VANCOUVER—The headquarters of the archdiocese have stood in the midst of bustling business people, football enthusiasts, and panhandlers for more than 50 years.

Its employees organized Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1984, welcomed hordes of fans during the Olympics in 2010, and watched Pope Francis’s election on TV in 2013.

As they prepare for the John Paul II Pastoral Centre’s imminent move from the downtown core, employees are sharing their recollections about the historic building at 150 Robson St.

Connection

“All the memories that keep coming to mind are pertaining to the role this building has in connection with the neighbourhood,” said communications director Paul Schratz, who has worked there since 1997.

During the Olympics, “the whole downtown was transformed.” The John Paul II Pastoral Centre began sporting three flags: B.C.’s, Canada’s, and Vatican City’s, and welcoming fans inside for hot drinks and big screens to watch the action.

“It was a real moment of outreach,” Schratz said. Other places of outreach included the St. Vincent de Paul Salvage Bureau, which operated for many years in the basement, and the men’s shelter, which has been on the third floor for 55 years.

Controller George Pinto in the finance office said the downtown neighbourhood was significantly seedier when he first set foot in it 30 years ago. “Robson Street was not how you see it now. It was gas stations and dilapidated buildings all the way from Granville Street down to here.”

Atmosphere

Working in the core of the city meant dealing with some of its most desperate people, and in those days security was minimal or nonexistent. “I had a person come and put a gun at me once,” Pinto said.

A man approached him, asked him for money, and threatened him with a gun he claimed to have in his pocket. “He started fiddling and I started saying my prayers!”

The building used to have a cafeteria, where staff and men from the hostel could purchase bacon sandwiches and coffee for $1.50. There was also a library where anyone from the street could browse.

“The atmosphere was different. It was very casual,” Pinto reflected.

The new building, constructed to fit the Gold standard in Leadership in Environmental Design, will have a far more professional feel than the current building, a former electrical warehouse.

“I’ve been there and it’s very high-tech. The offices are very nice,” Pinto said.

Teresa Rigg, administrative assistant for the Life, Marriage, and Family Office, agreed. “I will miss the downtown scene,” she said, but “will love a shining new place with every conceivable up-to-date electronic device.”

Cinema

While the warehouse’s interior doesn’t lend itself easily to office work, its brick exterior has been the envy of many movie directors.

Catechetics director Patrick Gillespie remembers “watching director Wych Kaosayananda and crew set up filming in the basement loading bays, with Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu rehearsing in the basement.”

Cameras have also caught the archdiocesan offices while filming a car explode in the alley.

Though the building was first blessed Dec. 27, 1959, Gillespie recounted a more recent and less solemn sprinkling. It involved “two super soakers, multiple small water guns, a couple of umbrellas, and an unnamed now-bishop of another diocese,” he laughed. “And no, Father, now Bishop, was not blessing the building.”

Conclave

Kyle Neilson, the director of the Adult Evangelization and Discipleship Office of the archdiocese, reminisced about his favourite memory of the nine and a half years he’s worked for the archdiocese: watching Pope Francis’s first appearance.

“We all ran downstairs when the white smoke went up,” to watch the Holy Father on TV. “That was a pretty powerful experience.”

One thing will not change with the move to the new building on 33rd Avenue near Cambie this spring: there will still be a chapel.

“We’ve always had noon Mass,” Schratz said. “That’s something that has been a fixture in this building. We’ll be keeping that.”