Steven Maekawa

Steven John Maekawa, O.P. is an American prelate and Dominican friar of the Catholic Church who has served as bishop for the Diocese of Fairbanks in Alaska since 2023. At the time of his appointment, he was serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau, where he was the pastor of Holy Family Old Cathedral.

Biography

Steven Maekawa was born on November 22, 1967, in Seattle, Washington, to Don and Kiyo Maekawa. He has two sisters and one brother. His family are fourth generation Japanese Americans. While attending the University of Washington, he began discerning the priesthood.
After graduating, Maekawa entered the Dominican Order. Having completed the novitiate, he professed his first vows on September 14, 1991. In 1998, Maekawa received a Master of Divinity degree from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California.

Maekawa was ordained a priest on May 29, 1998, at St. Augustine Church in Oakland, California for the Dominicans by Bishop John Cummins. After his ordination, the Dominicans assigned Maekawa as an assistant pastor at St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco, California. In 2002, he was named director of the Newman Center at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Maekawa returned to San Francisco in 2005 to become prior of St. Dominic Priory Novitiate in San Francisco. He would serve as prior from 2005 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2015
In 2007, the Dominicans appointed Maekawa as the vocations director for the Western Province of the Dominicans. From 2001 to 2011, in several deployments in between his other positions, Maekawa served as a reserve chaplain the US Navy Chaplain Corps. He went to Afghanistan in 2004 in Operation Enduring Freedom, working with the US Army 25th Infantry Division. He was awarded a medal for his active duty service.
The Dominicans in 2016 assigned Maekawa as pastor of Holy Family Old Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska, where he would stay for the next seven years. While at Holy Family, he created an outreach program for Yupik and Inuit communities in wilderness areas of Alaska.

Pope Francis appointed Maekawa as bishop of Fairbanks on July 11, 2023. He was consecrated on October 12, 2023, at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks by Archbishop Andrew Bellisario, with Bishops Chad Zielinski and Michael Barber serving as co-consecrators. His episcopal motto, “Duc in Altum,” is translated as "Put out into the Deep.” It refers to the instruction given by Jesus to the Apostle Peter.
Within the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Maekawa is a member of the Subcommittee on Native American Affairs.