Dr. Robert Bunting

The Holy Rosary Story: Back to the Future

The history of Holy Rosary Church in Portland, Oregon, provides a picture of Catholicism in the United States from the late nineteenth century to today through the lived experience of an actual parish. Yet Holy Rosary’s is also a unique story, framed by the Order of Preachers and its geographical context. It is a history that allows for a better understanding and appreciation of who we are, our indebtedness to those who preceded us, and our obligation to faithfully maintain and pass on a Catholicism of organic development that has contemporaneously made Holy Rosary a exemplar blue-print of authentic Catholic renewal, and the embodiment of the “Benedict Option” that Eastern-Orthodox journalist Rod Dreher has popularized to describe what is necessary for the revitalization of the Church and the world.

Robert Bunting Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. The author and editor of numerous book and journal articles, Dr. Bunting also taught History at California State University, Chico, Oregon State University, and the University of California, Davis.