2 mission churches

St Katharine Mission church, in Long Creek, Oregon

I go back 20 years today as I was settling down in St Elizabeth of Hungary parish in John Day, Oregon, where I served between 2003 and 2005. This parish had a total area of 4,800 square miles. In this territory I could fit 38 Maltas! And besides the main church, I also had 2 mission churches, which I had to reach weekly. The first one was run by the Walton family and was dedicated to St Katharine, a modern church, very spacious with a parish hall underneath, which unfortunately was hardly ever used. In fact I remember using it twice, once for a baptism of a Walton grand-child, and the other time for the funeral of Bud Walton, the father, with a reception that followed in the hall, and plenty of cowboys in attendance. Bud himself was a cowboy as were his two sons, who ranch over a thousand cows in different pastures. They had lots of property, probably one-third the size of Malta. Next to the church, they even had a small cemetery, mainly for family burials. Father George Murphy the first pastor, and friend of the Waltons was buried there, and he had dug up his own grave in the ground. Moreover he had crafted his own casket which he used as a bookshelf while he was still alive. I enjoyed saying Mass there, in spite of the small congregation, and I embellished it further by buying a few icons for the walls, which were pretty bare and empty. And when the grand-children of Bud showed up for Christmas and Easter, the crowd would double at least.

St Anne's mission church in Monument, Oregon.

Another mission church I had was in Monument dedicated to St Anne, but this was actually a trailer transformed into a chapel, which was perfect for the 6 to10 people that would show up once a month. Monument itself was very small, next to the John Day river, which made the surroundings very green and lush. Besides, along the river they had various orchards that grew cherries, apricots, peaches, pears and apples. I used to enjoy picking bunches of cherries off the trees and the Thomas family who ran them gave me abundant apricots and other fruit when they were in season, normally in the summer months. This little hamlet is out of the way and to reach it you have drive through the only road that goes through it. Unlike other towns and hamlets which are on the main road, these little places hardly get any attention and visibility. But they somehow survive, and the people probably prefer it that way, so that they will be left in peace and quiet.