As a young priest serving a parish, Norbertine Father Sebastian Walshe initiated monthly “ask anything” sessions. One question popped up again and again: “How, after 12 years of Catholic schools, could my child elect to no longer practice the Catholic faith?” According to Pew Research Center data, the vast majority of Americans who leave their childhood religion do so before the age of 30, and Catholicism experiences the highest rate of attrition among major religious groups in the U.S.; for every one person who joins the Catholic Church, eight people leave it.

COLORADO SPRINGS. The flight from Miami to Guatemala City is shorter than the flight from Denver to Miami. And yet, the social and economic gulf between the U.S. and Central America’s most populous county is immense. Village homes are constructed from scrap lumber and salvaged sheet metal, floors are packed dirt, and rice and beans are cooked over open flame stoves with inadequate kitchen venting.  Political instability, natural disasters, food insecurity, and malnutrition all contribute to a persistently high poverty rate. 

COLORADO SPRINGS. It was 1956 when Divine Redeemer Catholic School opened its doors. Colorado Springs had just been chosen as the site for the United States Air Force Academy. The popular Christmas-themed amusement park, Santa’s Workshop, had just opened in the Manitou bluffs, and Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” topped the pop charts. This small town reflected the bustling optimism of post-war America and a surge in families and family size – the soon-to-be-transformative baby boom – was well underway.

COLORADO SPRINGS. The college student discount was too sweet to pass up — five lessons for five bucks. So, tucked between his studies at California’s Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) in 1976, Leo Raab learned ballroom dances. 

COLORADO SPRINGS. In the origin story of most ministries, inspiration precedes the capital requirements.  Someone heeds the call to initiate a food pantry, or a program for unwed mothers, or a retreat center for teens, and then they go looking for magnanimous donors willing to provide financial support.