Padre's Message
Click here to send an email to Fr. Gregory Golyzniak.
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April 17, 2025
Dear Parishioners and Guests, As we gather once again in the spirit of renewal and hope, I am filled with joy to share this Easter message with each of you. Easter signifies the triumph of light over darkness, life over death, and hope over despair. It is a reminder that even in the midst of our struggles and uncertainties, we are called to rise with Christ, embracing the promise of new beginnings. This sacred season invites us to reflect deeply on the profound significance of the Resurrection. Jesus emerged from the tomb not only as our Savior but as a beacon of hope for all humanity. His victory over sin and death assures us that no matter the challenges we face, there is always a pathway back to grace and redemption. The Resurrection calls us to abandon our fears and doubts, urging us instead to trust in God's infinite love and mercy. As we celebrate this joyous occasion, let us also remember those in our community who are experiencing hardships. Extending acts of kindness and support to one another embodies the true spirit of Easter. Together, we can be instruments of God's love, demonstrating compassion and understanding to those who need it most. I encourage each of you to allow the joy of the Resurrection to fill your hearts and minds. May this Easter season inspire us to cultivate a deeper relationship with Christ, to share His love with our neighbors, and to live our lives with gratitude and purpose. In closing, let us rejoice in the incredible gift of salvation and the hope that Easter brings. I wish you and your families a blessed and joyful Easter. Thank you for being a vital part of our congregation and may God's peace be with you today and always. With love in Christ, Fr. Grzegorz Golyzniak |
On September 22, 2024, Fr. Gregory was invested into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem with Bishop James Golka and Fr. Gus Stewart of St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Held in Denver, the annual meeting of the Northern Lieutenancy consisted of very meaningful religious ceremonies, spiritual formation of its members, investitures, promotions, and an update on the Order worldwide. Click here to learn more. |
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NEW PR POLICY
EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 20, 2024 Dear Parishioners, I have noticed more and more requests for fundraisers using the church vestibule and conference room spaces. Unfortunately, we can’t accommodate all the requests and it is causing frustration and hurt feelings. We recognize the need to advertise our ministries and fundraisers that can be satisfied by smart, effective ways using the resources we have. Fundraisers – The preference is to have no more than one fundraiser per month and approved prior to set up. You can check availability by utilizing the eSpace calendar located on our website.
The Bulletin deadline is every Tuesday by noon to Debby Dover ([email protected]). After that time, we are not able to publish desired announcement. Social media and Friday parish e-bulletin deadline is Thursday by noon to Lisa Hawthorne ([email protected]). Announcements before Mass -The deadline is Wednesday by noon and must be approved by the Deacon CJ ([email protected]) and our pastor. Please note, ST. PETER CHURCH WILL ADVERTISE EVENTS OR OTHER NEEDED INFORMATION ONLY IF THEY FOLLOW A CATHOLIC CHURCH MISSION AND TEACHING. Outside of the parish, all ministries and organizations must discuss their needs and questions or concerns with the pastor. Thank you., Fr. Grzegorz Golyzniak |
Father Gregory Golyzniak
About Fr. Gregory
Fr. Gregory Golyzniak was born and raised in Muszyna, Poland, the youngest of four children. He attended the world's largest Catholic Seminary in Tarnow, Poland, and was ordained in 1998. Father Gregory came to the United States and was assigned to the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, from 2002-2008. He then transferred to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, first serving as pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Southgate. In 2013, Fr. Gregory was assigned to St. Peter Catholic Church in Monument. Fr. Gregory holds a PhD in Sacred Architecture with an emphasis on the Gothic architecture of the 11th-17th centuries. 
Father Jacob Anil D'sa SDB
Fr Jacob Anil D’sa SDB, a catholic priest belonging to the order of Salesians of Don Bosco, hails from Mangalore, Karnataka, India. After his metric studies in Mangalore he joined the Salesians in 1994 at Mysore. After 15 years of seminary formation in different parts of India he was ordained as a priest in the year 2009. His motto as a priest is "To be all things to all people" (1 Cor. 9:22). He is friendly in nature and enjoys pastoral services to the faithful. He likes to be happy and makes others happy carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to his care to the best of his abilities. Fr Jacob has four siblings. Among them the oldest sister is an Apostolic Carmel nun at Kolkata. He lost his father in the year 1998. His mother lives with his younger brother in Mangalore. They are a happy traditional catholic family.
As a new priest Fr Jacob worked in Manipur among the Rongmei tribes. He was appointed as Director of CHITRA Don Bosco, a social work wing of Don Bosco at Chitradurga, Karnataka in 2010 which bagged best NGO award by the district administration on the occasion of Karnataka Rajotsava. Later he was appointed as the Director of Don Bosco Youth Services for Karnataka region. In 2017 he was appointed as the Secretary to the KRCBC Youth Commission which coordinates the youth work in all the 14 dioceses of Karnataka. He served as the National coordinator of YCS/YSM (Young Catholic Students) & ICYM (Indian Catholic Youth Movement) spread across 132 Latin dioceses in India. He was in the Philippines rendering his service as the Asian Chaplain of YCS (Young Catholic Students) due to the pandemic he returned to India and continued his service. In 2020 at the peak of covid 19 he was appointed as the youth director of Bangalore Archdiocese where he initiated various innovative programs with the youth and for the youth. His service of the 4,000 covid patients along with 102 youth volunteers is commendable. He was bestowed with Covid Warrior Award by various associations for his service during the Covid. He is known for conducting activity-based sessions and retreats for teachers, youth animators, student leaders, youth and others. He is the founding director of Eco Pals (Friends of Nature) a movement to promote protection of nature and Eco Spirituality and is initiating a lot of programmes to conserve nature through Eco Pals. |
March 8, 2024
Dear parishioners and guests,
Please allow me to introduce to you more of my employees and their work here in our parish. Though our staff members are paid employees, they treat their work as a ministry. They all have great qualities and never hesitate to help when needed and volunteer in many ways in and outside of our church.
Jeannie Behr
Jeannie is the wife of one of our acolytes who will be ordained to the permanent diaconate ministry. She also has a son Garrett who entered into the Seminary over a year ago and is in Rome. Jeannie works in the parish office on Thursdays and is our school bus driver. Most days Jeannie works in her husband’s dental office. Most of all she loves to drive our school bus. Here are Jeannie’s responsibilities, please refer to her with any questions.
Amy Saber
Amy carries one of the most important responsibilities in our parish. As the lead financial manager. Amy began at St. Peter over a year ago and she dedicates herself to this department. Amy is in charge of the following responsibilities:
Debby Dover
Debby managed our front desk was our bulletin editor for over 4 years until she was named our Stewardship Director in 2021.
Debby enjoy horses and time in the mountains with her husband. Her heart is set on supporting our catholic school but most of all she loves spending time with people.
Debby Dover has a lot of responsibilities as a Bulletin Editor and Director of Stewardship Ministry. Here they are:
Julie Dickinson
Julie has been with St. Peter almost 10 years. Her husband Tom is one of our deacons. She enjoys working with people and she likes to greet people with a smile and good word. Julie loves her dog Stashu and she is eager to help anyone who is need of help.
As you can see each of our staff work for you and for the betterment of our parish.
Construction Update
Please allow me to give you a short update on our church vestibule remodel. As I mentioned in one of our past bulletins the remodel includes constructing special room for little children and their parents. Revising our main conference room so we will have a multi-purpose use room. Additionally, the vestibule will receive some stone decor finish and fresh paint. Part of the vestibule was transformed into a small votive candle shrine. This project should be finished before Holy Week celebrations. In the event of unexpected circumstances, we will resume finishing this project after Easter Sunday. Hopefully we will not have to do that. For now, we are on schedule.
This project received approval support from both our parish and finance councils and included in the budget for the year 2023/2024.
I would like to address the rumor that the project will cost $500,000. This rumor is far away from the truth. The cost for this project is estimated between $150,000 to $160,000. Please see Amy Saber if you need to see financial details regarding this project or any other parish financial wellbeing. There is nothing worse than spreading the rumors. This leads to divisions and miscommunication which makes any project difficult. It causes unnecessary stress and discomfort. And as always you can ask me any questions you may have.
Thank you for your patience and trust in my decisions to improve our place of worship and any evangelization programs in our parish. Without our Lord and you, nothing can be done. Let us support and pray for each other.
With prayer and dedication,
Fr. Gregory
Dear parishioners and guests,
Please allow me to introduce to you more of my employees and their work here in our parish. Though our staff members are paid employees, they treat their work as a ministry. They all have great qualities and never hesitate to help when needed and volunteer in many ways in and outside of our church.
Jeannie Behr
Jeannie is the wife of one of our acolytes who will be ordained to the permanent diaconate ministry. She also has a son Garrett who entered into the Seminary over a year ago and is in Rome. Jeannie works in the parish office on Thursdays and is our school bus driver. Most days Jeannie works in her husband’s dental office. Most of all she loves to drive our school bus. Here are Jeannie’s responsibilities, please refer to her with any questions.
- Receptionist for the parish office welcoming and assisting parishioners and visitors to our parish.
- Mass Intentions
- Support front desk administration sending out Prayer Chain
- Sacramental Record Keeping
- School Bus Driver, Jeannie Drives the bus for school field trips, and various activities as needed. Keeps availability to allow for scheduling of field trips.
Amy Saber
Amy carries one of the most important responsibilities in our parish. As the lead financial manager. Amy began at St. Peter over a year ago and she dedicates herself to this department. Amy is in charge of the following responsibilities:
- Accounts Payable
- Payroll
- Contributions/gifts
- Annual Financial Review
- Health benefits, retirement for the parish/school employees
- Financial statements preparation for Finance Council,
- Management of the Parish credit cards
- Annual budget
- Diocesan Reports
- Office supply orders
- Altar Supply orders
Debby Dover
Debby managed our front desk was our bulletin editor for over 4 years until she was named our Stewardship Director in 2021.
Debby enjoy horses and time in the mountains with her husband. Her heart is set on supporting our catholic school but most of all she loves spending time with people.
Debby Dover has a lot of responsibilities as a Bulletin Editor and Director of Stewardship Ministry. Here they are:
- Creates and publishes weekly parish bulletin
- Stewardship-Parishioner Engagement
- New Parishioner Engagement Events
- Lead Stewardship Committee / Point of contact for Catholic Stewardship Consultants
- Managed Capital Campaigns
- National Eucharistic Revival Lead for our Parish
- Annual Lenten Almsgiving
- PR resources and materials
- Annual Diocesan Ministry Appeal
- DMA Grant Requests for both our school and parish/prepares post DMA annual reports
- Thank you Letters
- Bingo/Raffle Quarterly Reports to State of CO
- Amazon Ordering-Church & PMC
Julie Dickinson
Julie has been with St. Peter almost 10 years. Her husband Tom is one of our deacons. She enjoys working with people and she likes to greet people with a smile and good word. Julie loves her dog Stashu and she is eager to help anyone who is need of help.
- Julie’s main focus is as Child and Youth Protection Site Administrator. As Site Administrator for Child & Youth Protection Julie makes sure all volunteers are trained and in compliance when volunteering with our youth and minors.
- All church and ministry center facilities events are scheduled and approved by Julie, this includes – conference rooms, sanctuary, vestibule – ministry center classrooms, meeting rooms, kitchen
- Julie is the parish archivist - Certificates of Insurance (contractors, vendors), letters of Good Standing for visiting priests, missionaries, etc.
- Incident Reports prepared for Diocese and Church Mutual Group – Worker’s Comp & personal injury insurance
As you can see each of our staff work for you and for the betterment of our parish.
Construction Update
Please allow me to give you a short update on our church vestibule remodel. As I mentioned in one of our past bulletins the remodel includes constructing special room for little children and their parents. Revising our main conference room so we will have a multi-purpose use room. Additionally, the vestibule will receive some stone decor finish and fresh paint. Part of the vestibule was transformed into a small votive candle shrine. This project should be finished before Holy Week celebrations. In the event of unexpected circumstances, we will resume finishing this project after Easter Sunday. Hopefully we will not have to do that. For now, we are on schedule.
This project received approval support from both our parish and finance councils and included in the budget for the year 2023/2024.
I would like to address the rumor that the project will cost $500,000. This rumor is far away from the truth. The cost for this project is estimated between $150,000 to $160,000. Please see Amy Saber if you need to see financial details regarding this project or any other parish financial wellbeing. There is nothing worse than spreading the rumors. This leads to divisions and miscommunication which makes any project difficult. It causes unnecessary stress and discomfort. And as always you can ask me any questions you may have.
Thank you for your patience and trust in my decisions to improve our place of worship and any evangelization programs in our parish. Without our Lord and you, nothing can be done. Let us support and pray for each other.
With prayer and dedication,
Fr. Gregory
Introduction to staff job descriptions
with Father Gregory
with Father Gregory
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Little Angels Room Construction Project
Dear parishioners, Before I present our next set of employees and their responsibilities, please allow me to share with you an observation that will, hopefully, trigger only a positive reaction. I’m writing it because my responsibility in my heart is the concern about everyone’s needs and their soul. But let’s get to it because I believe it is great news to share. On February 8, new construction will begin in the church vestibule and main conference room. Mass will continue to be celebrated as always so please do not feel concerned about that. We are constructing a place for little children and their parents. Commonly it is called a "cry room”, however, the finance and parish councils advised me to call it the “Little Angel" room. I like this name. It sounds welcoming which is what we want. The idea is to create a good environment for parents who have children to attend Mass together as a family, and if the children become fussy, they will still feel part of our parish. The St. Peter "Little Angel” room” will provide a place to calm down a child and at the same time continue to participate during Mass. This room will have a glass window which will allow parents to watch Mass and even explain to the children the importance of Mass and what is going on during Mass. There is always a debate what’s better - a “cry room” or nursery. They are both valuable but in my mind the cry room provides much better and substantial participation during Mass than a nursery. The “Little Angel" room gives the parent a special and continuous bond with his/her child. Attending Mass as a family gives parents the opportunity to catechize their little ones and for the parent it allows for participation during Mass. When a parent/parents drop off a child in nursery they create a very different environment. First, it creates separation from the parents, entrusting a child to a stranger (even if they know each other), lack of exposing children to eucharistic worship and some stress for a parent who might think during Mass, "Is my child ok? Is my child crying or happy to be there?" That causes destruction. Regarding this debate, I just provided my personal opinion which might be wrong since I have no children, therefore, I understand I will not fully understand parents with little children. So, what you read above is just my humble opinion and experience from the perspective of a priest. At this point, I’m not available to provide a nursery. It is a complicated process and not as easy as one might think. Bottom line, is my staff and I will provide, to the best of our ability, a welcoming environment for all. Children, young families, singles, young adults, adult and elderly you are all welcome and you are close to my heart. Lastly, there is another concern we need to address in an upcoming bulletin article. There is a need for change. We all need to work on changing our culture as we speak about Mass participation. It is so important. But that is for the next article. Now if you could, please take into your hands this week’s bulletin insert and get familiar with our staff and their duties. With prayer Fr. Gregory |
Staff Job Descriptions (continued)
February 2, 2024 Dear parishioners, Let us continue to know our staff members and their duties. It is so important for me that you get familiar with them and go to the right person if you need us. Communication is the key. Below I will outline the duties of Elementary School Faith Formation Director Victoria Goetz, Assistant Faith Formation Director Anna Weiler, Confirmation Director Sister Jackie (Salesian sister), Youth Ministry Director and Confirmation Teacher Sr. Quyen Pham, FMA, Fr. Rajeev Palliathra, and Fr. Gregory Golyzniak – Pastor. With prayer, Fr. Gregory I will begin with Victoria Goetz. Victoria became part of our church team two years ago. She is a person of great and positive energy who is a “mover and shaker”. She makes things happen and is very successful. I believe that she is successful because she is a person of prayer, dedicated to her family and the Lord. Of course, she loves and care for our children who come on Sunday to learn our Catholic faith. Victoria’s duties:
Victoria has a wonderful assistant named Anna Weiler. She is the daughter of a deacon who serves in the Air Force Academy. She is great parishioner and dedicated to the Lord and children. The Faith Formation assistant duties are:
Sister Jackie (Salesian sister) - Confirmation Director Sister Jackie came to us from her Mother House in Houston, Texas. Sister Jackie is very talented and finished a lot of extra teaching courses. She speaks Spanish and some Italian. Sister Jackie is a very talented musician and singer. She enjoys being around young people. She hasn’t yet made her final vows, so please keep her and her calling in your prayers. As the confirmation director, Sister Jackie’s duties are:
Sr. Quyen Pham, FMA - Youth Ministry and Confirmation Sister Pham came to us over 2 years ago from Salesian sister’s mother house inn Huston TX. Herself and her family came to United States from Vietnam. She is responsible for all the sisters living in the convent located in Colorado Springs. Sister Pham is full of energy and ideas which make our youth happy and they attend the meetings with joy. Sister Pham’s duties are: Youth Ministry - To build and nurture youth to live as disciples of Jesus by:
Fr. Rajeev Palliathra Fr. Rajeev came to us over a year ago from India. He is a member of the Holy Order of Benedictines in the state of Karala in India. He loves to be around people and his main skill is to preach missions to many groups. As Pastor Associate his duties are:
Fr. Gregory Golyzniak - Pastor Fr. Gregory came from Poland in 2002. He was working in the diocese of Syracuse, New York, for six years and moved to Colorado Springs in 2008. Fr. Gregory was appointed as pastor to St. Peter in 2013. Fr. Gregory’s duties are:
Additionally, upon Bishop Golka’s request and appointment, Fr. Gregory carries the following responsibilities in the diocese:
Fr. Gregory also provides sacred architecture consultation support in the Diocese of Tarnow in Poland. See below for additional job descriptions. |