Vatican Allows Church To Resume Mass After Archbishop Canceled Mass
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) — The Vatican recently ruled in favor of a small church in Adams County after parishioners pleaded for mass to return to their building. A small congregation at Our Lady or Visitation was awarded two masses per year by the Catholic Church in Rome.
Mass at the small church was cancelled two years ago by the archbishop in Denver who cited a shortage of priests.
Our Lady of Visitation is an affiliate of Holy Trinity, a Catholic church one mile away. Holy Trinity serves thousands of parishioners. Mark Haas, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese, said the priest at Holy Trinity was also preaching at Our Lady of Visitation. By cancelling mass at the smaller church and asking parishioners to attend one of the seven masses at Holy Trinity, their resources would be better used.
"We have to decide how to best use those 300 priests to minister to a half-million people," Haas said.
However, parishioners of the 70-year-old Our Lady of Visitation said they believed the cancellations were a result of a greater issue with the archdiocese.
Frederico Peña, former Denver Mayor and current parishioner, said the cancellation of mass at the facility might've been fueled by a potential desire to sell the property, which is worth more than $1 million.
"Normally Rome does not intervene when an archbishop makes a decision. But, in this case, the archbishop made a mistake," Peña said. "When Rome intervenes like this to be on the side of a few hundred parishioners, it sends a signal."
Peña, and others at the church, hired a lawyer to represent them in Rome. The lawyer argued the facility should once again host mass as it was financially stable and frequented by locals.
The Vatican sided, in part, with the parishioners. They were granted two masses per year. The first was hosted Monday night.
"We had an overflow crowd, everyone was delighted to be there," Peña said.
However, Peña said the parishioners still have more concerns. He said they wanted to know what happened to more than $250,000 of funds the parishioners had in the bank prior to the archbishop's decision.
Haas said, as an affiliate of Holy Trinity, the money technically already belonged to a greater fund under the larger church. Some of the money was already used on the Our Lady of Visitation property, while some of the funds still remain.
"We understand the significance that the place has to a lot of people. So, at one point it was offered that we would do a monthly mass. But, our offer to do a monthly mass was rejected. Instead, they wanted to take this fight to the Vatican," Haas said.
Peña said the parishioners continue to fund a lawyer in Rome, who is expected to press the Vatican for more services. Peña said the parishioners would only be satisfied when the Vatican approved one weekly mass at the small church.
Haas said the archdiocese would follow the orders handed down from Rome, even if they are contrary to the recent decisions made by the archbishop.
Both Peña and Haas said their respective sides would've preferred to handle the issue without the Vatican being involved.
"The Catholic Church is one body of Christ. And, here we have spent two years having a very public negative back-and-forth, instead of working together," Haas said.
