Saint Francis of Assisi, Roman Catholic Church

Saint Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic parish, which was formerly named Spirit of Peace, began in 1982 and rented space from Westview Presbyterian church at 1500 Hover Street. Initially very small in size, the parish gradually grew and began to encounter scheduling difficulties with the use of Westview facilities in the early 2000's. At the same time, it was obvious Longmont needed another full size Catholic church to handle the growing population. The only other Catholic church, Saint John the Baptist, was experiencing standing room only at many masses.

Father Frank Maroney was appointed pastor of Spirit of Peace in August 2004, with the instruction from Archbishop Chaput to grow the church to serve the community. Beginning in 2005, the parish community began looking at ways it could build its own church. After much discussion within the parish, a plan to move to another tempory location was approved by the Pastoral Council in late 2006. On October 1st 2007, the Parish moved into its new temporary facility at 2410 Trade Center Avenue in southwest Longmont and changed the name of the Parish to Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

Although the temporary space is part of an office building complex, the parish was able to design a prayerful church space, as well as class rooms and offices for the educational and administrative missions of the parish. After moving in, planning continued for raising funds to build a new church. In September 2008, the parish embarked on a capital campaign with the goal to raise 2.25 million dollars within four years. At the end of the first year, August 2009, the parish had raised $523,000 in cash with pledges totaling 1.8 million dollars. The new church will be located on a 14 acre property about 1 mile south west of the current Trade Center location. The parish broke ground in September 2011 with completion of the building project targeted for October 2012. The parish hopes to be in the new Church by October 2012.