About OLMC

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is a personal parish of the Archdiocese of Denver, erected in July 2009 to provide spiritual and pastoral care to those Catholics who desire to worship using the liturgical books in force in 1962. Devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel dates back to the 13th Century when according to Carmelite tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock and gave him the Brown Scapular. The Brown Scapular is worn by many Catholic faithful as a sign of love and devotion for the Mother of God.

Priests

The Founding

In the summer of 1995, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) was invited by Archbishop J. Francis Stafford to establish a Latin Mass apostolate the following year in the Archdiocese of Denver. But when the Fraternity priest arrived in July of 1996, Archbishop Stafford – then a Cardinal – was transferred to Rome, so arrangements were somewhat disrupted, and the priest, Fr. José Maria Salgado, was on his own for a few weeks.

Fr. Salgado was welcomed by the parents of an FSSP seminarian to stay in their home, and the first few Masses for our community were said in their recreation room.  The community started with about 16 faithful and grew quickly.  Because of his special devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the fact that he had arrived in Denver on this feast day, Father Salgado named the apostolate Our Lady of Mount Carmel Latin Mass Community.  The name was approved by the new Ordinary, Archbishop Charles Chaput, who supported the community.

One of the early community members was Frank Morriss, LLD, an associate editor of The Wanderer, a Catholic weekly newspaper, and president of Colorado Catholic Academy (CCA) in Wheat Ridge, a Denver suburb.  Dr. Morriss invited the community to use the Chapel of the academy, and Mass was said there every day for the next five years.

Within a short time, we had two Sunday Masses, and soon thereafter, three. During this time, with the help of two talented music-oriented members, a choir was started, and stacks of music were collected for our Masses.

After a while, Archbishop Chaput invited us to add a weekly 12 o’clock Sunday Mass at Good Shepherd Church in Denver, and he also allowed us to celebrate Mass for a couple of special occasions at his seminary chapel of Christ the King at the John Paul II Center.

Starting from scratch, it was a long and arduous road for members of the community. We are indebted to Father Salgado for his hard work during this period. Besides the full-time work of a pastor and priest, Father Salgado had a myriad of extra tasks, such as driving his van around town with his rolling sacristy aboard and creating a legal corporation for donations to meet IRS requirements, all the while, looking to find and buy a church.

In the summer of 2001, one parishioner who was a realtor found out that Saint Timothy Episcopal Church was for sale in Littleton, Colorado. It was a full plant with a church hall, offices, classrooms, and a rectory across the street.  With the help of the archdiocese, we purchased the property at a very reasonable price.

For many weeks, volunteers came to do carpentry work, painting, cleaning, refinishing furniture, laying tile, and many other things, including building a garage for the rectory, all under the supervision of our pastor. Some visiting FSSP priests and seminarians came to help, too.  In time, the bare interior of Saint Timothy’s church was transformed into a beautiful traditional Catholic church.  On September 22, 2001, Archbishop Chaput dedicated Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

In January 2006, nine and a half years after arriving in Denver, Fr. Salgado was transferred to a different FSSP location in Arizona, where he still says Mass for a small community.