Oregon Archives

Catholic schools make outreach to Hispanic community a priority
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- August 10, 2017
For Hispanic students enrolled in Catholic schools, there’s often a sense of gratitude mixed with heightened self-awareness and varying levels of discomfort. Some express concern that their own background is not reflected in their school’s curriculum, such as absence of a discussion of Latino history, and note the lack of diversity in faculty and staff especially at schools that serve Hispanics and other students of color.
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Funding for abortion to become mandatory for Oregon insurers
- Catholic News Agency, Church in the US
- July 13, 2017
Under a proposed new state law, the Oregon Health Authority must provide abortion coverage where religious organizations will not. Under the Oregon Medicaid program, over $2 million is spent each year to pay for about 3,500 abortions. The proposed bill sets aside about $500,000 over the next two years to expand free reproductive health coverage, including abortion, to immigrants.
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Oregon approves measure requiring insurers to cover abortion
- Associated Press, Church in the US
- July 6, 2017
As the federal government and other states are seeking restrictions on abortion, Oregon lawmakers passed a bill requiring insurance companies to cover abortions and other reproductive services at no cost to the patient for virtually any reason, at any time, including sex-selective and late-term abortions.
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Teacher who left Argentina during country’s ‘dirty war’ fulfills a dream

From 1976 to 1983, Argentina was embroiled in a campaign known as the “dirty war.” Waged by the military against suspected left-wing political opponents, the violence left an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people missing or dead. In 1982, Claudia Raffaele escaped to the United States, and is now a teacher at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon.

First female chief of staff in a US diocese steps down

Mary Jo Tully, the first laywoman to become chancellor of a U.S. Catholic diocese, has stepped down from the post she held for 27 years at the Archdiocese of Portland, joking that she didn’t become a nun because “they wouldn’t let me be a superior!”

How and why refugees come to the US

In order to obtain refugee status, people have to go through extensive processes, including fleeing from the country in conflict, registering as a refugee with the United Nations, waiting — sometimes for years — to be approved, and undergoing the resettlement process amid confusion and anxiety.