Our History
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In 2025, the Catholic Deaf Community celebrated 70 years in the Portland, Oregon, Archdiocese. We currently have 88 Deaf Catholics who participate in Masses or Religious/Service activities from Corvalis, Newberg, Cornelius, Seaside, LaCenter/Vancouver Sandy/Gresham, Salem, and the greater Portland Metro Area.
Our Team of interpreters is fluent in ASL and has extensive training in Catholic Liturgical and Religious Sign Language vocabulary.
Every year, we bring in a Deaf priest to support the Sacraments, especially to “hear” confession through American Sign Language, and to provide spiritual direction in the community's first language.
This year, we have three Deaf and Deaf-Blind people seeking to join the Catholic Church. We have two families with Deaf preschoolers and infants needing to learn the Catholic American Signs for their faith and prayers. And we have a robust middle group of active Catholic Deaf who serve as Altar Servers, Eucharistic Ministers, EMHC to the homebound, Deaf-Blind signers, Mercy Teams volunteers, Sacristans, ASL Liturgical Music Coordinators, RE Teachers, and Liturgical Readers.
Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church held its first ASL-interpreted Masses in the late 1970’s and has continued to offer signed Masses at least once a month since then… even through COVID! With the centralization of the Catholic Deaf Community at OLL, participation has increased, as the community can return each week to a central location and be fully present and active in the life of a parish. The Deaf have shared that they now feel like they really get to know the priests, their fellow hearing parishioners, and participate in bible studies, retreats, service projects, and form spiritual relationships over a cup of coffee during fellowship.
