They sat calmly, took turns sharing their week’s journey and passed around a can for donations. The early August gathering was orderly, far from the messy reality that brought and bound them together.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample today issued a letter to western Oregon Catholics in which he expresses shock, anger and discouragement over revelations of clergy sex abuse in other parts of the country. “I have been shaken to the core of my soul over them,” Archbishop Sample wrote in the five-page letter, which includes a call for renewed care of victims, reinvigorated prayer life among priests and an outside lay-run investigative body. Archbishop Sample also said that bishops should be held to the same standards as priests.

An estimated 5,000 refugee Catholics convened on the Sunday before Independence Day to commemorate what they see as God’s liberating action in their lives.

ST. PAUL — It’s a place to talk soil pH, medieval architecture, pasture health, Renaissance polyphony, grape cluster tightness and papal encyclicals — even before sipping an entire glass of pinot noir.

Tyrant Cascadian Dark Ale and the less-forebodingly dubbed St. Benedict Farmhouse Ale will be among the beers crafted not at the trendiest Portland brewery but on the peaceful, prayer-suffused land of Mount Angel Abbey.

The soccer rivalry between the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders is the most robust in United States soccer. Fans go bonkers.

St. Mary Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, just a few minutes’ walk from Providence Park, is inviting fans of the Aug. 26 grudge match between the teams to a pre-game Mass at 2 p.m.

Backers of a proposed Oregon ballot measure to outlaw sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have been forced to wait for a later election or move to persuading lawmakers.

The Oregon Supreme Court last month rejected the ballot language as too vague and sent it back to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. That left advocates with too little time to collect the needed 88,000 valid signatures by July 6. 

Cancer changed Becky Roth but didn’t claim her.

Despite losing two leg bones used for her jaw reconstruction, she will run in the 2018 Providence Hood to Coast relay race this month to raise money for cancer research at Providence Health and Services.

On a Monday last fall, Marian Cansdale learned her 53-year-old husband, Douglas, had been killed in a car accident. He had just dropped off their oldest son at Santa Clara University in California and was driving back to Portland to make that evening’s back-to-school night at Jesuit High School, where his two daughters were enrolled.

Almost 200 Catholic Youth Organization/Camp Howard volunteers gathered at the University of Portland this spring for an evening of recognition.

The 2018 Hall of Fame inductee, Joseph Weston, has been a friend and major supporter of CYO/Camp Howard for many years.

As a 6-year-old girl, Trang Do would rise at 5 a.m. daily with her grandfather to walk a mile to Mass in their small town south of Saigon.

Just four years later, she faced a faith crisis.

 “My uncle warned us this boat could just hold 39 people,” the 10-year-old Trang Do thought to herself as she crammed onto the wooden boat deck. “But now — we have 110 people on it?” 

EUGENE — The former advancement director for O’Hara School here was indicted by a Lane County grand jury July 16 on charges of embezzlement. He has pleaded not guilty. 

SPRINGFIELD — Catholic health provider PeaceHealth has named a veteran nurse as chief executive in Oregon.

Mary Kingston begins July 30 as leader of the network, which includes hospitals and clinics in Springfield, Eugene, other parts of Lane County and the coast. 

ASHLAND — The church hall at Our Lady of the Mountain Parish here gets steady use: Sunday coffee and rolls, Knights of Columbus breakfasts, RCIA, adult faith formation, committee meetings, first Communion receptions, dinners, luncheons.

Vytas Babusis reaches up to examine a young hazelnut cluster — the sweet, buttery orbs maturing under pale-green, papery husks.

“We are in a hurry to have the answers all at once,” said Babusis, gently releasing the nut bundle. “But sometimes we need to step back and watch and listen to nature.”

GRANTS PASS — A 95-year-old Marine Corps veteran from St. Anne Parish here is one of the poster boys for a Knights of Columbus series on the World War II generation.

EUGENE — Cathleen and Joe Karcher, members of St. Paul Parish here, have been recognized by Northwest Christian University for ethical leadership and commitment to the community.

The Karchers in May received the 2018 Exemplary Ethical Leadership Award from the school’s Center for Leadership and Ethics

The Archdiocese of Portland’s Catholic Schools Department has released a major plan that aims to sustain schools and extend a Catholic education to more families. Part of the strategy is a reinvigorated fund for tuition aid.

The retooled Catholic Schools Endowment Foundation of Oregon will seek gifts from individuals, estates, organizations and businesses who believe more children should have access to the values and success Catholic schools offer.

Early Saturday mornings when Mark Turner was a young boy, his father and two brothers would pile into a Chevy pickup and head for the Oregon woods. While his dad cut down trees to support the family, the boys ran through pine-needle-padded hills, scrambled up rocks, dipped their toes into cool creeks and constructed forts from nature’s bounty.

Krista Farnham has been named chief executive for Providence Portland Medical Center. Previously, she served as the hospital’s chief operating officer.

The medical center, near All Saints Parish, has 483 beds, more than 3,100 employees and 1,200 medical staff members. In addition to leading Providence Portland, Farnham will oversee Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital, Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center and Providence Milwaukie Hospital.

An England-born priest who helps the Archdiocese of Portland live up to canon law has completed an iconic American legal process. Father John Boyle, adjutant judicial vicar for the archdiocese, became a United States citizen June 12. “I see my future as being here,” says Father Boyle, whose family has Irish roots. “There is a sense of wanting to be one of the people whom I am called to serve and share their values."

SPRINGFIELD — Joe Mark, a healthcare executive with 35 years of leadership experience, has been hired as interim chief executive for PeaceHealth Oregon Network.

Mark has held a variety of hospital leadership roles, including chief executive officer, chief operating officer and vice president. He most recently served as interim senior vice president and area manager for two Kaiser Foundation hospitals in California. He is a director with WolfCreek Partners Group, a firm specializing in leadership development and organizational change.

A Catholic Charities-sponsored village of tiny houses in North Portland likely will remain for another six months or so.

Kenton Village, a grouping of 14 pods for homeless women, opened a year ago on city-owned property near North Columbia Boulevard. It began as a pilot project slated to expire this month. But plans by Transition Projects to build low-cost housing on the site are delayed, leaving the village more time — if neighbors vote to keep it.

One night in a small town in Mexico, armed men arrived at Maria’s house. Pregnant and with her young daughter asleep in the next room, she wasn’t sure if she should rush to get her 2-year-old or run for her life.

An “armed man started yelling at me,” she says in an asylum application. “Another man of the group yelled to the first man not to kill me because I was pregnant.”

A Friday last month marked the start of a great migration. Centered on the banks of the Willamette River at historic Oaks Park, hundreds could be seen moving in formation to musical rhythm.

Many Portland area residents, like MaryAnn and Bryan Stewart, have been gathering in this same spot for more than a decade to witness the event.

Salmon? Canadian geese?

Nope. Catholic Youth Organization dancers.