For Florence Paradise, celebrating the final Mass at St. Joseph’s in Fountain on Sunday was like losing her family – all at once.

“I’m devastated,” said Paradise, who’s attended the church since it moved to a downtown building in 1936 when she was 2.

The merger of St. Joseph’s with Holy Family parish in Security to form St. Dominic Catholic Church in Security has hit Fountain hard.

“It’s going to be a real adjustment for the Fountain community,” said Mitch Johnson, Paradise’s son-in-law, who isn’t Catholic but has attended St. Joseph’s, kitty-corner from Fountain City Hall, for many years.

“Our community is ready to embrace change, but this has been a real cornerstone of the community for a lot of years,” he said.

The Rev. Bill Carmody tried to assuage those feelings during his brief homily. He said the feast of Christ the King was chosen as the last Mass for the parishes, because “only Christ will last.”

“We picked this day to demonstrate it’s not about us,” he said. “It’s about Christ the King. We will have a new resurrected community called St. Dominic.”

St. Joseph’s roots date to the 1870s when 10 to 15 Catholics living in the tiny town of Fountain met in homes. In 1935 it became a mission of Pauline Chapel at the Broadmoor.

The next year, it acquired the former First National Bank building, built in 1920 and vacated after it failed in 1929 or 1930, Paradise said.

For years, she recounted for the congregation, the confessional was in the bank’s vault. “And believe me, it was soundproof,” she said.

The small parish was made up largely of Hispanics, and everyone was poor. So when the priest would occasionally hand out nickels to the kids for ice cream cones, he was a hit.

“We didn’t see many nickels in those days,” Paradise said.

In 1980, the church grew by adding a chapel from Fort Carson built in 1942.

Many people, both alive and dead, Paradise said, would shed a tear over the closing of St. Joseph’s.One of those was Gracie Abeyta, who wiped her eyes after the service.

“It’s sad,” she said. “I’ve been coming here so long. We’re all like family here. But I’ll be all right. Church is church. God is everywhere.”

Although Abeyta has attended St. Joseph’s for 30 years, she lives a block or two from Holy Family six miles north of St. Joseph’s.

Scott Ortman, who helps prepare Mass, has been attending St. Joseph’s for 26 years. “It’s tough,” he said as he bid goodbye to friends after Mass. “The thing I’ll miss the most are the hugs.”

Chances are, he’ll find plenty of those up the road in Security where about 400 worshippers awaited the transfer of the Eucharist from St. Joseph’s by Father Carmody and several dozen parishioners.

Holy Family was dedicated on Dec. 1, 1958, according to the diocese’s Web site. In 1994, Holy Family made history with the dedication of the Precious Blood of Jesus chapel, the first and only PerpetualAdoration chapel in the Diocese of Colorado Springs, the Web site said.

St. Dominic parish will worship at Holy Family until the new church is built not far away on land donated by the Venetucci family along Highway 85-87.

Bishop Michael Sheridan will say Mass on Sunday at Holy Family, the first Sunday of advent, “as a way to show his blessing on the project,” Carmody said.

He said the merger and construction are triggered by growth in the Fountain Valley. St. Joseph’s seats about 200; Holy Family’s capacity is about 400.

But St. Joseph’s has 260 registered families, and Holy Family, about 1,240, The Colorado Catholic Herald reported, citing the 2009 Diocese of Colorado Springs Directory.

“We’ve got to have a place to worship,” Carmody said. “We’ve got no space to put them.”

The parish hopes to dedicate the new building in 2009, Carmody said. A poster in St. Joseph’s foyer showed fundraising stands at $500,000, a third of the way to the $1.5-million goal.

Water and sewer lines have been laid, and a contractor soon will start foundation work.

Meanwhile, the St. Joseph’s building has been sold to the City of Fountain for $800,000 and will serve as offices for the city’s utilities department, now housed at City Hall.

“This is a good thing,” Carmody said of the merger. “This is a sign of growth, not a sign of death and dying. And it needs to be seen very positively. We’re going to die as two communities and rise into one.”

The new community, though, might be absent a few former St. Joseph’s worshippers. Paradise said she hasn’t decided whether she’ll attend St. Dominic.

Eric Scott safely crosses the Royal Gorge with his jet pack to the delight of a a crowd gathered on the Royal Gorge Bridge on Monday, November 24, 2008. Photo by (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette)

Jerilee Bennett