Year of Saint Joseph Pilgrimage: St. Joseph Parish, Monticello

Friday, Mar. 19, 2021
Year of Saint Joseph Pilgrimage: St. Joseph Parish, Monticello + Enlarge
St. Joseph Catholic Church in Monticello was dedicated in 2017; it replaced a building that was constructed in 1939 and renovated in 1953.

Editor’s Note: For the Year of St. Joseph, Bishop Oscar A. Solis has dedicated as pilgrimage sites the three diocesan parishes named after the foster father of Jesus. The Intermountain Catholic is profiling each of the parishes. Last week, we explored St. Joseph Parish in Ogden. This week, we visit St. Joseph Parish in Monticello. Next week will be St. Joseph the Worker Parish in West Jordan.

Michael L. Courtney

Archivist, Diocese of Salt Lake City

On Wednesday Sept. 27, 2017, the Most Reverend Oscar A. Solis, 10th Bishop of Salt Lake City, dedicated a new church for St. Joseph Parish in Monticello. The church was built as a gift by contractor Alan Lund of Los Angeles. This sacred structure replaced the old church, built in 1935. The building of a church signifies a strong Catholic presence in the community. In Monticello, Catholics long had a strong presence. In the past, the geography, weather and sparse population made ministering to Monticello Catholics difficult. Yet, Catholicism, in those early years, flourished in Monticello through community-organized catechesis.

In the early 20th century, Monticello was a mission of Notre Dame Parish in Price. Notre Dame’s territory included all of southeast Utah. For the pastors of Notre Dame, attending to the Catholics in the area was a grueling effort. Fr. Alfred Giovannoni (later Monsignor), pastor of Notre Dame Parish from 1917 to 1930, conveyed to the Most Rev. Joseph S. Glass, C.M., second Bishop of Salt Lake, some of these challenges. He wrote that his parish territory encompassed about 40,000 square miles, covered mostly by deserts and dangerous narrow canyons. During the winter he had to be wary of avalanches; during the summer he faced cloudbursts. Once it took him three days to answer a sick call. For another sick call, he drove nine hours to travel a mile and half, trying to avoid a sandstorm.            

 Another priest who visited Monticello in 1921 faced similar problems. In a report, Fr. Charles J. McCarthy, C.M. described his travels to Monticello and through San Juan County:

“... one desiring to visit Blanding, bluff (sic), Monticello, Moab, Thompson, Sego, and Green River, Southeastern Utah in a word will do well to take the Denver and Rio Grande out of Salt Lake City to Thompson, Utah and go thence by stage to Moab, Monticello, Blanding, and Bluff. A stop may be made at Price where there is a church by taking the train at 4:45 P.M. out of Salt Lake, staying the night at Price and leaving the next day at two o’clock for Thompson. The stage meets this train for the 37 mile run to Moab arriving in time for supper. Next morning at eight-thirty another stage starts for Monticello via La Sal where a transfer is made to another stage for the final run into Monticello some 70 miles from Moab. ... Ordinarily one arrives at Monticello about two o’clock in the afternoon. But conditions of the road and inclement weather often delay the journey.”

In addition to the terrain and the weather, a small and scarce populace added another layer of complexity to the pastoral care of Catholics in Monticello. The United States Census reported the population of San Juan County in 1920 to be about 3,379. The population changed little in the 1930 Census: 3,496. The Catholic population was even smaller. In 1921, Monticello had about 17 Catholic families, mostly Gallegos, Ysu, Vejil, Martinez, Velarde, Maestas, Garcia, Enriques, Valdez, Chacon, Gonzales, Jaramillo, Duran and Trujillo; Moab had three Catholic families, Kelley, Strong and Gartz. La Sal had five Catholic families, Lopez, Guamas,Sena, Abaldonado and Garcia. Green River had about 11 families from the Rileys, Kelleys, Macks, Purdys, Dolans, Phelans, Marillas, Venturas, Spadafora and Politanos; and Spring Creek had two Catholic families, the Trujildos and the Truillos.   

Despite the difficulties, clergy traveling to Monticello encountered a thriving, predominantly Mexican, lay-led, Catholic community. In 1915, Eugenio Martinez organized the first Catholic Mass in his Monticello home, celebrated by Fr. Rafael Ramos. Another layman, J.B. Gonzales, helped visiting priests who came into town by informing local Catholics that a priest would be coming.

The work of lay Catholics like Martinez and Gonzales kept the sacramental life in Monticello strong. According to local memory, Fr. Ramos administered the first sacrament in Monticello: a marriage between Guillermo and Cleofas Archuleta Manazanares. On a trip from Notre Dame Parish, Fr. Toribio Galaviz reported to the Most Rev. John J. Mitty, third Bishop of Salt Lake, that he held a mission on September 18, 1927 in Monticello. He offered courses in Christian doctrine in the morning, afternoon and evening; about 30 people attended each session. He also administered six baptisms, 53 communions and heard 35 confessions. On May 14 and 15, 1934, the Most Rev. James E. Kearney, fourth Bishop of Salt Lake, accompanied by Fr. William Ruel, Fr. Joseph Gosselin and Fr. James Collins, journeyed from Price to administer sacraments to Catholics in the area. Some of these became the first recorded in St. Joseph’s sacramental registers. On May 14, Thedora Velasquez, Carlos Gonzales, Rebecca Manzanares and Maria Virginia Garcia were baptized. Roque Garcia and Susano Manzanares received their First Holy Communion the next day.

The following year, on Wednesday October 9, 1935, Bishop Kearney dedicated a new mission church to St. Joseph. Every month a priest from Notre Dame Parish would travel to St. Joseph to celebrate Mass. This practice continued until 1938, when the Most Rev. Duane G. Hunt, fifth Bishop of Salt Lake, named Fr. John Sanders the first pastor of St. Joseph Parish. According to Fr. William Ruel, “the people were thrilled beyond words at the news of a permanent pastor for that region.”  Fr. Sanders ministered to about 21 Catholic families.  

Monticello, in the early 20th century, was a geographically difficult place to access. Priests from Notre Dame Parish in Price and missionaries would travel there to confer sacraments and hold missions. Visits by priests were an important part of religious life. An even more important part of religious life were the actions of lay Catholics, who helped arrange Masses and tried to keep the community engaged in their faith. The actions of laity kept Catholicism alive in the community without a resident priest and made it possible for the Church to grow in Monticello, so that the need for a permanent pastor could be realized. 

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