Summary: Where We Stand, October 2011
Diocese considers closing St. Victor's ChurchBy Mary Barron
Usually in October, the Catholics of Southern Teller County are preparing to return to St. Victor's Church in Victor, Colorado, for the cold season. Mass is celebrated at St. Peter's
Church in Cripple Creek during the summer season of tourism, for hospitality's sake. But in November the worship service moves 6 miles southeast to Victor, and the congregation prepares
for a new year of religious education classes in St. Victor's parish hall. Christmas and Easter are celebrated in the sanctuary at St. Victor's, the larger of the two churches,
which is packed at these holiest holidays. The Cripple Creek church, which has no parish hall and is located on a steep and sometimes icy hill, is normally shuttered until May,
when the congregation moves with the sunshine back to the little church in the neighboring casino town.
This year, that isn't happening. The historic brick church in Victor isn't being reopened. Its water is being shut off for winter. There are legitimate fears that St. Victor's
is closing forever, in a decision cloaked in silence, without clear reasons why, and with consequences that could worsen problems of poverty and despair in this mission territory.
The two Catholic churches in Cripple Creek and Victor, housing a single small congregation, are officially a mission of Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Woodland Park,
Colorado, part of the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs. The Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan, bishop of the diocese, is the church authority with the power to close a church
in the diocese. Bishop Sheridan is reviewing the question of whether to close St. Victor, but his timeline is unclear, according to Rev. Timothy L. Corbley, IV, Dei, the parish
priest at Our Lady of the Woods, who also ministers at the Cripple Creek and Victor mission churches.
The parish's vision for the mission territory is murky, if it has one, despite various processes undertaken over the years in an effort to develop one.
The local congregation's views on whether it makes sense to have two churches are mixed. St. Victor's heating system emitted carbon monoxide one Sunday last spring, causing two
adult worshippers to collapse and to require attention from Victor emergency medical technicians. That incident prompted the current closure discussion. But the heater's trouble
has been addressed and did not require expensive repairs, as some had feared.
Can we save St. Victor's?
This website aims to air important information, documentation and perspectives from within the faith family as well as the larger community, including some historians of the
area, some nuts-and-bolts construction evaluators, and some resourceful fundraisers among us. We would love to have you share your stories of family events or other special times
at St. Victor's Church as part of our aim to put together a well-rounded look at the church and its importance to the community. Photos of those events and any other
documentation of church history are very welcome. All story and photo contributions can be sent electronically to savestvictors@yahoo.com and will be credited to the contributor.
We would like the site to be an electronic gathering place and a place of sharing among those who believe it's important to Save St. Victor's.
We are anticipating a miracle. Mary Bielz, founder of the Community of Caring Foundation of Cripple Creek - the region's principle anti-poverty resource - has been a deeply
dedicated Catholic at our area churches for decades. In raising the banner to save St. Victor's, and preparing to do so literally, with a banner hung above the road at the
entrance to the city of Victor, Mrs. Bielz said she felt called to find a way to save the church and to rally friends in a manner that reminded her of a story from the Gospel.
"One story continues to wrap around me in dealing with the closure of St. Victor's," Mrs. Bielz wrote in an email to Father Corbley. "The story is the miracle of the
paralytic. He so wanted to be healed. And it looked absolutely impossible, too many people and Christ was too busy and couldn't see him. But his passion and desire to be healed
drove him to enlist his friends. They 'jerry-rigged' his mattress with ropes, laboriously lifted him to the roof and gingerly lowered him in front of Christ. And I think Christ
laughed at this spectacle of creativity and unstoppable resolve. He was not embarrassed. And indeed, (the paralyzed man) was healed and he was also forgiven first. A collective
praise and happiness filled the space. Doesn't this story talk about our self-determination, tenacity, and creative approach?"
Mrs. Bielz met with Father Corbley in early October to seek time to put together a budget for keeping St. Victor's open, time which he at first seemed to grant, then backed
away from. She has written letters, provided documents and forwarded other people's letters to Father Corbley, who has promised to present them to Bishop Sheridan. Following a
three-fold path inspired by Catholic priest Henri Nouwen's book Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, Community, Mrs. Bielz is proceeding prayerfully and seeking community
involvement.
"I think the banner and the website is the 'jerry-rigged' mattress," she wrote in the email explaining her plans to Father Corbley. "It's not abrasiveness or a false regard
of appropriate appearances."
Although Father Corbley has declined to endorse our efforts, we friends of St. Victor's Church invite Catholics and non-Catholics, both in our local community and the larger
community, to take an interest in the situation, learn more, get creative and work together to Save St. Victor's!
Mary Barron is a freelance writer whose work has been published in Catholic Digest and the National Catholic Reporter and honored by the Catholic
Press Association of the United States and Canada. She is a member of the Teller County Catholic Community.
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