St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception — Attraction in Portland

Saint Mary’s

It was Wednesday Christmas morning and I was at the Northwest Hostel watching It's a Wonderful Life. Soon a woman I'd seen before at the hostel entered the dining room, she had her bagel on a plate and a coffee in her hand. She seemed rushed so I offered her a seat at the table where I was sitting. She refused the chair because she said she was preparing to go to church services. After she hurried out the door, I thought perhaps I should attend so I followed her example. I called three churches: the first church I contacted was First Immanuel Lutheran Church. I left a message but the church would not be open until 5 or 6 p.m. in the evening. The second church I phoned was Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. They said the church service will be ending within 5 minutes. My third choice was Saint Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. I was told that the service would begin within 5 minutes but the church was near the Hostel. As I walked towards the church, I realized my clothes could be an issue so I asked a parishioner. She said no one cared about my clothes because that didn't matter. I went through the doors of the church with other parishioners and I found a seat in a pew close to the stage. I participated in the church services including taking the holy communion. The priest noted the humble beginnings of the church: the baby Jesus born in a manger in Bethlehem.The sermon contrasted the life of Augustus Caesar who at the time was the most powerful man in the world because he was the emperor of Rome. While Jesus was born into a fishing family. But the sermon spanned the two thousand plus years since the birth of Jesus and compared Rome with the current Catholic Church. Despite some very serious issues and challenges, the Catholic Church is the single most powerful religious organization on the face of the planet. Its influence has spread to the four corners of the Earth. Some might argue Rome, then the capital of the empire and today the capital of the country of Italy, is now subordinated to the church located in Vatican City. At Saint Mary's, Women played a significant role in the affairs of the Christmas day service. Some women in the church read scriptures from the Bible. Others were part of the altar service. Women sang as members of the church choir. People attending the church services reflected a large but diverse congregation of various nationalities, ethnic groups and multigenerational families. Saint Mary's was built in 1926 and it was renovated 1996. The cement floors were replaced, the overhangs were removed and the choir's organ (the Cathedral has two) became the primary one for the church. The workers and artisans who restored the building used people from the surrounding neighborhood as models for early apostles and members of the Catholic faith throughout the structure. After the Christmas service ended: I took photographs of the church and members of the congregation were very helpful and...

My grandmother had attended St Mary’s when she first arrived in America back in 1899 when she immigrated here from Germany and bought a home less then a block from the Church. Then of course my mother was baptized and also attended the church for over 50 years as well as all of her children being baptized and attending not only the church but also St Mary’s Cathedral School. However we had moved relocated and my mother and is kids had not attended mass there on a regular basis for many years. However, we still came to Christmas mass as often as we could until we moved to far away about 20 years back.

Sadly she passed and it was then I was told by the mortuary that I would not be able to get St Mary’s to preform her funeral because we were not longer regular attendees, so they wanted us to hire their non-denominational minister to preform her funeral.

This saddened me, since I know she would have wanted St Mary’s to perform her funeral. So I finally decide to ignore what the mortuary had told us and figured I had nothing to lose in trying and everything to gain.

So I called and left a message at the church, the next day Monsignor Brennan returned my call. Much to my delight he said he would be able to preform the funeral, with even less then a weeks notice.

I can not tell you how perfect the Monsignor made her funeral and how wonderful and much more meaningful it was. His words were perfect and filled me with so much peace. Much more then if some non-denominational minister/preacher had done it due to the meaning St Mary’s has had to my family for over 115 years. I know she was was watching and was elated that I had been able to get the Monsignor from St Mary’s to give her the proper farewell.

I can not say in words what this meant to me and how much I appreciated what he had done. I will never forget this and am so glad St Mary’s has and always will be an important part of my families lives. Hopefully for another 155 years and more.

God Bless you...

Alpha should really be taken out and not offered when a person could be offered Truth and real freedom in Christ's Church. Why can't catholic bishops see the beauty and fullness of the Catholic Faith as being sufficient and complete for each human person?? Alpha is a program that is NOT Catholic, and is not introducing Catholic faith and teaching. So many protestant churches are using it too. Its a sad attempt to accommodate to those living a nonreligious or sinful lifestyle Why not offer them authentic Catholic teaching without the watered down faith of today?. As Catholic Christians, why aren't we bringing the original Faith t to the people. Why would you need a safe space like Alpha? It sounds much like these secularist atheistic type language "safe space" on college campuses, as though coming to a Catholic Church is not safe when it comes to its teachings from Jesus Christ. Does morality offend? Do the teaching of Christ offend? I wish this Church was more about the content that the exteriors. Yes it is very beautiful yet is not fully Catholic in its programs. The fruit is coming from a rotten tree in Rome and we are seeing its attempts to keep people in the...