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Our History

About

The mission church was built at the request of a traveling preacher named Mr. Cora Dilly, who was preaching at several schools in the area each Sunday. The original church building was of wood construction and burned to the ground in the spring of 1904. The church was rebuilt and completed in the spring of 1905. In 1926, it was decided to move the church building into Johnstown and the brick veneer was added to the building at that time. Saint John the Baptist Parish was officially established by Bishop Urban Vehr in 1938.

 

Our History

A quick trip through St. John the Baptist’s 80 years (written on June 24, 2018)

This year marks the 80th anniversary of St. John the Baptist Parish. To mark this milestone, here’s a quick look at its history.

Born in the Spanish Colony
“After the Johnstown [Great Western Sugar Company] Colony was settled in 1926, the people realized they needed a place to worship and hold catechism classes spoken in [Spanish].  A church, however, was only a dream for [the next] ten years.” So notes author Rebecca Healy in the 1977 historic tome, A Tribute to Johnstown.
In 1936, laborers Juan Trujillo and Juan Baca persuaded Great Western to donate a lot for a church.  Baca and Trujillo then raised $400 in cash and promissory notes to finance the building of the church.
St. John the Baptist Church was built in 1937.  Benches were used for seating and the Stations of the Cross were handmade.
Archbishop Urban Vehr dedicated the humble church on June 24, 1938, the feast of St. John the Baptist. The name honored the saint, Trujillo and Baca.
The mission church was first served by pastors from St. Joseph Parish in Fort Collins and later by priests from St. Peter Parish in Greeley. It eventually became a mission of Our Lady of Peace Parish in Greeley.

Historic Dilley Chapel
In 1974, the growing congregation bought the historic Dilley Chapel, a former United Methodist Church located at 809 Charlotte St. The first Mass in the “new” St. John the Baptist Church was celebrated on Dec. 8, 1974. Bishop George Evans dedicated the church on Jan. 26, 1975. Father Cassimir Roca, S.F., was named its first pastor.
In 1990, a neighboring house was purchased as a priest’s residence, allowing the original rectory to be used for parish offices and for religious education. In 2002, the church was remodeled.

The current church
By 2014 the congregation had outgrown its charming Gothic church. That July, under the direction of then-pastor Father Emilio Franchomme, the parish purchased a church building at 1000 Country Acres Drive, the former home of Abundant Life Tabernacle Church. A month later, after painting and renovating, the parishioners moved into their more comfortable home, which increased seating from 140 to 250. They brought the altar, tabernacle, crucifix, statues, and stained glass windows from their old church to their new one.
Long-term plans are to build a more spacious church on a 20-acre site at County Roads 17 and 44 that the parish purchased in 2010.

Clergy
Initially a mission, St. John the Baptist eventually became a stand-alone parish that served neighboring mission churches. Over the years, its priests served Our Lady of the Valley in Windsor, the now-closed Sacred Heart of Jesus in Gilcrest, and St. Nicholas in Platteville.
Today, current pastor Father Juan Manuel Bonilla and parochial vicar Father Angel Perez Brown also serve in those capacities for St. Nicholas, which ceased being a mission in 2012.
The parish is also served by Deacon Dr. John Volk and Deacon Mike Otero.
Other clergies who have served St. John the Baptist include Father Casimer Rocay, Father Thomas Stone, Father Jude Geilenkirchen, Father Frank Deml, Father Thomas Kelly, Father David Sobieszczyk, Father Steve Adams, and Father William Smith.
Rebecca Healy’s A Tribute to Johnstown, Thomas Noel’s Colorado Catholicism, John Hanley’s The Archdiocese of Denver: 125th Anniversary, and The Denver Catholic, contributed to this history

Who was Saint John the Baptist?

Born in 5 B.C., John the Baptist is a key figure in the Biblical stories of Jesus of Nazareth. According to the Gospels, John’s role was to announce the coming of Jesus: in John 1:23 he tells interrogators, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” According to Matthew 3:4, he wore clothing made of camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey, and baptized people in the river Jordan. (It was after being baptized by John that Jesus was led to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.) John later was executed by the ruler Herod; as told in Matthew chapter 14, Herod granted the demand of Salome to “give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.”

In the Catholic Church, his feast day is June 24th… John the Baptist is a different person from the apostle John, for whom the Gospel of John is named… In speaking of Jesus, John said: “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the holy spirit”… According to Luke, John was the son of Zechariah (or Zachary) and his wife Elizabeth, a relative of Jesus’ mother Mary, and was born roughly six months before Jesus.