The Rev. Roger Mollison had a habit of giving away houses he was given.
One he made into a home for abused children and another he transformed into a place for relatives of hospital patients to stay.
Mollison, who died in Aurora on Friday at age 68, had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
The funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. today at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, 1530 Logan St.
Mollison also opened a retreat center, Jesus Our Hope, in Deer Creek Canyon and for several years he ran a downtown center for teenagers called Spirits Runway.
The Runway was a place where teens could hang out, get counseling and participate in activities. Mollison said a midnight Mass for them each Saturday at St. Catherine’s Church in west Denver. As many as 250 showed up, said the Rev. Don Brownstein, Mollison’s adopted brother.
Except for the time he was running Spirits Runway, Mollison combined parish work with his additional activities, which included helping raise his nephew, Justin Mollison.
“He loved kids and was very nonjudgmental,” said Brownstein, a priest at Ave Maria Church in Parker.
He had special services for kids at Easter and Christmas, said his nephew, believing strongly in the words of Jesus, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
Justin Mollison said he frequently runs into people who ask if he is related to “Father Mollison” and want to tell him of their association with the priest.
Roger Mollison’s relaxation was making small religious items out of discarded wood, tile and other materials. But he used new wood for the stations of the cross he made for Camp St. Malo before Pope John Paul II visited there in 1993.
Roger Mollison was born in Denver on Jan. 25, 1938, graduated from East High School and studied at the University of Colorado for a year, planning to be an architect.
While there he met a monk who was studying architecture and decided he’d like to be a monk.
“He wasn’t overly religious as a kid,” said Brownstein, “but when he saw the goodness and generosity” of the monk he decided on the priesthood.
He studied at Conception Seminary College in Conception, Mo., and while there Monsignor William Higgins of Denver persuaded him to be a parish priest rather than a monk.
He earned his divinity degree at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, (now St. John Vianney) and was ordained in 1964.
He served at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, St. Mary Magdalene in Denver, St. John the Evangelist Church in Loveland, St. Francis Cabrini in Littleton and St. Louis Church in Englewood.
The past few years he was a chaplain at the Gardens of St. Elizabeth in west Denver.
Mollison always considered himself a “priest for Jesus Christ,” and once wrote to parishioners: “I have legal custody of me, but I’m glad Jesus has the real custody.”
In addition to his brother, he is survived by another brother: James Mollison of Pierre, S.D., his sister, Kathy Mollison, of Denver, another nephew and three nieces.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or at 303-954-1223.
