At bustling Bugando Hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania, nurses need nerves of steel.
They handle problems like spear wounds, a man who drank battery acid in a suicide attempt, flesh scorched by burning garbage and a lad whose throat was slit by a machete.

It’s hard to tell at first glance, cruising past Sixth and Burnside, that the plain building on the corner is a spiritual and social service powerhouse.

BEIJING, China — Recent University of Portland graduate Stephanie Cox helped the US earn the Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer last month.

The Americans defeated Brazil, 1-0 in overtime, and Cox entered the match in the second extra period and was part of a defense that withstood a furious Brazilian assault in the contest’s waning moments.

SANDY — Greg Meier of Sandy plays accordion in his German polka quartet and Father Frank Knusel of Scappoose leads St. Irene Byzantine Catholic Church and plays clarinet and saxophone in Meier’s group. Although Meier, who is not Catholic, and Father Knusel wouldn’t typically see each other in church on Sundays, the duo will make music together during Mass this Sunday at St.

A writer who has linked the lives and themes of four great 20th-century U.S. Catholic writers will speak at the University of Portland this month.

Paul Elie, also an essayist and editor, will lecture on “Catholic Culture in a Critical Age,” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in Buckley Center auditorium.

Central Catholic High School’s track coach, Askia Brown, is in court this week for charges of molesting a 14-year-old girl after a private strengthening workout two weeks ago at a training facility in Southwest Portland. He then allegedly chased her down when she said she was going to report it to her parents.

For Ana Judith Pérez, a single mother concerned with the future of her four children, making ends meet is a challenge, despite having a stable full-time job in Oregon.

Father Emmet Harrington, who taught sociology at Central Catholic High School during the 50s and 60s, was well known for indoctrinating his students with the social teachings of the Catholic Church contained in social encyclicals.

Fists raised and backpacks in tow, 12 University of Portland students recently marched toward the Alabama state capitol of Montgomery to trace the last leg of a 1965 civil rights march that followed a tragedy that became known as the “Bloody Sunday” attack.

Oregon Catholics have a long history of involvement in workers’ rights. One of the key figures was Holy Names Sister Miriam Theresa Gleason, who as a young lay woman in 1912 worked undercover in Portland factories to survey labor conditions.