Last week I drove down to Cinetopia in Vancouver to see the critically acclaimed film Spotlight, which tells the story of the team of reporters at the Boston Globe who uncovered the widespread sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Boston, as well as the failure of those with authority to adequately address situations they were well aware of. It was not fun to watch. It was very difficult to watch a movie about the Church I love so much portrayed so poorly. The fact

Dear High Schoolers of Cowlitz and Wahkiakum Counties, I'm Fr. Bryan, and I'm the Catholic priest at St. Rose in Longview, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Kelso, St. Mary's in Castle Rock, and St. Catherine's in Cathlamet. Here is a picture of me and my intramural soccer team from college (#champions). I couldn't find a picture of me from high school, so this was the closest I could get. I'm in the bottom row all the way to the right. Even though I haven't met most of you, I w

Pope Francis recently published a new encyclical letter about our Christian duty to be good caretakers of the world in which we live. As the Pastor of our parishes, it is my job to help you learn the content. I will be writing about this encyclical in our bulletin off and on over the next few months. The following was taken directly from the bulletin from the weekend of August 1st and 2nd, with a small adjustment. Please find the encyclical here, and read along. Laudato S

“Christian fulfills Ana’s request, beating her with a belt, only for Ana to realize that the two of them are incompatible. Devastated, Ana leaves Christian and returns to the apartment she shares with Kate.” This, according to Wikipedia, is how the book Fifty Shades of Grey ends. The book, now a major motion picture set for release on February 13, 2015, has gained wide popularity among women which has caused many, including me, to scratch my head in wonder of what is going o

One of the common misconceptions about faith in our world is that we can’t really know anything about God. Ironically, this hasn’t caused people to hesitate to make statements about God. It has caused people to say anything they want about God. This misconception has allowed individual people to define God in the way that they are most comfortable. Have you ever heard somebody say something like, “Well, that’s not the way my God does things.” So there are a lot of rumors

This blog post originally appeared in our bulletin column on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas St. Rose and St. Catherine’s! Thank you for coming to celebrate the Christmas season with us. I especially want to thank those of you who have been away from the Church for a while as well as those of you who are visiting from out of town. As a priest, I get to share the Gospel with many people but I also need other people to share the Gospel with me from time to time. Your presence

by Fr. Bryan Ochs Despite the fact that many Christians attend services regularly, few understand how the spiritual life works. Catholics believe the spiritual life works a little bit differently than other Christian Churches, but there are many similarities. The biggest similarity is that, like other Christian Churches, Catholics believe that Jesus is essential to the spiritual life. This is because of who we believe Jesus is. Catholics do not believe that Jesus was merel