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| Father Julian Cassar, Oregon mission priest. |
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| Palm Sunday Mass. |
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| Blessing the animals. |
He winds his way up an icy ridge, near Oregon's 6,151-foot Dooley Mountain to get to his little mission chapel in Unity, counting 129 hairpin turns. Under his quickening breath, Father Julian Cassar murmurs, "God, please be my co-pilot…"
It's another day in the life of this mission priest in the Diocese of Baker, who is not the type to stay in his rectory and wait for people to come to him. "I try to go in search of the lost sheep myself, and have retrieved quite a few, " he said.
Father Julian tends to the flock in three mission chapels in this vast, craggy, breathtakingly beautiful region of the country: North Powder, Halfway, and Unity. He covers many miles, regularly making an 80-mile round trip to visit a sick parishioner, and keeping himself company in his car with Beethoven and Fats Domino cassettes. It's a quite a change from his native homeland of the tiny island or Malta - and the hustle and bustle of New York City, his assignment before coming to Oregon.
To accommodate the influx of Mexican orchard workers who gather in this area during the planting and harvest seasons, he offers Mass in Spanish - and has seen attendance go from a dozen or so to several dozen.
Money is tight, but a subsidy from Catholic Extension helps. "I've seen Catholic Extension tags on various vestments and altar furnishings," Father Julian said. "Catholic Extension donations helped build nearly all the churches I've served in."
For that support, Father Julian is grateful. He's also awestruck by the generosity of his hardworking parishioners, who "give to the Church as much as they receive from her." Father Julian keeps a parish fund for the needy, and every week, a handful of his parishioners are helped with food vouchers, gas for their stranded cars or trucks, an electricity bill, a rent payment - or even - in a dire emergency - a night in a local motel.
In the Diocese of Baker, which covers two-thirds of the state, Catholics amount to only 9 percent of the population - a situation that delights the traveling priest. Why? "Simply because there is the possibility of reaching out to make converts."