Plummeting out of the clouds at 12,000 feet, Msgr. Tim Murphy had the presence of mind to bestow a blessing on a fellow sky diver. Even in a 120 mile-per-hour free fall, he’s still a priest, he figures.

“I don’t know if fun is the word I was thinking of,” he says of leaping out of an airplane.

ST. BENEDICT — A monk who at age 40 decided he could not keep running from God was ordained a priest Saturday at Mount Angel Abbey here.

Benedictine Brother Ralph Recker, who pursued other professions for decades before visiting the monastery in 2001, was ordained as a priest by Archbishop John Vlazny in the Abbey Church.

Fair trade and organic coffee farming is the topic as a Jesuit High School mathematics and science teacher is on a large-scale research and environmental expedition in Costa Rica this week.

Jennifer Cournia, a 1997 Jesuit graduate, is in Coope Tarrazú, a farming cooperative located in the small town of San Marcos de Tarrazú.

The Oregon Legislature last week passed a bill increasing penalties for assault and murder if the perpetrator knows the victim is a pregnant woman. If Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs the bill, which is likely, the state will classify such crimes as aggravated, meaning convicts will probably serve life terms with a slim chance of parole.

ST. BENEDICT — Mount Angel Abbey hosted a third annual Festival of Arts and Wine in June, raising $110,000 for the abbey library. More than 500 guests attended and learned about the library, one of only two facilities in the United States designed by respected Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto.

When George Fortun, 85, moved into an Assumption Village apartment six years ago, he assumed he’d soon relocate to a unit with nursing care. His diabetes was on a rampage.

But he got better.

Given enough drops, a bucket slowly fills. So it is that in Lane County, more than three dozen veterans of military service and the streets have found that they can go home again.

WASHINGTON — Colleagues of Archbishop-designate Augustine DiNoia said they are pleased with his new appointment at the Vatican, calling him an “incredible theologian.”

SALEM — Health reform passed in the Oregon Legislature this month, providing insurance coverage for most children and more low-income adults.

MOUNT ANGEL — Catholics in this Bavarian-flavored Willamette Valley town have revived a late spring tradition that rings through the memories of many old timers here.

After 15 years, St. Mary Parish took up the centuries-old tradition of a Eucharistic procession from the church and into the streets.