Today, as work moves ahead to build a retirement community called Assumption Village that will use the sanctuary as its chapel, Pfau says that she's glad that the church will be used again - and that she can't imagine it being used for a better purpose, under the circumstances. 'It will heal a lot of wounds,' she says.

The North Portland Catholic Community encompasses what were once four separate North Portland parishes: Assumption (founded in 1909), Blessed Sacrament (1913), Holy Cross (1901) and Queen of Peace (1924).

Masses are still held at Queen of Peace Church, the largest of the four, and at Holy Cross, site of the parish school.

The community became one in 1998. Pfau says she was broken-hearted at the time, but now thinks that the combined parish is stronger for it.

De la Salle High School opened in Queen of Peace's old school this past September, meaning that there is now a Catholic grade school, high school and university - the University of Portland - within the parish.

The parish is as unusual and misunderstood as its part of town. Portland, as everyone knows, is divided into four quarters - Southwest, Southeast, Northeast and Northwest - plus that rebellious little sliver of North Portland.

North Portland's parishes are as unique as the neighborhoods. St. Stanislaus is the Polish national parish, St. Irene Byzantine Catholic Church is in the former Blessed Sacrament, and Holy Redeemer, just a quarter block within the 'North' designation, has long boasted the biggest, most diverse Catholic school in the state.

The North Portland Catholic Community takes in the peninsula of land between the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Because the Willamette angles west, the area is actually north of the west side, not the east side of Portland.

Its includes the former town of St. Johns, and historically it included Vanport, a city of 20,000 near the coming together of the two rivers that disappeared under 15 feet of water in May 1948. A race track and golf course stand where there were once schools, homes, businesses and shops.

The neighborhoods are mostly well-cared-for blocks of small homes, their age showing more from the overarching oaks than any sign of decay. A scattering of wealthier neighborhoods round out the area, such as the Overlook area not far from the University of Portland.

It's a Catholic part of town - in part because of its history of welcoming immigrants that continues today. The Catholic Irish and Poles of yesterday have been replaced by Vietnamese, Hispanic and even Eritrean families, but many are Catholic, and they're still welcomed.

Newcomers to the parish say the same about the North Portland Catholic Community. 'I wasn't surprised, but I was humbled by how much people have supported me and my family,' says Brett Edmonson, the new pastoral associate here.

Edmonson says that the parish is a nice mix of people, with a good number of young families, a strong population of faithful elderly, professors from the university and Hispanics. 'People seem down-to-earth, willing to step up and help.'

The Czuba family joined the parish three years ago. Kerry Czuba says her family most definitely felt welcomed and comfortable from the start. The Czuba children (ages 13, 10, 7, and 1) were homeschooled up to this year, and Kerry says that St. Mary of Oregon Sister Ruth Frank, principal of Holy Cross School, was especially supportive, allowing her children to participate in appropriate school activities even when they weren't enrolled as students there. 'That really helped with the transition,' says Kerry.

Her oldest child has been accepted at De la Salle High School for next year.

Like many young families, the Czubas attend the 10 a.m. English Mass at Queen of Peace. After Mass, Kerry and the children go to Holy Cross, where she teaches sacramental preparation for the 25 second-graders who will make their first Communion May 5. The children will make that Communion at the Mass that they usually attend.

Some of the Hispanic children in the parish don't read or write Spanish, and so they go to the Anglo religious-education classes.

In the Spanish-language classes, two of the teachers are Anglo.

'It works perfectly, because all the kids know English,' says Martha Kovach, Hispanic minister at the parish. She adds that the textbooks are bilingual, so that parents can help teach as well.

Kovach, whose first language is Spanish, has been a parishioner here for 29 years. She is now the parish's Hispanic minister to a flourishing Hispanic congregation.

Father Cathal Brennan, retired, instituted the Spanish Mass at Holy Cross in 1992, in the midst of his long pastorate of that parish.

Today the Mass is packed, with about 300 families attending. Kovach's long years at Holy Cross mean that she's able to encourage Spanish-speaking parishioners to feel at home in the parish.

'Some of them fear discrimination, but I tell them I've never experienced that here, so I encourage them to reach out, and not insist on everything being in Spanish,' she says.

Father Dave Gutmann, pastor here, doesn't usually celebrate the Spanish language Masses. He reads Spanish and is able to say the Mass, but he's not fluent.

Several priests, including a couple Holy Cross priests based at the University of Portland, celebrate that Mass.

Father Gutmann does celebrate the 8:30 a.m. Mass at Holy Cross and then the 10 a.m. Mass at Queen of Peace. He bikes between the two churches.

Edmonson is pleased with his new boss. 'He's consultative and has a nice way with people,' he says.

'He seems to be aware of the struggles in people's lives and is able to use our tradition in a way that's helpful.'

Parishioners who've had several years now (versus Edmonson's weeks) to get to know Father Gutmann are also enthusiastic.

'They made a wise choice when they put Father Gutmann here,' says Bob Wilkins, a parishioner at Assumption since 1926. 'He's a devout man and he's helped to smooth things over.'

He says that the closure of the parishes was hard, and that a number of Assumption parishioners didn't want to be a part of the new, combined parish, and that some never looked back.

'It was kind of hard for me,' he admits. 'But I think it's working out for the people who go there.'

Wilkins is also pleased with the plans for Assumption Village.

'I know four or five people who have their applications in,' he says.

'I'm glad it's going to be used,' says Pfau. 'I can't imagine a better purpose.'