Karl Hellberg wears body armor to work.

Now, this 41-year-old federal special agent is relying on the Catholic Church to keep his faith secure.
“I feel like I have been guided by divine providence through my life, through all the things that happened to me,” says Hellberg, who will become Catholic this Easter at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Parish in Astoria.

ST. BENEDICT — In a balcony, a gray-haired monk quietly regaled guests with stories. Some seminarians showed worshipers to seats while others prayed on their knees. Visitors gazed around the full house of prayer.

The scenes froze as a bell tower roared to life and the blessing of a new monastic leader began.

“Boys, you can only stand in the key for three seconds.”

“What’s the key?”

“Boys, you can’t get five fouls in a game.”

“What’s a foul?”

These are actual early-season exchanges between coach David O’Brien and some of the 10 sixth graders on his St. Andrew Nativity School CYO basketball team.

SALEM — It takes most of us decades to figure out happiness comes in softening to the will of the Almighty.

Catholic singer-songwriter Julie Hoy is giving youngsters a head start on that central act of discernment in her first book, a story for children that is meaningful for adults, too.

ST. BENEDICT — Humble and steady, the new leader of Mount Angel Abbey is a monk’s monk who at the same time yearns for those outside the cloister to feel a deep and life-changing welcome.

“I want the abbey to be a spiritual powerhouse in the archdiocese, a place where people can find renewed relationship with God in their lives,” says Abbot Gregory Duerr, 72.

Back when she was struggling over whether to enter religious life, Franciscan Sister Patricia Novak decided to go for a walk to clear her mind.

St. Valentine’s Day had just passed and she grabbed into a bag of candy as she headed out the door in a bit of spiritual turmoil.

The founder of an internationally recognized Portland Catholic liturgical choir will retire after 27 years.

Dean Applegate, 63, has made a lifetime ministry of ancient Catholic music. Cantores in Ecclesia, the adult and children’s choirs he established, will continue to sing Gregorian chant, sacred Renaissance polyphony and other pieces at Masses under the direction of his son, Blake.

One by one, obstacles to a new Blanchet House of Hospitality have fallen away.
Now the 58-year-old Catholic ministry in Portland’s Old Town is appealing to donors for a modern building. Blanchet execs say the project will sustain the mission: feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and giving men in hard times a chance to work for a new life.

As he holds a sign saying “Planned Parenthood Kills Babies,” Florin Panaite of Gresham recalls his own 7-month-old daughter, who died of an illness last year.

“There are lots of choices other than abortion,” says the mourning Panaite, an electrical contractor who was at Portland’s new Planned Parenthood location for his first ever pro-life protest.

BEAVERTON — After 28 years in Catholic schools and an equally lengthy stint in parish life, he’s a man with no trace of bitterness.
Msgr. Arthur Dernbach, 83, would be a priest all over again. He really means it.
“The need is always there,” he says of the mission. “Christ could perhaps have saved the world by himself. But he didn’t. He wanted men and women to work with him.”