March 2, 2011

A memorial Mass for Franciscan Father Nicholas Lohkamp will be celebrated March 5 at St. Clement Parish in St. Bernard. Father Lohkamp, 85, a member of the Cincinnati-based St. John the Baptist Province, died Feb. 23. 

Father Nicholas Lohkamp (CT file photo)

A native of Wichita, Kan., Father Lohkamp enrolled in the former St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati in 1939 and entered the Franciscan order upon graduation. Following his ordination in 1952 Father Lohkamp’s early teaching ministry took him back to the seminary, then to St. Francis College in Joliet Ill., and the former St. Leonard Franciscan College and Seminary in Centerville.

For the next 20 years he taught moral theology, guiding students through the transition of Vatican II and grounding them in Franciscan spirituality.
Father Lohkamp left teaching in 1978 to concentrate on retreat work with communities of women religious. His last ministry before retiring in 2007 was as chaplain to the Poor Clares of Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton.

He is survived by one brother, Francis.

Father Lohkamp donated his body to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.