Leadership

  • Bishop

    Steven Joseph Lopes was born in Fremont, Calif. to Barbara Jane and (the late) Dr. José de Oliveira Lopes. The only child to two educators – his father taught languages and history at the university level, and his mother taught in Catholic schools for 47 years — Bishop Lopes was formed and educated by Catholic schools in the Golden State: St. Pius School (Redwood City, Calif.); St. Edward School (Newark, Calif.); and Moreau Catholic High School (Hayward, Calf.).

    After undergraduate studies at the University of San Francisco, he entered St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif. He completed his seminary education at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.  On June 23, 2001, he was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of San Francisco by Cardinal William J. Levada (then Archbishop Levada).

    As a priest of the Archdiocese, he served in two of its parishes: St. Patrick Catholic Church in San Francisco and St. Anselm Catholic Church in Ross, Calif. 

    He studied philosophy and liturgy at the University of Innsbruck.  He earned licentiate and doctorate degrees in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he also served as an adjunct faculty member from 2005-2015.  

    In 2005, he was named an official of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office responsible for promoting and preserving Catholic teaching. For seven of his 10-plus years at the Vatican, he served as secretary to the Cardinal Prefect. 

    Pope Francis named him the Bishop of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter on Nov. 24, 2015.

  • Parochial Administrator

    Fr. Glenn Baaten is a priest of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a community within the Catholic Church made up largely of former Anglicans and Episcopalians. He currently serves as Parish Administrator of St. John Henry Newman Catholic Church in Irvine and as Chaplain of Santiago Retreat Center in Silverado. His ministry within the Diocese of Orange is a collaborative appointment by Bishop Steven Lopes and Bishop Kevin Vann.

    Fr. Glenn was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on June 24, 2016, the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

    His journey to the Catholic Church followed years of faithful ministry in Protestant communities. He was ordained a Presbyterian pastor in 1998 and served a PCUSA parish in Cincinnati, Ohio. After returning to California in 2010, he discerned a call to Anglican ministry and was ordained in the Church of England tradition in 2012, serving at St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach.

    Moved by a deepening conviction and the call of the Holy Spirit, Fr. Glenn and his wife, Cathy, entered into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2013. He relinquished his Anglican holy orders and, after catechesis, was received into the Church on Christmas Eve of that year.

    Fr. Glenn has been married to Cathy for 42 years. They are the blessed parents of two adult children and grandparents of three. His ministry is marked by a strong commitment to evangelization, Christian unity, and the sacred beauty of the liturgy.

  • Permanent Deacon

    Deacon Christopher Pagel serves at St. John Henry Newman Catholic Church in Irvine, a parish of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, headquartered in Houston, Texas. He also leads the Emmaus Bible Studies ministry in many local parishes. He is an Assistant Vice President at Chapman University as well as a professor of leadership and management in the Argyros College of Business and Economics.

    An Orange County resident his whole life, Deacon Chris is a convert to the Catholic faith who is fueled by his passion for Christ and the beautiful, unchanging teachings of the Catholic Church. After graduating from Servite High School, Deacon Chris worked in management with the Walt Disney Company for over nine years when, in 2009, he felt God’s call to serve non-profit organizations which led to a career in strategic major-gift fundraising and higher education and eventually a calling to the diaconate.

    He is an Eagle Scout, 4th degree Knight of Columbus, wine Sommelier, and Certified Catechist who has been teaching the Catholic faith to adults and teens for over seventeen years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business as well as a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Chapman University and a Master’s in Pastoral Studies from the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary’s Seminary.

    Deacon Chris is husband to his wife, Ashley, and father to their five children, Grace, Clare, Joshua, Lucy, and Steven.

Welcome to St. John Henry Newman

We are a growing Catholic community in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter dedicated to forming and nurturing disciples in Jesus Christ with our beautiful traditions of liturgy, prayer, biblically-rooted preaching, and fellowship.

The Mass is offered according to Divine Worship: The Missal, in the Ordinariate Form of the Roman Rite. As a community of the Ordinariate, we participate locally in the larger mission of the Universal Catholic Church for the salvation of souls and we participate in the single Church of Jesus Christ. This single Church of Christ which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces which impel all of us toward Catholic unity. At St. John’s we seek to maintain the liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral traditions of the English Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.

All people are warmly welcome to join us for Mass and for all of our community gatherings. “However, because Catholics believe that the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign of the reality of the oneness of faith, life, and worship, members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Holy Communion. We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist will draw us closer to one another and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us. We pray that these will lessen and finally disappear, in keeping with Christ's prayer for us "that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21).” Properly prepared Catholics in communion with the See of St. Peter are welcome to receive Holy Communion with us.

 

“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: Go down again - I dwell among the people.”

— St. John Henry Newman