By André Escaleira Jr. / Denver Catholic, OSV News
DENVER (OSV News) — A Rocky Mountain pilgrimage post that received a spiritual upgrade last fall will be offering more Masses and other opportunities for prayer, reflection and reconciliation both for those in its territory and for those who come to visit from across the globe.
Camp St. Malo, along with its iconic St. Catherine Chapel on the Rock, became Colorado’s newest shrine when now-retired Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver signed a decree last October granting the designation.
The site, about 70 miles northwest of Denver, “has long been a place of prayer and communion with God amid the beauty of creation” — a place “where droves of visitors flock, year-round, both faithful and secular,” the archdiocesan decree said.
Established as a summer camp in 1920 and repurposed as a retreat center in 1987, Camp St. Malo has served innumerable faithful over its 105-year history. During World Youth Day in Denver in 1993, St. John Paul II spent a day of rest and reflection in the Rocky Mountains, visiting Camp St. Malo and its Chapel on the Rock.
After a devastating fire in 2011 and a flood in 2013, the property reopened in 2017 as an evangelization and visitor center. That same year, the archdiocese purchased a nearby camp two miles away, inaugurating Annunciation Heights as the new archdiocesan camp.
Archbishop Aquila separately decreed that Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights be canonically united as To the Heights Catholic Camps and Retreat Centers. The two ministries, long intertwined in practice through shared staff, volunteers, leadership and pastoral care, are now formally united to better serve all whom God calls to the heights to encounter him.
“We’re trying to unify our teams even closer as we continue to work on our organizational health and refine things,” said Nathan Glassman, executive director of both ministries, who will continue to direct To the Heights.
“With this shrine status, that integration will continue with community Masses offered at the Chapel on the Rock,” he told Denver Catholic, the archdiocesan news outlet. “The programs and everything we do have been unified for years; the team has been unified for years. Now that we’ve developed more clarity on why we exist, it has become clear that we exist to be a place to lead souls into reconciliation with God.
“We’re blessed by Camp St. Malo becoming a shrine to that much better serve the faithful, serve the larger Church and bring pilgrims to that place.”
When Glassman took the helm of the two ministries in 2023, he and the team found themselves in a time of discernment. What was the unique mission of Annunciation Heights and Camp St. Malo in this apostolic age? How did that mission flow from the history of Camp St. Malo and from the heart of the Church? Recognizing that the Church’s mission is broad, the team sought to find its niche in the body of Christ.
As they discerned, they noticed God’s footprints through the camp over the years. Archbishop Aquila discerned that its patroness would be Our Lady Undoer of Knots, who “leads us in a spirit of reconciliation,” Glassman noted.
Then, through a three-day experiential education program open to Catholic school and homeschool students, reconciliation took center stage in the camp’s mission. Even the camp song, sung by campers throughout the year, had been highlighting this missional aspect summer after summer.
Suddenly, their mission was clear, though not new: reconciliation.
“The spirit of reconciliation drives every decision that we make,” Glassman said. “We want people to leave Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights with a greater awareness of how their relationships play a role in their faith journeys.
“God has no plan for your life outside of unity with him,” he continued. “If that’s true and we believe that, then our sole purpose needs to be unity with him. I’m really excited to see how Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights will continue to serve as a place of gathering and a place to encounter.”
For the thousands of those who visited the archdiocese’s newest shrine last year alone, Camp St. Malo is exactly that: a place of encounter and of reconciliation.
“Camp St. Malo has always been a unique place of encountering the Lord Jesus in the sense that people are moved by the beauty of both the chapel — the architecture and the art — and the natural beauty of the mountains that surround it, and the forests and rivers,” said Father Ryan O’Neill, who was the new shrine’s first chaplain.
“I’ve heard lots of stories of people feeling moved to the point of tears even just to think about God and be open to God,” he added.
Longtime volunteers at Camp St. Malo, Sandy and Jim Richards, agreed.
“Everybody that comes to visit has the word ‘peace’ come out of their lips at some point during their visit,” Sandy said.
“This is a place where the Spirit is really at work,” added Jim, noting that the number of annual visitors has only increased in recent years. “This is an exciting time. It’s kind of like a call to something more. We don’t know what it’s going to be yet, but we know it’s going to be great.”
With its new designation as an archdiocesan shrine, new life is breathed into Camp St. Malo and the Chapel on the Rock, Father O’Neill said.
“I think by making this a shrine and by increasing sacraments that are available, what we might see is more people realizing that this church is alive,” he noted. “It’s not just some old chapel that was built by a miner, and he forgot about it, and now it just looks pretty. It’s not ruins. It’s not a leftover building. It’s actually alive. It’s breathing. And when you encounter something that’s alive, you start to realize that maybe there’s a community here, maybe there is a culture here that I also could be a part of, and it’s called the Catholic Church.”
Uniting the missions of Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights continues the charism that began with the original camp and retreat center, now renewed for an apostolic age. Youth participating in Annunciation Heights programs, like currently enrolling summer 2026 youth camps, and visitors to the chapel both benefit from the shared mission and expanded ministry.
Whether it’s frequent visitors or first-timers, Glassman invites the faithful to come again “to the heights” and experience this “jewel of the archdiocese.”
“My goal for the shrine is to be more intentional with changing a three-minute picture stop into a three-hour encounter with Christ, others, creation and self,” Glassman said.
André Escaleira Jr. is managing editor of Denver Catholic and El Pueblo Católico, the English- and Spanish-language news outlets of the Archdiocese of Denver. This story was originally published by Denver Catholic and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.
More information about summer camps and other programs at Annunciation Heights, can be found at https://www.annunciationheights.org.
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