Bishop Steven Lopes Made Chair-Elect of USCCB Liturgy Committee

Bishop Steven J. Lopes, the bishop of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, was elected to head the Committee for Divine Worship by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at their annual general assembly in Baltimore.

Bishop Lopes was elected to the position on November 16, 2021 by 121 U.S. bishops over Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis, who received 120 votes.

Bishop Lopes shepherds the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, one of three Latin Rite Catholic dioceses with Anglican traditions established under Benedict XVI's 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus. The diocese has approximately 40 parishes and communities in both the U.S. and Canada. 

Bishop Lopes was ordained a Catholic priest for the Latin Rite Archdiocese of San Francisco in 2001 by then-Archbishop William Levada. He worked as an official in the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2005 until Pope Francis named him bishop for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in November 2015. During his time as an official in the CDF, then Msgr. Lopes worked on the development of Anglicanorum coetibus and the Anglicanae traditiones committee that developed the Ordinariate liturgical books drawn from its Anglican tradition.

Since Bishop Lopes' episcopal ordination on February 2, 2016, he has led the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter with a focus on Pope Francis's vision of "missionary discipleship." The bishop has expertize in Eucharistic theology, and has championed the Ordinariate as living out Vatican II's vision both of ecumenism realized and Catholic ecclesial life. 

Peter Jesserer Smith is Vice President of the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society.