Alexander King Sample
Alexander King Sample was born on November 7, 1960, in Kalispell, Montana. He first trained as a metallurgical engineer, a profession he left for the seminary, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Marquette on June 1, 1990. Pope Benedict XVI named him Bishop of Marquette on December 13, 2005 - at forty-five, the youngest Catholic bishop in the United States - and he was ordained to the episcopate the following January by Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit.
In January 2013 Benedict appointed him Archbishop of Portland in Oregon, and he was installed that April. Sample became one of the most identifiably liturgical bishops in the country: pastoral letters on sacred music in 2013 and 2019 calling for chant, Latin and the organ; an address at the Sacra Liturgia conference in Rome naming the older rite the 'touchstone' of any authentic reform of the reform; and a 2018 directive that the faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei until they receive Holy Communion.
His guidance on Communion for the divorced-and-remarried and the sexually active (2017) and his Catholic-schools gender policy (2023) each drew public dispute, praise from traditional Catholics and criticism from progressives. When Traditionis Custodes came in 2021, his implementation simply kept the 1962 Missal authorized in the archdiocese with no changes - the stance of a man who had called Summorum Pontificum 'one of the greatest gifts that could be given to the Church.'
- 2021His implementation of Traditionis Custodes kept the 1962 Missal authorized in the archdiocese 'with no changes': priests already celebrating it 'may continue'. No site was closed and no new condition imposed. ↗
If the previous pages have shown shepherds narrowing the door to the ancient Mass, here is one who has spent a quarter-century holding it open. Archbishop Sample is, by long and consistent record, among the most liturgically traditional bishops in America. He called Summorum Pontificum 'one of the greatest gifts that could be given to the Church.' He named the old rite the 'touchstone' of any true reform. He urged his brother bishops to be 'as generous as possible' with the faithful who ask for it — and he has practiced what he preached.
His traditionalism is not confined to the old Missal. He has mandated chant and Latin, advocated worship turned toward the Lord, directed his people to kneel for Communion, and written pastoral letters that read like a catechism of the sacred. When Traditionis Custodes fell in 2021, he refused to 'respond precipitously,' studied it, and then implemented it in Portland with no major changes — keeping the 1962 Missal authorized while many of his brothers were closing it down.
The traditional Catholic owes him plain gratitude. In an age when the Mass of Ages has been treated by many of its custodians as a problem to be managed, Archbishop Sample has treated it as a treasure to be handed on. He is a friend of Tradition — and a model of what a friend looks like.