On Sunday, Nov. 17, St. Francis Xavier Chapel-Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center, 222 S. Hewitt St., Los Angeles, welcomes Bishop Steven J. Maekawa, O.P. from Fairbanks, Alaska as he visits Southern California.
Maekewa, the first Japanese American to be named a bishop in the Catholic Church, will celebrate both the 8:30 a.m. Japanese Mass and the 10 a.m. English Mass. All are invited. For more information, call (213) 626-2279 or email [email protected].
Maekawa was born in Seattle on Nov. 22, 1967, to Don and Kiyo Maekawa. Having met at a Veterans Hall dance, Don and Kiyo married and made their home in the Seattle suburbs. This November, they will celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary.
Influenced by the Jesuits and a Billy Graham crusade, Kiyo had converted to Catholicism while a student at the University of Hawaii. She raised Steven, his older sisters Karen and Suzy, and his younger brother Robert in the faith.
Bishop Maekawa met the Dominican Friars, Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (western U.S.) while studying architecture at the University of Washington. Upon graduation, he joined the order, receiving the habit on Sept. 8, 1990. Having completed the novitiate, he professed his first vows on Sept. 14, 1991.
Maekawa was ordained a priest in 1998 in Oakland and was assigned to St. Dominic’s Parish in San Francisco. Later assignments included director of the University of Washington’s Prince of Peace Newman Center and director of vocations for the Western Dominican Province. Other internal ministry roles included serving 12 years on the Provincial Council.
In addition to assignments in the province, he also served as a reserve Navy chaplain, assigned to Marine and Navy reserve units, and deployed to Afghanistan with the Army’s 25th Infantry Division. Most recently, he served for seven years as pastor of Holy Family Old Cathedral in Anchorage, where the Dominicans have been ministering since 1974.
Maekawa’s episcopal ordination and installation as the seventh bishop of Fairbanks took place on Oct. 12, 2023.