January 18, 2002

                                                          NEWS RELEASE
                                                                                                      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                                                                      For More Information, Contact:
                                                                                                      Bud Bunce (503) 233-8373
                                                                                                      bbunce@archdpdx.org

AID TO CHURCH IN EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE

        The annual collection to assist the Church in Central and Eastern Europe will be
taken in parishes of the Archdiocese on Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2002. While the
collection is optional in the Archdiocese, many parishes take up the collection in
recognition of the need to help the Church rebuild itself in Eastern Europe after 70
years of communist suppression. The collection was started by the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1990.

        Since its inception in 1990, the Collection to Aid the Church in Central and
Eastern Europe has provided nearly $65 million to more than 2,200 projects in 27
countries. Among the projects supported by the collection are: construction of three
churches as well as the purchase of prayer books and catechisms for religious education
in Belarus; assistance to publish the Catholic weekly Glas Koncila in Bosnia, expanding
the monastery and chapel for Basilian Sisters in Osijek, Croatia, support for a family
center in Lithuania, development of a diocesan catechetical office and the purchase of
land for a cemetery in Romania, and the purchase of a building for a social services
center in Slovakia. The collection has also been used for the training of seminarians
and rebuilding churches, convents and schools. Rampant poverty still exists in much of
Central and Eastern Europe. Numerous churches are still in ruins, catechetical materials
are scarce, and parish centers operate out of rented quarters.

        Catholics in the Archdiocese of Portland are encouraged to be generous in their
support of the Church in Central and Eastern Europe on Ash Wednesday.

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