Priests and Sisters

L to R: Fr Julian, Sr Fortunata, Fr Joseph, Sr Kevin, Sr Sabina.

A few days ago, we concelebrated Mass at the residence of the three sisters of our Lady of Kakamega, on Deschutes Market Road. It happened to be the birthday of one of the sisters, and we said Mass for them and a few close friends. The three sisters are from Kenya and Uganda and a few other sisters are serving in Blessed Sacrament parish in Ontario, Oregon. Sister Kevin coordinates the RCIA and Adult Education program in our parish. Sister Sabina teaches religion to our younger grades in our parish school, while Sister Fortunata teaches religion at St Thomas parish school in Redmond.

St Francis Girls Basketball team

                             Our St. Francis school girls Basketball team before one of their games.   Front row, left to right: Carly King, Hannah Slye, Alycen Reinhart, Nicole Gallivan, coach Tom Jenkins.  Standing left to rigth: Kaitlyn Bailey, Bianca Reinhart, Bridget Roe, Emily McLean.

The girls during a time-out session. They have been winning every game they played so far. Congratulations!

4 other statues

Here are the photos of the other 4 statues in the downtown historic church.The Sacred Heart statue and the Blessed Mother statue are above the reredos of the two side-altars.

Sacred Heart on the left side altar

Blessed Mother on the right side altar

St. Anthony on left corner

St. Joseph on right corner

Historic Church Statues

St Francis of Assisi

There are 7 statues in the historic church, three of which are in the main reredos behind the main altar, (St. Francis of Assisi, St. Patrick and St. Bridget,) another two above the two side altars (Sacred Heart and Blessed Mother,) while the other two are in the corner (St. Anthony and St. Joseph) one on each side.

St. Patrick

I was told that the reason why St Patrick and St. Bridget were chosen in the main reredos is because the original Franciscan Capuchins were from Ireland. The three main statues appear today, the other four will be posted tomorrow. Click on each of these photos to enlarge.

St. Bridget

1920 photos

The historic church being built in 1920

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you some historical photos of the historic church and some of its artifacts, statues and other religious items that are visible inside. This way, this blog will hope to create a historical museum over the months, and sharing items and photos of interest. The above photo was taken when the church was being built in 1920. The original design of the new church included spires, but because of cost, they were never completed. The entire church cost $50,000 to build.

The finished church with the old Rectory next to it.

Foundation stone

The historic church in downtown Bend was built in 1920, and in 2020 we plan to celebrate its centennial. The church was built by the Franciscan Capuchins, most of whom came from Ireland. That is why the two statues in the reredos inside the church are St Patrick and St Bridget, besides St Francis of Assisi. Over the next few weeks I will share different aspects of this church, starting today with the foundation stone that reads "St Francis Assisi - AD MCMXX" - precisely 1920. 

In the second picture you can see where the foundation stone is located, close to the main door, on the left hand side, at eye level, just beneath one of the lamp-posts. So the next time you're at Mass at the historic church, you can see it for yourself, and over the next few weeks, keep track of more information coming your way right here in this blog. (Click on each photo to enlarge)

The Crucifix

Following the donation of a Monstrance and two chalices, another donation arrived for the historic church this week in the form of a beautifully crafted crucifix which will be placed in the alcove above the tabernacle. I took some photos of this crucifix at the new church, before it takes its permanent place in the historic church sometime next week after I get a platform to elevate it a little higher. The cross is made of wood and was made in Italy. 

The crucifix inside the new St Francis of Assisi church, Bend.

Another appeal has been made to buy a few new chasubles or priest’s vestments, both for the new church and the historic church. We are planning to get the four colors for each church, and parishioners have been very generous with their donations, in fact 6 of them have already been donated.

A letter from Bishop Cary

Dear Parishioners of St Francis of Assisi parish,

I wish you to know that on January 31st, the Congregation for the Clergy in the Vatican, in response to Father Radloff's appeal, issued a decree upholding my decision of October 1st, 2013, to provide new pastoral leadership for the parish. The Congregation has also upheld my determination not to make public the reasons for this decision in order to protect the right to privacy of all involved parties.

At present no decisions have been made regarding Father Radloff's next assignment to priestly ministry. This is a matter that I will be addressing with Father Radloff in the near future.

I wish to reiterate my gratitude for the significant contributions Father Radloff made to St. Francis as pastor. I also reiterate my regret for the sorrow his departure has caused many of you to undergo. I thank Father Julian and Father Joseph for undertaking the work of healing and reconciliation in the name of the Lord who makes us one.

In Christ Jesus,

Bishop Liam Cary

Honoring Doug Schwarz

The Schwarz family with Doug in the middle

I was honored today to celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial for Doug Schwarz, a great family man, engineer who worked on our new church, a Scout leaders, an avid fisherman and a friend to many other parishioners. This is a brief section of the homily I shared today at Doug's funeral Mass.....

It has been a true blessing getting to know the Schwarz family over the last 4 months, and especially getting acquainted with Doug, and him getting to know me, as we of course were both premeditating the planning of this day. And having anointed him and gave him Communion a few times, it was a bigger moment of comfort seeing his family together (including Lupine their dog) as I did the committal prayer a few hours after he entered heaven. I said to myself, “What power and consolation faith has for those who believe! What incredible comfort they can receive from looking at the cross ! What joy they can experience knowing they have done everything they could to make Doug’s last few weeks as comfortable and as peace-filled as possible!”

As Blessed Mother Teresa used to say: “the ideal Christian does not do great things in life, but they do small simple things with a great heart, with lots of love.”  And this is what Doug will be remembered for – for doing the little things with a great heart. His epitaph could very well be this: “What I longed for, I now see; what I hoped for, I now possess; in heaven I am espoused to Him whom on earth I loved with all my heart.”  

Our family circle has been broken, a link gone from our chain;

But though we’re parted for a while, we know we’ll meet again.

Some day we hope to meet you, someday, we know not when;

We shall meet in a better land, and never part again.

We shall meet with many a loved one that was torn from our embrace.

We shall listen to their voices, and behold them face to face.

In God’s hands you rest above, in our heart you rest with love.

Two more statues

St Francis of Assisi

These are the other two statues inside the new church on 27th Street in Bend. One of them represents Saint Joseph and other one of St Francis of Assisi, which is different from the others, in the way Saint Francis is depicted surrounded with animals, giving him the title of patron saint of animals and ecology. His feast day is October 4 and the traditional blessing of animals takes place in many churches on that day.

St Joseph, patron saint of workers

St Joseph is the patron saint of workers and has two feast days to his credit, although he is figured at Christmas time too with Mary and baby Jesus. His liturgical feast is on March 19, which is a holy day in many countries, including Malta and Italy. He has also a special feast on May 1, as the patron saint of workers, which the church introduced to counteract the May Day celebrations by many communist countries.

The statues

Statue of the Sacred Heart

I am here introducing some of the artistic aspect of our two churches, starting with two of the four statues that are located on the wall inside the new church, precisely those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Mother.  They are located on the right side of the church and are life-size statues crafted out of wood. 

Statue of the Blessed Mother

The new church was dedicated in August 2009, built under the leadership of Fr Joseph Reinig. The contractor was Kirby Nagelhout, while the main engineer was Douglas Schwarz. We remember especially today our dear friend and parishioner Doug passed away yesterday at his home in Bend, surrounded by his loving family. His funeral will be held inside the same church on Saturday February 15 at 10 AM, with the recitation of the Rosary at 9:30 AM.

Catholic Schools week

During Catholic Schools week held towards the end of January, Bishop Liam Cary visited the parish and celebrated Mass for our children, their teachers and some parents. After the Mass, Bishop Cary blessed the entire congregation with the Blessed Sacrament during the Adoration. Later on he visited a few of the classrooms and met some of the students.These are some photos of the Mass held on January 29 in the new church.

Stained glass windows

Here are just two of the stained-glass windows in the historic church in downtown Bend. The first one is the rose-window in the back of the choir, visible in the choir loft. The second one is a section of the side windows. Since the church was built by the Franciscan Capuchins in 1920, I would imagine that windows were done at the same era, or a few years later.

Welcome to a new blog

St. Francis historic church (built in 1920)  in a snowstorm, Feb 8, 2014

Seeing my own personal blog so successful and popular among many of my parishioners, I decided to start a new blog, dedicated strictly to the parish of St Francis of Assisi in Bend, OREGON. It will include photos of the two churches, activities related to the parish, our Parish School, Faith Formation program and other interesting information. The posts may not be done on a daily basis, but I assure you they will be frequent and quite informative. 
You may call this our parish blog, which will be administered by myself. Parishioners may want to add comments, but they have to be positive and affirming. Some brief articles from our "Good News Ministry" may be included from time to time.
The first photo relates to the huge snowstorm we've had between February 7 and 8, with 2 feet of snow falling all over Central Oregon. Other photos are posted here and described individually.

The new Monstrance displayed at the new church

A spectacular sunrise on November 10, 2013 at the church entrance on 27th Str.