Washington — Fr. Maurice Henry Sands, formerly pastor of St. Alfred Parish in Taylor, has been appointed executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Black and Indian Mission Office.

Fr. Sands has been serving as assistant director of Native American Affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church since 2013. He was appointed to his new role July 20 by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the office’s board of directors, and will begin Sept. 1.

“It is a great honor, and at the same time it is also very humbling, to be asked to serve as the next executive director of the Black and Indian Mission Office,” Fr. Sands said. “I will strive my best to be a prayerful and conscientious and obedient servant of the Lord as I assist the bishops of the United States in their efforts to evangelize and catechize and care for the spiritual and pastoral needs of African-American and Native American Catholics.”

Fr. Sands, who is a full-blooded Native American belonging to the Ojibway, Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes, grew up on Walpole Island (Bkejwanong First Nation) in the St. Clair River. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2005, and served as pastor of St. Alfred from 2010-13.

The Black and Indian Mission Office is comprised of three distinct organizations: the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, the Commission for the Catholic Missions, and the Catholic Negro-American Mission Board. The office collaborates with dioceses across the country in support of missions.

Fr. Sands takes over as executive director for Fr. Wayne Paysse, a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.