Columban Fr Paul Oxley was born in Narrandera on the Murrumbidgee River in the Riverina of New South Wales. He did his primary schooling there and then in Leeton. For the final two years of secondary school, Paul attended Chevalier College in Bowral.
In 1969, Paul chose to enter the Missionary Society of St Columban at Turramurra. Seven years later, he returned to Narrandera, where he was ordained in St Mel’s Church. (As an aside, St Mel was a nephew of St Patrick who returned with him to Ireland to evangelise the Irish. It seems to me that the notion of mission was never too far from Paul’s life.)
The now newly minted Fr Paul Oxley was assigned to the Philippines and went to the language school in leafy Catadman in Ozamis City in Mindanao, where he studied Cebuano in 1976.
His first assignment from language school was in Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur. At that time, there was a lot of social unrest, murder and mayhem in Mindanao, and Paul had firsthand knowledge of what was happening in the newly formed Diocese of Pagadian.
In 1982, Paul was asked to do research on the Tribal Apostolate in the Pagadian area. Later, he worked in Panaon in Misamis Occidental.
For the ten years that followed, Paul worked in an apostolate for indigenous people and, more specifically, with the Subanen people. They are known as “peace-loving people” and tend to move away from conflict and live in mountainous areas. However, land-grabbers and exploiters of various sorts tend to catch up with them. Witnessing their plight moved Paul to take an interest in reforestation and ecology.
In 1993, he became the director of a programme in the Philippines to prepare Columban students for cross-cultural ministry by giving them an experience overseas.
Then, in 1996, he returned to Australia for sabbatical studies at the Pacific Mission Institute in Turramurra. With that training under his belt, he returned to the Regional Theologate in Ozamis in the Philippines as a lecturer in systematic theology.
Paul returned to Australia for a couple of years and did more theological studies at the Sydney College of Divinity.
He has held several portfolios in St Columbans Mission Society. He went from the Manager of the House at Catadman, where he had earlier done his language study, to the District Bursar for Mindanao, then the Regional Bursar in the Philippines, and finally, the Bursar General for the Society in Hong Kong.
In 2016, Paul returned to his home country and began well-earned retirement in Sydney.
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - May 2025
