An Oregon archbishop is calling for “mission renewal” across his archdiocese, urging personal holiness, a recommitted clergy, a focus on Catholic education and the efforts of lay faithful to foster a “culture of evangelization.”
On Oct. 1, Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, released his pastoral letter “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”
The publication of the 37-page text, available on the archdiocese’s website in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, coincided with the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, devotion to whom Archbishop Sample recommended, especially for archdiocesan priests.
In his pastoral letter, Archbishop Sample pointed to what he called a “watershed moment” in the Church, particularly in western Oregon.
“In the last few years, we have seen ever-increasing numbers of people coming into the Church,” he said, adding that such growth was “quite stunning” since “Oregon is considered a very secular and ‘unchurched’ state.”
The archbishop said he was especially encouraged by “the number of young people coming to the Church,” while stressing that “the Church in Western Oregon must be ready for this moment.”
That task first requires being both “very clear and focused on what that mission is in the first place” and “renewed in our own discipleship,” he said.
“We must together contemplate once again the Face of Christ,” said Archbishop Sample, referencing his episcopal motto, “Vultum Christi Contemplari” (“To Contemplate the Face of Christ”). “We must let the face of Jesus Christ shine forth from us to the people of our time here in this part of God’s vineyard.”
Renewal starts with priests
Such a renewal “will be ineffective if it does not start with” priests, the archbishop said.
Quoting the Trappist abbot and author Jean-Baptiste Chautard, the archbishop said, “If the priest is a saint, the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent; if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless.”
Archbishop Sample specified three areas of clergy renewal: personal holiness in priestly life and ministry; fraternity and communion; and “complete unity in the mission before us in our time.”
He invited clergy to develop an interior life based on “deep prayer,” including daily Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament, spiritual direction, annual retreats and the faithful observance of the Liturgy of the Hours, the daylong cycle of prayer that priests are bound to practice under canon law.
Describing daily celebration of the Eucharist as “essential” to priestly ministry, Archbishop Sample directed priests to follow the archdiocese’s liturgical handbook and to reflect their inner devotion to the Mass in their outer performance of its rites.
Regular reception of the sacrament of reconciliation by priests is also crucial, said the archbishop, since “the best confessors are first the best penitents.”
He exhorted priests to cultivate devotion to Mary, whom he described as “no better advocate and helper” for their ministry, as well as St. Thérèse, a “special friend and intercessor” whom Archbishop Sample regards as his “‘big sister’ in the faith.”
Pointing to Jesus’ prayer for unity at the Last Supper (Jn. 17), the archbishop urged archdiocesan priests “to embrace a true commitment to deeper fraternity, communion, unity, and genuine love for one another,” despite differences, time constraints and past hurts.
While noting some priests have been “deeply wounded in their relationships with one another and with me or with former archbishops,” Archbishop Sample said, “We must work hard to seek reconciliation and peace with our brothers.”
The archbishop asked the lay faithful to pray for their priests, adding, “Support them. Assist them. Encourage them. And forgive us when we make mistakes along the way.”
‘Mission passionate’ Catholic education
Along with clergy rooted in Christ, the Church’s evangelizing mission encompasses Catholic education, which strives to “form the hearts and minds of children and young people to know, love, and serve God” in hope of eternal life with him, said Archbishop Sample.
In addition to “social media, the internet, and now the significant challenges of artificial intelligence,” he identified “new threats to Catholic faith and moral teaching in public education” that derive from “pervasive philosophical ideologies” — which have “also crept into Catholic schools.”
Among those are secularism, which elevates human reason over “the necessary integration of faith and reason in education” and which “has served as a breeding ground for relativism and the denial of truth,” he said.
Pragmatism and utilitarianism have led to education being valued only in terms of “useful outcomes” such as “college and career,” the archbishop added.
Moreover, he said, “conflict and critical theories have led to seeing education primarily as a task of raising a new generation of socially conscious activists who can dismantle systems of oppression and become ‘agents of change’ in the world.”
Such thought “must be challenged and replaced with a Christian anthropology,” Archbishop Sample said.
While ensuring academic excellence, Catholic schools must “stay focused on what ultimately matters most: bringing the young people entrusted to our care to encounter Jesus Christ and to be transformed by him through their spiritual, religious, intellectual, and human formation,” said the archbishop.
To ensure the holistic development of students — including non-Catholic children and youth enrolled in archdiocesan schools — he emphasized a “mission passionate” approach to Catholic education and, eventually, to parish faith formation programs.
Catholic school teachers, staff and administrators must themselves be witnesses and examples to the faith, particularly “in the moral realm,” Archbishop Sample said.
He admitted that the affordability of Catholic education, in particular for students with special needs, remains a challenge that requires a whole-of-archdiocese response to ensure families can cover tuition.
Catholic schools must not be separated from parish life, he said, and pastors must serve as “the leader and spiritual father of the school community.”
According to Church teaching, parents are “the primary educators of their children, especially in the ways of faith,” and should exercise that role by creating “a truly Catholic culture in the home,” also known as the “domestic Church,” he said.
Creating a culture of evangelization
Archbishop Sample said that the “ultimate goal” of his mission renewal vision for the Archdiocese of Portland is “to create a true ‘culture of evangelization’ within the Church in Western Oregon.”
Lay faithful are essential participants in that mission, he said, inviting “every Catholic in Western Oregon” to read sections 30-38 of “Lumen Gentium,” the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, in which the council addressed the laity’s role in the Church’s life and mission.
Everyday interactions provide numerous opportunities to live out that call, he said.
“We don’t need to be expert theologians or masters of the catechism,” Archbishop Sample said. “We must be simply willing to share our faith and relationship with Jesus.”
He added that his “dream” would be to see the day “when every Catholic in this Archdiocese wakes up every morning wondering how they can witness to Jesus Christ today and help bring others to him.”
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
