Why Now?
In Colorado, 10% of the population in Larimer County and 14% of the population in Weld County identify as Catholic. It is estimated that there are approximately 82,000 Catholics within these two counties alone.
Each of the larger cities in Weld and Larimer Counties have a Catholic elementary school and these will continue to be key partner schools for St. John Paul II High School. These include:
- St. John the Evangelist Catholic School, Loveland (PK-8) with approximately 237 students.
- St. Mary’s Catholic School, Greeley (PK-8) with approximately 190 students.
- St. Joseph Catholic School, Fort Collins (PK-8) with approximately 262 students.
- St. John the Baptist School (PK-8)
- Sacred Heart Academy
For decades, Catholic parents in Northern Colorado have been educating their children from PK to 8th grade in Catholic schools, only to be left navigating high schools at the time that their children most need Catholic formation.
St. John Paul II High School solves this challenge for Catholic parents in Weld and Larimer Counties, and beyond. Weld and Larimer Counties are growing, and Catholic schools should be meeting families where they are, by building the capacity to educate more students. We give parents and children the ability to experience a higher quality education in an authentically Catholic environment.
After years of hard work and prayers from Northern Colorado Catholics – and importantly with movement from the Holy Spirit – the dream of a Catholic high school became a reality in 2019.
Warning of “the increasing secular and morally-relativist world we find ourselves in, and with the push for comprehensive sex-education and the promotion of gender ideology,” in a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila confirmed what study after study had indicated: a Catholic high school was needed to serve Northern Colorado families.
Archbishop Aquila declared that “the time for waiting is over.”
He created a Board of Trustees and charged them with opening a new high school by the fall of 2020.
He gave them one mission: “This high school must unabashedly and courageously stand with Christ and his Church, embracing the mandate given to us by Christ to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ (Mt. 28:18).”
We are deeply thankful to our gracious hosts at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, who house us as we work to build our new campus.
