St. Mary's Cathedral

1716 NW Davis Street http://maryscathedral.com/

The full name is St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, but nobody calls it that. It's called either St. Mary's, The Cathedral or St. Mary's Cathedral.

I went to the 5:30 pm Mass on Sunday. This is a last chance Mass. The music is uptempo and -- for lack of a better descriptor -- contemporary. The Mass has a younger, single or newly married crowd, but not entirely so by any means.

This is the bishop's seat, so to speak, and it looks the part. The church was remodeled about ten years ago and the interior looks very nice -- at least to most people. A friend who is an interior decorator thinks it's gaudy and uses too much gold. But, it is clean, spacious and reasonably friendly. Drawing from the West Hills, it is undoubtedly one of the wealthier parishes in Portland.

I go here so often it is hard to comment on it; it's so familiar to me. Each Mass time is a little different: 5:30 pm vigil is middle of the road; 7:30 am is quiet; 9:00 am is for families with children and features donuts and coffee afterward; 11:00 am has a full choir and has the most pomp and circumstance; and 5:30 pm I spoke of above.

I imagine that this church gets more out-of-town visitors than all the others and I think it shows Portland well.

Holy Redeemer

25 N. Rosa Parks Way http://www.holyredeemerpdx.org/

My adventure of visiting every Catholic church in Portland continues. However, in a way it has not fully started since each church in this blog thus far I had been to before. When I start visiting churches I have never been to before, such as the Church of the Korean Martyrs or St. Irene Byzantine Church, it should get more interesting.

Today I went to the 10 am Mass. This is a mostly white parish located in a mixed race , lower middle class neighborhood . It has a school adjoining the church and consequently there are lots of families with young children who attend here. There is also a Spanish Mass said at 12 noon on Sundays. I have been to that before and while it is fun to experience Mass in a different language (my Spanish is so so), doing so exacerbates feelings of not belonging.

The church has a brick facade and two bell towers. There is also an attractive white rectory next to the church. The inside of the church was remodeled recently and looks wonderful. It has golden yellow walls, gold trim and a royal blue ceiling. Also the parish recently installed a large baptismal fount at the back of the church. (Father Joe, who has since moved on, used to delight in dunking the babies in the new fount.)

The church was first built in 1906 by the Redemptorists, a religious order. Hence the name Holy Redeemer. The present building dates from 1926. About 5 years ago, the Redemptorists were apparently downsizing and priests from the Congregation of Holy Cross took over the parish. They are the same order that runs University of Portland and Notre Dame University.

Immaculate Heart Catholic Church

2926 North Williams Avenue, Portland
This little church in North Portland is a gem. Its pink and white exterior is attractive but the inside is the best part. The ceiling is arched and painted sky blue. There are columns throughout like a miniature European cathedral. Behind the alter (in the apse perhaps?) is a statue with the Virgin Mary looking somewhat reminiscent of Superman with red, blue and what is almost yellow. The wall of the apse is painted gold.

But the heart of a church is its people and not its structures, as inspiring as they may be. The pastor is Father Nicolaus Marandu, ALCP. He is a member of the Apostolic Life Community of Priests – Holy Spirit Fathers and is from Tanzania. I had met Fr. Marandu before but I do not think he recognized me. The neighborhood is predominantly black and the congregation was about half black. We sang from the African American Catholic Hymnal. There are icons depicting saints of African descent.

Immaculate Heart also has a Vietnamese priest and Masses in Vietnamese. I would highly recommend visiting this comely church in the heart of North Portland.