From the
Pastor's Desk
April 15, 2026 | St. Mary Catholic Parish
Dear Parishioners,
I write to provide an update on the lawsuit between the Archdiocese of Denver and the State of Colorado over equal access to Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program funding. As you may recall, in 2023 St. Mary Catholic Virtue School joined a case filed by the Archdiocese seeking to ensure that families who attend Catholic preschools can benefit from the state’s universal preschool funding - just like the families attending nearly 2,000 other public, private, and religious preschools throughout Colorado. For Catholic families with preschool aged children in Colorado, participation would mean access to 15-hours per week of free education at Catholic schools across the Archdiocese (valued by Colorado at around $6,000 per child). We chose to participate in this lawsuit because a win in this case would substantially benefit the many Catholic families, in our parish and across the Archdiocese, struggling to send their children to Catholic Schools.
This case may be heading to the U.S. Supreme Court. We anticipate the Court will tell us whether it wants to hear this case in mid-to-late April. If the Court decides it wants to hear this case, we can expect to see an increase in media coverage, likely focused on the Archdiocese, but potentially on St. Mary parish and school as well. To manage this, we are working closely with the communications team at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has extensive experience handling media related to Supreme Court cases.
Accordingly, if you are contacted by a reporter about this case, please do not respond directly. Instead pass along the request to my assistant, Kathy Reuter. We will then share it with Becket’s team, who will respond.
We appreciate your continued prayers and support during this litigation. While increased media attention is not something we want, we believe that ensuring our families have equal access to preschool funding is sufficiently important to take up this fight.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Kathy Reuter.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Andrej Makovnik, DCJM
Pastor
Marriage The Gift Set-up, Saturday, April 17th
Friday afternoon transform Ave Maria Hall for Marriage the Gift which will be held Saturday, April 18.- Lay out tablecloths, place centerpieces, prepare food tables in Ave Maria Hall at 1:00 pm.
