The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (Archidioecesis Portlandensis in Oregonia) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western Oregon in the United States.
The mother church of the archdiocese is St. Mary's cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. As of 2023, the archbishop of Portland is Alexander Sample.
Statistics
The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon has the following suffragan dioceses:
As published in the 2013 "Oregon Catholic Directory,"[citation needed] the archdiocese served 412,725 Catholics (out of more than 3.3 million people). There were 150 diocesan priests, 144 religious priests, 79 permanent deacons, 388 women religious, and 78 religious brothers. The archdiocese had 124 parishes, 22 missions, one seminary, 40 elementary schools, ten secondary schools, and two Catholic colleges.
In 1836, Lucier and 15 other Catholic settlers petitioned Bishop Norbert Provencher in present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba to send a priest to their settlement. They constructed St. Paul's Church, the oldest church in present-day Oregon, in St. Paul, Oregon that same year.[3] However, the Hudson's Bay Company objected to the establishment of a Catholic mission in the Willamette Valley. In a compromise, Provencher agreed to establish the mission north of the Columbia River in present-day Washington State. In 1838, he sent the missionary priests François Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers to Fort Vancouver.[3][4]
In 1846, the Vatican elevated the vicariate apostolic to the Archdiocese of Oregon City, designating the Dioceses of Walla Walla and Vancouver Island as suffragan dioceses.[6] It became the second archdiocese established in the United States, after the Archdiocese of Baltimore.[4] The pope named Blanchet as the first archbishop of Oregon City.[7]
In 1853, the first Catholic church in Salem, St. Joseph's, was founded.[8] The Vatican in 1868 erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Idaho and Montana, taking those territories from the Archdiocese of Oregon City.[6] In 1870, the Catholic Sentinel was founded as the official newspaper of the archdiocese.
Pope Leo XIII in 1878 named Bishop Charles John Seghers of Vancouver Island as coadjutor archbishop in Oregon City to assist Blanchet.[9] When Blanchet retired in 1880, Seghers automatically succeeded him as bishop. In 1884, Seghers successfully petitioned the Vatican to reappoint him as bishop of Vancouver Island so that he could continue missionary work in Alaska.
The next archbishop of Oregon City was Bishop Alexander Christie of Vancouver Island, named by Leo XIII.[13] In 1901, Christie, using financing from the Congregation of Holy Cross purchased the former campus of Portland University, a Methodist institution. He was able to purchase the campus itself in trade for a couple of properties owned by archdiocese in Portland and $1.[14] Christie reopened the school as Columbia University, which is today the University of Portland.[15][16]
In 1903, at Christie's request, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Baker City, covering all of eastern Oregon.[17] The Christie Home for Orphaned Girls was opened in 1907. St. Mary's Church in Mount Angel was dedicated in 1912. The Catholic Truth Society was established in 1922, and he successfully campaigned against an Oregon law that would eliminate parochial schools, which was eventually settled by the Supreme Court in Pierce v. Society of Sisters.[18] Following the death of Christie in 1926, Pope Pius XI named Auxiliary Bishop Edward Howard from the Diocese of Davenport as the fifth archbishop of Oregon City.[19]
1928 to 1974
Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Portland
On September 26, 1928, the Vatican renamed the Archdiocese of Oregon City as the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon because Portland had become the larger of the two cities.[20] To avoid confusion with the Diocese of Portland in Maine, the Vatican added "in Oregon" to the archdiocese name. During his tenure as archbishop, Howard created a chancery in the cathedral rectory, later transferring it to a separate building.[21] He reorganized the St. Vincent de Paul and Holy Name Societies, fostered the growth of Catholic Charities, and removed the Catholic Sentinel from private ownership.[21]
In 1931, Howard led a successful campaign to repeal local zoning ordinances that prohibited the building of churches and parochial schools.[21] He convened the Fourth Provincial Council of the archdiocese in 1932, and held a synod for the clergy in 1935.[21] In 1939, he founded Central Catholic High School in Portland.[22] He convened the Fifth Provincial Council of the archdiocese in 1957.[21] Howard retired in 1966 after 38 years as bishop. Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Robert Dwyer from the Diocese of Reno as the second archbishop of Portland in Oregon in 1966. Dwyer retired in 1974 due to poor health.[23] To replace Dwyer, Paul VI named Bishop Cornelius Power of Yakima in 1974.[24]
During his tenure in Portland, Power formed a five-year plan for the archdiocese and created an endowment fund. Power founded the Oregon Catholic Conference and held the first clergy and archdiocesan conventions. He reorganized the local curia, Catholic Charities, and reestablished Catholic Truth Society of Oregon as the Oregon Catholic Press. He also encouraged ministries to Spanish-speaking and Southeast Asian residents.[25] Power retired in 1986.
Auxiliary Bishop William Levada of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was the next archbishop of Portland in Oregon, named by Pope John Paul II in 1986. During his tenure in Portland, Levada helped to revitalize Mount Angel Seminary;[26] He briefly taught at the seminary as well. He also reorganized Catholic Charities, worked in outreach to the Hispanic Catholic community, and renovated St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.[26] Levada became archbishop of San Francisco in 1995.
The archdiocese's sexual abuse scandal prompted the archbishop to file for Chapter 11 reorganization on July 6, 2004. Portland became the first Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy.[28][29][30] Vlazny described his actions by saying, "This is not an effort to avoid responsibility. It is, in fact, the only way I can assure that other claimants can be offered fair compensation."[29] In February 2009, the Oregon Jesuit Province also filed for bankruptcy as well.[31]
Clergy sexual abuse settlements
In April 2007, the archdiocese announced a settlement had been reached and the bankruptcy court had approved a financial plan of reorganization.[32] $71.45 million was paid to 169 victims, averaging $342,000 each; this is the 8th largest Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse settlements in the history of the U.S. Diocesan bankruptcy filings list 11 priests as perpetrators.[33]
In March 2011, the Oregon Jesuit Province agreed to pay $166.1 million in damages to nearly 500 sex abuse victims.[34]
On August 6, 2016, World Spark, a retirement home provider run by Portland priest Michael Maslowsky, was forced to surrender documents showing that there had been numerous complaints of sex abuse against vulnerable residents at World Spark's St. Anthony Village elderly home, including some with dementia, between 2009 and 2016.[35] By order, the documents were given to a plaintiff from a lawsuit which began in 2014.[35] On October 1, 2018, it was revealed that Pope Francis had defrocked Maslowsky on June 4, 2018.[36]
In 2018, Sample acknowledged the history of sex abuse in the archdiocese which he described as an "institutional and spiritual" failure,[37] and issued an apology.[37] At the same time, it was reported that more than 100 sex abuse lawsuits were settled prior to the 2004 bankruptcy.[37] More settlements were later issued in August 2019 when the Archdiocese of Portland agreed to pay nearly $4 million to eight men who claimed they were sexually abused by Pius Brazaukus in the 1970s and the 1980s.[38][39]
^Corning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. p. 215
^Schoenberg, Wilfrid S.J. A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest 1743 - 1983, The Pastoral Press Washington D.C. 1987 pp. 140-142 ISBN0-912405-25-2
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