Portland, Ore., Jun 24, 2025 / 15:17 pm

Over 3,000 Catholics filled the streets of Portland, Oregon, on Sunday for a Eucharistic procession led by Archbishop Alexander Sample.

To encourage broad participation from clergy and the faithful across the archdiocese, a special Mass was offered at 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The Mass was added to the regular Sunday Mass schedule to allow more local Catholics to participate in the procession after attending their own parish Masses. The procession through the streets followed immediately afterward.

Confessions were also offered from 1 to 3 p.m. in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Korean. By noon, hundreds were already lined up, well before the scheduled start time. Though not part of the formal schedule, over a thousand of the faithful gathered in prayer inside the cathedral after the final Benediction.

St. Mary’s Cathedral is designated as a local pilgrimage site for the 2025 Jubilee Year, and this event was structured to allow the faithful to receive a full plenary indulgence by fulfilling all the necessary conditions in a single day.

In his homily at the Mass, Sample framed the day as a turning point for the archdiocese.

“The Eucharist has to be at the forefront and center of evangelization and mission renewal. To see you all here today fills my heart with hope for the future. So many people see the Pacific Northwest as a center of darkness. I wish they could see this. I wish the Church across the United States could see this. I wish Pope Leo could see this,” the archbishop said.

“God is on the move here in western Oregon. The Holy Spirit is igniting a fire, and you’re all part of that. I predict that today is a turning point for the renewal of Christ’s mission in western Oregon.”

As the Blessed Sacrament was brought out after Mass, the cathedral’s bell tower rang out across the city. The sound could be heard up to a mile away and marked the beginning of the procession. Forty minutes later, the bells rang again to welcome the return of the faithful and the Eucharistic Lord.

This marked the first time the city of Portland has permitted a public Catholic procession through the main streets of downtown in several decades.

The crowd was striking in both size and diversity. More than half of the attendees came from Latino, Asian, and African communities.There was also a strong representation of more recent Catholic communities in the archdiocese such as Burmese and Swahili-speaking Catholics.

Hymns were sung in Latin, English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and more. At its full length, the procession filled four city blocks, moving through the Pearl District and drawing the attention of many onlookers who paused to watch in amazement and ask what was happening.

Many bystanders were visibly moved. Some knelt and prayed along the sidewalks, a powerful sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in a city often labeled secular or indifferent to faith.

“The Holy Spirit has chosen Portland, and he is doing something great here,” Sample said earlier this year at the archdiocese’s chrism Mass.

Joining the archbishop were more than 20 priests, eight deacons, over 100 altar servers and seminarians, 50 religious brothers and sisters, the Knights of Columbus, and the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher.

The event concluded with solemn Benediction on the cathedral steps, with the faithful filling the surrounding four blocks.

Visibly moved, the archbishop turned to the crowd and said, “Wow, this is amazing. What more can I say?” Then he exclaimed, “Viva!” and more than a thousand Latino Catholics joyfully responded, “Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long live Christ the King!“)

The atmosphere throughout the event was filled with joy and reverence. People smiled and sang along the route, and at the conclusion, the crowd burst into applause along with local onlookers. Several attendees expressed their hope that this grand Eucharistic procession might become an annual tradition in Portland.