary always leads us to Christ. My motto is from the wedding feast of Cana; it's the words of Mary, “Do whatever he tells you.” She is pointing to Jesus Christ. She doesn't point to herself. She always points to her son. This novena in preparation for the 2,000th anniversary is a way to turn to Mary, seeking her intercession to lead us into deeper communion and relationship with her son, Jesus.
DC: Describe the pulse of the Denver Archdiocese today, and what do you foresee for the archdiocese's future?
+Aquila: I would say the pulse for the archdiocese is that many Catholics — because of apostolates like Legatus, Endow, the Catholic Biblical School, the Rescue Project, all of those — are focused on mission and on helping not only those who participate in them into a personal relationship with the Lord, but also in living it out in the world. Catholics are becoming more courageous. They're becoming more vocal. They see the importance of giving the invitation to people.
One of the beauties of movements like the Neocatechumenal Way is how they go door-to-door evangelizing. Some say only Protestants do that. No, we as Catholics can. And it's important to invite people.
One of the parishes did that, and they had over 45 people come into the Church or be baptized because of that initial outreach. It's important not to sit and wait for people to come to us, but rather for us to go out.
I see a greater emphasis on mission in our parishes. The future, hopefully, will be continued growth and people entering into the Church and into that gift of salvation. It takes very intentional discipleship and very intentional formation to lead people into that relationship with the Lord.
When you look at things like Christ in the City, Creatio and Annunciation Heights, they have impacts. Mountain Madness and Steubenville of the Rockies are both ways of reaching out to young people. The blessing of Totus Tuus and those types of programs is that they're more evangelization tools than anything, and they really help young people have that encounter with Jesus.
DC: June 5 marked the 49th anniversary of your priesthood ordination. Thirty-eight of those years have been spent ministering in the Denver Archdiocese, in parish ministry, in leadership positions, including as first rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary and notably as the eighth bishop of Denver and its fifth archbishop. What does the Denver Archdiocese mean to you?
+Aquila: It’s an incredible gift. Certainly nothing I ever expected, that’s for sure. There’s just such real joy with the surprises that the Lord always has for you when you're faithful (in following him).
DC: On your 75th birthday next week, canon law requests that you submit your request to retire. Once it is accepted and you retire, what would you like to do and where would you like to live?
+Aquila: I want to continue to minister, preach, celebrate Mass and hear confessions. Where is a question that is up in the air. Part of the difficulty is not knowing exactly when the acceptance of the retirement is going to come. I leave that all in the hands of the Lord.
