Portland Archbishop Lays Out Road Map for Spiritual Renewal
Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland issued a pastoral letter, “Go Therefore and Make Disciples,” calling Catholics across the archdiocese to renew evangelization. The letter offers practical steps for priests, Catholic schools, and laypeople to help shift the Church from maintenance toward mission and the salvation of souls. Sample’s plan is set against Oregon’s largely secular religious landscape and is presented as a possible model for other bishops seeking parish renewal.
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Archbishop Alexander Sample’s new pastoral letter, Go Therefore and Make Disciples, sets out a spiritual-renewal program for the Archdiocese of Portland centered on priestly holiness, Christ-focused Catholic schools, and evangelization by clergy and laity. It presents the work of renewal as a response to the Church’s mission of bringing people to salvation and offers practical steps for carrying it out.
Released Oct. 1, the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the 34-page letter calls Catholics throughout the archdiocese to take up Jesus’ command to make disciples. Its emphasis on mission over institutional preservation echoes Pope Leo XIV’s April appeal for a Christ-centered, “kerygmatic” understanding of the Church.
The archdiocese operates in a largely secular state: the article cites a 2023–24 Pew study finding that 8% of Oregon adults identify as Catholic and 43% as religiously unaffiliated. It also reports that more than 1,600 adults entered the Church in the archdiocese in 2026, up from 1,200 in 2025 and 960 in 2024.
The letter builds on earlier changes under Sample, including a call for traditional sacred music in worship, guidelines opposing gender ideology in Catholic schools, and a reorganization of the school system intended to align it more closely with evangelization.
Sample says renewal should begin with priests. He urges them to deepen their relationship with Jesus through daily prayer, a daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, spiritual direction, an annual retreat, daily Mass, regular confession, and devotion to Mary and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. He also calls priests to support one another as brothers and to remain united in the mission.
The letter says Catholic schools should prioritize students’ spiritual and human formation and help them encounter Jesus, rather than be governed chiefly by secular measures such as academic performance or sports. Sample calls for schools to develop a distinctly Catholic worldview, with pastors leading their schools and parents, teachers, and administrators taking an active role in forming and witnessing to the faith. He also expresses the hope that Catholic education will be accessible to children regardless of family finances or special needs.
Sample urges every Catholic to look for opportunities to share faith, talk about religion, invite others to Mass, and offer to pray with people in the moment. He recommends preparing for evangelization through prayer, the sacraments, Scripture, spiritual reading, and works of mercy; suggested practices include daily time with God, regular Mass, at least monthly confession, praying the Psalms and Rosary, and devotion to the Sacred Heart. The letter also asks deacons to make organizing parish service to the poor their primary mission.
Sample concludes by expressing renewed enthusiasm for his ministry and entrusting the work to the intercession of Mary and St. Thérèse, and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Church’s mission of evangelization in secular societies
The Church’s mission in secular societies is not to restore a past era of religious privilege, nor to treat every change in society as hostile to faith. It is to make Christ known anew—through credible Christian lives, patient dialogue, formation, and public service—while discerning what in secular culture genuinely serves human freedom and what shuts life off from God. Pope Francis distinguishes legitimate secularization, which recognizes the proper freedom and responsibility of people in society, from secularism, which treats God as irrelevant or burdensome.
Secular societies vary, but they may be marked by religious indifference, declining participation, or the assumption that public life should have no reference to God. This can leave people with little sense of belonging to a Christian community and make faith seem disconnected from the questions that shape life.
The Church should neither deny these difficulties nor respond with nostalgia for lost influence. Francis argues that secularization calls for discernment and pastoral renewal: sometimes the crisis lies not in the truth of the faith, but in the ways Christians have tried to present it. The task is to find fresh forms of expression and attend to what is essential.
Evangelization is not simply the transmission of religious information. At its heart is faith in the risen Christ, encountered in a way that changes life and is lived within families and Christian communities. Without that lived testimony, faith risks becoming an abstract theory rather than a visible way of life.
This is why holiness, prayer, the Eucharist, reconciliation, and the hearing and proclamation of Scripture are not separate from mission. They form the life from which the Church’s outreach becomes credible. The whole Church shares this mission; it belongs not only to specialists but also to families, parishes, schools, and other communities of faith.
The Christian witness should also be attractive in the deepest sense: not a strategy for pressuring people, but a life in which others can perceive something of Christ’s goodness, hope, mercy, and joy. Pope Francis says the Church spreads “by attraction,” and calls Christians to make God’s tenderness visible in society.
Evangelization includes dialogue with people who do not believe or who are indifferent to religion. Dialogue does not require Christians to conceal the Gospel; it means meeting others respectfully, listening, and seeking truth and goodness together, while still offering the hope Christians have received.
Nor is faith meant to be confined to private life. Lay Christians have a particular responsibility to bring Gospel values into the places where they live and work, including politics, culture, education, science, media, and industry. Their competence and integrity matter: the aim is to serve the common good and help shape society from within, not simply to claim influence. Christians are also encouraged to participate in public debate, especially where human dignity and social life are at stake.
A lasting response to secularization requires more than occasional campaigns. The Church needs to repair the transmission of faith across generations by strengthening relationships with families, formation settings, and the wider Christian community. Young people need more than arguments alone: they need opportunities to encounter Christ and see faith embodied by credible Christians.
This mission does not mean opposing cultural change as such. It means ensuring that faith in Christ can be lived and communicated within cultures that are changing, while addressing people’s real questions about meaning, truth, freedom, suffering, and hope.
In short, the Church evangelizes secular societies by living the Gospel convincingly, speaking of Christ clearly, serving people generously, and engaging public life without coercion or withdrawal. The goal is not merely a larger social influence for the Church, but that people and cultures may encounter the hope and freedom found in Christ.