Catholic camp in Oregon diocese helps families bond

Published: 2005-07-15

COVE, Ore. (CNS) -- One moment children at a Catholic family camp in eastern Oregon were perched high in the limbs of a tree, dropping soccer balls down to pals, and the next moment they were in the chapel, kneeling and reciting the Angelus as incense drifted toward stained-glass windows. They played and prayed, getting a sense of just how good life can be. "This is what we want our church home to be like, with this kind of devotion, this kind of joy, this kind of faithfulness," Bishop Robert F. Vasa of Baker told the 100 worshippers of all ages who filled the camp's 130-year-old Ascension Chapel one day in mid-June. The camp facility, a former Episcopal school, is in the Baker Diocese, near the edge of northeast Oregon's mountainous Eagle Cap Wilderness. This was the first year the habit-wearing Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist helped run the camp. The women traveled from their motherhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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