News - December 2016 RSS Feed

Read The Catholic Key's coverage of Our Lady of Hope in Kansas City, Mo.

Read Catholicphilly.com's coverage of St. John the Baptist, the newest Parish in the Ordinariate.

Read the Nonahood News' coverage of St. John Fisher, a mission of Incarnation Catholic Church in Orlando, Fla.

BALTIMORE — This Advent marks the first anniversary of Divine Worship: The Missal, the third form of the Roman rite, approved by Pope Francis for the personal ordinariates set up by Pope Benedict XVI to give Anglicans and the full English Christian patrimony a permanent home in the Catholic Church for all to enjoy. CLICK HEADLINE TO READ MORE

During a visit to Canada earlier this year, Bishop Lopes was interviewed by Basilian Father Thomas Rosica of Salt and Light TV.

Most Reverend Steven J. Lopes is the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and pastor to all its members and clergy in the United States and Canada. He was born in 1975 in Fremont, California to Barbara Jane and (the late) Dr. José de Oliveira Lopes. The only child to two educators – Bishop Lopes was formed and educated by Catholic schools in the Golden State. In high school, he began to discern the possibility of a vocation to the priesthood. He continued his discernment during his studies at the St. Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco, where he majored in theology and minored in philosophy and German. Steven entered St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California for one year, then completed his seminary education at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He studied philosophy and liturgy at the University of Innsbruck. He then earned three degrees, including a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he has also served as an adjunct faculty member. 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 as an associate pastor at two parishes: St. Patrick Catholic Church in San Francisco and St. Anselm Catholic Church in Ross, Calif. 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. He was named a monsignor in 2010. Pope Francis named him the Bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter on Nov. 24, 2015. He succeeded Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson [http://saltandlighttv.org/witness/msg...] as leader of the Ordinariate on February 2, 2016. For his motto, Bishop Lopes chose “Magna Opera Domini,” (Great are the works of the Lord.) By these words, the new bishop expresses his awe of God’s grace in drawing His people to the fullness of Eucharistic communion. Bishop Lopes is a chaplain to the Order of Malta and is a full member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.