San Mateo church rebuilt

Residents of San Mateo pack the newly rebuilt San Mateo Church Sunday for it's dedication service. The community banded together to find the money to rebuild the historical landmark after it was destroyed by fire. (Photo by Jerry Wilson/Independent)

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

Bishop Pelotte of Gallup blesses a packed congregation during the rededication service Sunday at the rebuilt San Mateo Church. (Photo by Jerry Wilson/Independent)

SAN MATEO — The residents of this tiny community in far northern Cibola County got their church back Sunday and when it happened, there was almost an audible sigh of relief heard.

Of course, the residents never really lost their church. Even though it burned to the ground in 2002, the church was always still there, tucked just out of sight in the hearts and minds of the 250 or so residents who call this one-time farming and mining community home and are fiercely proud of their town and their San Mateo Church.

For some 120 years, when someone was born in San Mateo, the event was mentioned in church. When couples married, their union was blessed in the church, when people died, their passing was mourned in the church.

A Catholic Church, the San Mateo Church is part of the Catholic Diocese of Gallup.

The Bishop Donald Pelotte was at the dedication ceremony, which represented a new beginning for reconstruction of the old church and a continued commitment of faith of the devout people who attend San Mateo Church.

Abe Pena, who was raised in San Mateo and also was an alter boy at the church, was part of the crowd Sunday.

Faulty electrical wiring is believed suspect in the fire, which gutted the original adobe structure to the point that even the blackened walls left standing had to be torn down.

Pena said the San Mateo Church has been a central figure of the community since the 1880s, when it was nothing more than a chapel and the community was made up of farmers and sheep ranchers. San Mateo eventually became a mining community playing host and home to hard-working miners and their families devoted to their way of life and their church.

Today, San Mateo boasts a population of about 250 and is mostly now a bedroom community to Grants and Milan.

When the church burned, a stunned community accepted the setback as only temporary, took a deep breath and began to raise money to build a new church which cost more than $200,000.

"The people of San Mateo held rodeos to raise money, they held bake sales, pie sales, garage sales," Pena said. the residents even had door-to-door fund-raising campaigns in a village where the economy is tight. A building committee was formed to spearhead the fund-raising drive. Even former residents were contacted and told of the devastation and the hopes of the people.

Angela Salazar, a lifelong San Mateo resident, said the fund-raising was not easy. "There were times when we felt that we wouldn't get the money, but we did it," she said. Every resident in the tiny village pitched in for a common goal, a common cause, a common good. "It wasn't easy, but when it comes to something like that, everybody helps," Salazar said.

Some how, some way, perhaps with a little help from above, the village of San Mateo rallied as it has never rallied before. It raised all the money necessary to rebuild. "San Mateo was a community that put its shoulder to the wheel and did it," Pena said.

Salazar Construction was selected to build the church, Pena said Salazar.

The people of San Mateo have been satisfied with the way the church looked for more than 100 years, but the new church is different. "The new church was built to look like the old one, only bigger and better," Pena said. Rather than adobe walls, though, Salazar Construction took advantage of wood-frame and plaster construction.

One of the things that did not burn in the fire was the church bell, a pivot-point for any church. The old bell was dragged out of retirement and installed in the new church.

On Sunday, for the first time in years, the church bell rang. One by one, sometimes two-by-two, the people came. "I think the whole town turned out Sunday," Pena said. "That church was packed."