This weekend in Washington, D.C., a humble and popular University of Portland math professor is marching with a handful of U.P. students and hundreds of thousands of others to declare the inalienable dignity of human life.

They may be rivals on the field, but the people of Jesuit and Central Catholic high schools were on the same team before Christmas to carry out a massive food delivery.

Mater Dei Radio in Oregon is celebrating 30 years of broadcasting with two nights featuring David Anders, host of EWTN’s “Called to Communion,” which airs on the local station, 88.3 FM in the Portland area and Salem and 94.9 and 100.5 in Eugene and Springfield.

Anders will discuss his book, “How the Catholic Church Saved My Marriage,” this month in Tigard and Salem. 

On Tuesday, Jan. 15, when the Salem Progressive Film Series opens its monthly 2019 program presenting the documentary “In the Executioner’s Shadow,” three on-screen storytellers will share thoughts about justice, injustice and the death penalty. Several talks on the death penalty will follow the film.

Paul Farrow, a retired Fred Meyer retail executive, once had a rugged opinion of people who are homeless. He dealt with shoplifters.

Now that he volunteers at St. André Bessette Parish on West Burnside Street, Farrow knows better. 

The unspeakably sad, the reverent and the joyous were among the most-read stories in Catholic Sentinel digital media during 2018.

Top stories include the death of a young local Catholic from opioids, the misdeeds of then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and an extraordinary form confirmation rite.

The June Corpus Christi procession in downtown Portland, Archbishop Alexander Sample’s columns and a perennial favorite, priest reassignments, also rated high. 

The people of Our Lady of Lavang Parish in Northeast Portland didn’t let a vandal’s attack stall or dampen their Christmas observances. 

GRESHAM — The board of El Programa Hispano Católico has named Edith Molina as executive director.

Molina, who has been filling in as interim leader, “demonstrated strong leadership, stewardship and commitment to our staff and community,” the board said in a statement.

Wrangler doesn’t have an MD and he can’t write prescriptions, but he works hard to help children who are injured or ill — and often scared.

The Labrador is the first full-time facility dog at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Southwest Portland, and his task is to offer comfort to patients in the children’s emergency room.

BANKS — Mary high-fived a shepherd, an angel temporarily forgot his wings, and a sleepy sheep scratched her askew ears. It was neither silent nor night, but the slightly chaotic morning rehearsal in the St. Francis of Assisi Church Dec. 11 felt holy.

Archbishop Alexander Sample on Dec. 9 held a brunch at his Northwest Portland home to thank Catholics who have stepped forward to give major support for seminarian education.

The three finalists of this year’s Opus Prize, one of the world’s largest faith-based awards for social entrepreneurship, are in their own ways working to rebuild lost hope and provide opportunities for the most vulnerable —while inspiring the next generation of leaders to do the same.

The value of service in adulthood is the topic of a theology session held amid the good will and cheer of a pub. The presentation, sponsored by Jesuit High School, is set for Dec. 10 from 7 – 8:30 p.m. at the Old Market Pub and Brewery, 6959 SW Multnomah Blvd., Portland.

As with most biomedical advances, the newfound ability to tinker with genes has ethical ups and downs.

Fixing disease-causing defects in DNA is widely acceptable, not to mention thrilling. But editing genes to enhance or re-design what comes from nature troubles and frightens many ethicists and scientists.

El Centinela, the Spanish language newspaper for western Oregon Catholics, has unveiled an updated website.

“Today more than half of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Portland are Hispanics,” says Rocío Rios, editor of El Centinela. “It’s a diverse cultural group that nurtures the church.”

You can keep supporting your deepest values, even after death. And we’re not just talking about appeals from the heavenly host.

Giving from a will, trust or other creative financial vehicle can support a charity you loved during life. Along the way, it may even get your name on something.