Father Paul Ojibway, S.A.

Father Paul Ojibway, S.A., who sought to build bridges between Native Americans and the wider Catholic community, died Aug. 10 in Washington, D.C. He was 63.

A member of the Fond du Luc Band of Lake Superior Chippewa of Minnesota, he served in Native American ministries in California beginning in the late 1980s.

In 1993, he became director of American Indian Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of Native American ministries in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He also was an adviser to the White House on urban American Indian affairs, the President’s Initiative on Race and the Office of Religious Liaison.

He later served at a parish in Orinda, Calif., and as campus minister at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif.

In 2009, he was elected by his religious brothers to serve as fourth general councilor of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. He served as director of vocations for the friars, 1986-1988.

In 2010, he relocated to Washington, D.C., to serve as guardian of the Atonement friary there and director of postulants in the United States.

Much earlier, he served in Virginia and British Columbia, Canada.

Born in Portland, Oregon, he earned degrees in theology from The Catholic University of America and in graduate study in psychology, spirituality and faith formation from the John XXIII Institute for Eastern Christian Studies at Fordham University.

He professed final vows as an Atonement Friar in 1977 and was ordained to the priesthood the next year.

A Funeral Mass was offered Aug. 21 in Our Lady of the Atonement Chapel at Graymoor in Garrison.