PORTLAND, OR. (Catholic Online) - On Tuesday, January 29, 2013, it was announced that Bishop Alexander K. Sample will succeed Archbishop John Vlazny in the Archdiocese of Portland,Oregon.  Bishop Sample currently presides over the Diocese of Marquette.  At 52 years old, he will become the youngest Archbishop in the Church in the United States and the 11th Archbishop of Portland.

Though I do not know him personally, I know his reputation and love his writing. Having served as a Deacon of the Church for seventeen years, I search for writing which captures the diaconate as a unique vocation. Last year I read his excellent pastoral letter entitled "The Deacon: Icon of Jesus Christ the Servant".It was released on June 9, the Memorial of Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor. This letter is one of the best. It provides a tremendous treatment of the history, mystery and meaning of the Diaconate

I speak of my diaconal vocation as being placed at the intersection of faith and culture. I sense a vocation to live at the heart of the church for the sake of the world. I see myself going from the Ambo to the altar and into the world- in order to bring the world into the new world of the Church.

So, when I read these words in the Bishops letter on the diaconate I smiled, "Because he stands with a foot in two worlds, the permanent deacon's ministry and witness is distinctively in the world of work and society. Therefore, the theological principles of social doctrine developed over time by the Church must be formative for an effective diaconate." This is a bishop who gets it!

Benedict the Builder is placing Foundation stones in place for the true recovery and authentic renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States. When this papacy is recounted in history, he will be credited with having re-secured the Catholic Church in a time of trial so that she could inaugurate the new missionary age of the Third Millennium. His appointment of Bishops is a key component of that entire undertaking. He is strategically placing Bishops in strategic places. Portland is now added to the number.

I believe this Pope will be credited with stemming the slide of western civilization into a new paganism. The Church is the only hope to preventing this slide. She is not some irritant, preventing progress, she is the path to authentic progress and human flourishing. In continuity with the 2,000 year teaching of the Catholic Church and helping to ensure that the proper understanding of the Second Vatican Council within a hermeneutic of continuity, Pope Benedict XVI is a man on mission.

His selection of Bishops proceeds from his unwavering conviction that the Catholic Church - and the message of authentic and true human progress which she offers the world - is what is most needed in this critical hour in human history. So, Pope Benedict is picking Bishops who are dynamically orthodox. Yes, they are orthodox in doctrine and practice, but they also have the joy so essential for the work ahead. 

From what I have heard and read, Bishop Sample is an example of a Bishop who understands that Catholic identity is a treasure. It brings joy and liberates men and women from despair. Sources tell me this young Archbishop elect of Portland is known for his orthodoxy and orthopraxy - as well as his love for the Liturgy, pastoral heart and loving manner. He is unafraid of defending the Right of the Church to be a full participant in society, and does so with straightforward eloquence.

He is also known to be comfortable taking his place in the public square to defend religious freedom and the fundamental dignity of every human life. He is a strong defender of true marriage and a canon lawyer with a strong grasp of the Natural Law arguments so essential to our work in the culture. 

He is being sent to Portland, Oregon, a place steeped in the secularism of the age and desperately in need of a vibrant witness of faithful Catholic and life. Ironically, Portland prides itself on being a sort of last vestige of the sixties counter culture. 

The irony is that the Catholic Church, and especially the dynamically orthodox expression of her faith and life as represented by Bishops like Alexander K. Sample, is becoming the real counterculture of this age. 

We live in a declining western culture, increasingly hostile to the Church. Our struggle involves a clash of worldviews, personal and corporate, and competing definitions of human freedom, human dignity, and human flourishing.

We face a dictatorship of relativism which claims there are no truths. We insist that there is Truth, it can be known - and it must govern our lives. This means we face persecution. Our path is paved with the insults, ...