The Denver Catholic Worker: 46 years of love in action
Posted on October 9, 2025, by Christina Manweller
Image used with artist’s permission
As the Denver Catholic Worker House merges with Angelica Village, the deep commitment to compassion and hospitality flows forward; decades of love are carried on into the future, just as a river flows into the ocean, bringing fresh nutrients to the ecosystem.
Through more than four decades, tears, laughter, ups and downs, Anna Koop SL and Jennifer Haines, along with volunteers and residents, shared life with, and offered hospitality to, those in need in Denver. Anna was one of those who opened the Catholic Worker House in 1978. Jennifer came four years later. All these years, they held the home together, until the decision was recently made to merge with Angelica Village, a community that is complementary to the Worker’s. Angelica, as Anna and Jennifer share, “has grown up in Denver over the past eight years with a vision, values, lifestyle and mission remarkably similar to ours. It is strong, caring and vibrant, with young leadership and a heart for the same populations of disenfranchised people we’ve always invited to live with us. We’ll share our resources with them, and our residents are moving into their housing. Our kind of personal and egalitarian hospitality will continue, but no longer under our name.”
Even as the world becomes more dangerous and violent, here are people choosing to live differently, to live out what St. John of the Cross said, ‘Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love.
Marcus Hyde, live-in Denver Catholic Worker from 2012 to 2015; he currently serves as a defense attorney in New York City
The Denver Worker House rose from the ashes of a fire that destroyed the original home in 2015. Anna, Jennifer, volunteers and residents recouped and moved to a home owned by Emmaus Housing, a neighborhood of low-income rentals founded by Denver’s Catholic Worker with the help of the Loretto Community. As time passed and fresh volunteers were not arriving to keep the home going, it made sense to merge with a community with like-minded values and commitments. And so it has come to be, and Anna and Jennifer have retired to Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky.
Photo courtesy Jennifer Haines
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3
Renata Heberton, community leader and cofounder of Angelica Village says, “It has been a true and deep honor for our community to merge with the Catholic Worker, and it is humbling and inspiring to rise to the task of carryingthe incredible torch that Anna, Jennifer and all who have been a part of the Catholic Worker have carried for so many years. The transition on our end has felt seamless while we aspire and strive for the values cultivated in the Catholic Worker movement. We feel grateful to have new members in our community who bring the wisdom, spirit and insights of the Catholic Worker in addition to bringing themselves. This helps us grow in our work.”
The Angelica community was founded in West Denver in 2015 by a team that includes Jean East CoL, a mentor for Renata in the Social Work Department at the University of Denver. Jean continues to provide inspiration and guidance to Renata and the community.
Currently, Angelica Village is home to 21 households made up of 125 individuals. Renata shares, “We welcome all those who have been displaced by war, poverty and violence, which includes refugees, immigrants and folks from the U.S., in addition to those who are seeking and wanting to be a part of community life.”
Thank you to Anna and Jennifer, and to all who have kept the Denver Catholic Worker spirit alive, and deep gratitude to Renata, Jean and everyone at Angelica Village for welcoming the Catholic Worker spirit to unite with their own.
Our work is to sow. Another generation will reap.
Dorothy Day
Our very first Spotlight Video featured Anna at the Denver Catholic Worker House. Watch here.
To read all of the articles in the fall 2025 issue click here.
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