Rev. John Ehrich, MA, M.Div., STL

Rev. John Ehrich, STL, was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Phoenix in 2000. He earned his M.A. from St. Meinrad Seminary in 1998 and his MDiv in 2000. After five years of parish ministry, he studied moral theology at the Accademia Alfonsiana in Rome where he earned his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 2007. Fr. Ehrich is the Medical Ethics Director for the Diocese of Phoenix, chaplain of the Catholic Medical Association and chaplain of the Catholic Physician's Guild of Phoenix. Fr. Ehrich is currently the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Phoenix, AZ. He is the founder and director of the St. Thomas the Apostle Institute of Catholic Theology.

Rev. Christopher Fraser, MA, M.Div., JCL

Rev. Christopher Fraser was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Phoenix in June of 2001.  Before entering St. Meinrad Seminary, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from Arizona State University in 1994.  Upon graduation, he was employed at the School of Law at Arizona State until 1996 when he entered the seminary to study for the Priesthood for the Diocese of Phoenix.  He received an MDiv from St. Meinrad School of Theology in 2001 and was ordained June 2, 2001.  Fr. Fraser’s parish assignments were Parochial Vicar at SS. Simon and Jude Cathedral and St. Andrew the Apostle. In 2004, Fr. Fraser was sent to the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC to study canon law, where he earned a licentiate in Canon Law in 2006.  Upon graduation, he returned to Phoenix to work full time in the Tribunal, where he has served as the Judicial Vicar since December of 2007.

Deacon Oliver Vietor, M.Div.

Rev. Oliver Vietor has a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy and a M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School. He was ordained in the Catholic Church under the terms of the Pastoral Provision for former Episcopal clergymen. He and his wife, Ashley, and their six children have lived in Phoenix since 2005 and began attending St. Thomas the Apostle in 2007. He taught in the Institute last year and has taught previously in his ministry and in high school.

James Hanson, BA, JD Candidate

Before heading to law school, James Hanson taught Latin at Veritas Preparatory Academy, where for six years he introduced young people to a "dead" language in a lively way. His success as a Latin teacher was inspired by his love for Latin as a spoken language. That love for spoken Latin grew in him during the three "Rusticatio Californiana" seminars he attended after graduating from Thomas Aquinas College. It was there that he learned the Latin grammar and the Latin prayers which he plans on sharing at the Institute of Catholic Theology.

Thomas Lordan, MA, JD

Thomas Lordan graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1971 with a B.A. major in Philosophy, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1974. He was a member of the Notre Dame London Center for Legal Studies in London, England during the 1972-1973 academic year. In 1996, he received an M.A. in Politics, with a concentration in political theory, from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and completed all but his dissertation for the Ph.D. degree. Thomas has been a practicing lawyer since 1974, and is licensed in Arizona, Ohio, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. His practice has been primarily in commercial law, both litigation and transactions.

Michael Lueken, MA, PhD Candidate

Mike Lueken earned a BA and MA, both in Philosophy, from San Diego State University where he was also a teaching assistant and tutor. For the following five years he volunteered full-time in service to the poor first in Los Angeles and then on the core community at Andre House in Phoenix. In both those locations he was an occasional lecturer on philosophical and theological themes. From there, he went to the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington DC to pursue his doctorate in Theology. Having completed the coursework, he is back in Arizona while writing the dissertation. He is hard at work on that and enjoying life with his wife Teresa and their two daughters, Clare and Dorothy.

Anthony DiStefano, MA

Anthony DiStefano has taught Theology and Philosophy courses at Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix for the past 11 years. He received his B.A. in English Literature from Arizona State University, his M.A. in Religious Studies from Western Kentucky University, and is just a dissertation short of a Ph.D in Historical Theology from Marquette University. He also did graduate work in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has been married for 21 years, has 3 children, and is the Phoenix contact for the Communio Study Circle.

Rob Drapeau, MA.Ed.

Rob Drapeau is a teacher and writer with over ten years experience teaching Theology to students ranging from fifth graders in their wonder years to retirees in their golden years. He spent eight years as a Theology Instructor at Brophy College Preparatory and has taught Monday School, a theology-for-beginners class at St. Thomas the Apostle, for the past two years. Rob has an BA in Religious Studies from the University of Arizona and an MAEd in Educational Technology from the University of Phoenix.

Currently, Rob owns and operates wordSwell, a small, business writing company, and teaches Theology, Latin, and Language Arts part-time to junior high kids at St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe School in Phoenix.

Rob is the proud father of Sophia, Joseph, Olivia, Annamaria Francesca, and Max, and the happy husband of Amy.

Gayle Somers, MA

Gayle Somers has a B.A. from the University of New Orleans and an M.A. in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in S. Hamilton, MA. She worked on the staff of an evangelical church in the Midwest for three years, teaching and counseling university students. She was a part-time Lecturer in Philosophy at Gordon College, in Wenham, MA, and a contributor to the Woman's Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson. In 1995, she and her husband, with their three children, were received into the Catholic Church.

She has been writing and leading parish Bible studies since 1996. She is the author of three bible studies, Galatians: A New Kind of Freedom Defended (Basilica Press), Genesis: God and His Creation and Genesis: God and His Family (Emmaus Road Publishing). She is a research fellow with the St. Paul Center (www.salvationhistory.com), which promotes biblical literacy for laymen and biblical fluency for clergy. Gayle is a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic church, where she currently teaches adult bible classes.

Erik Twist, M.Div.

Mr. Twist has achieved a BA Political Science from Trinity University and an M.Div. from Oxford University. He has over 10 years of experience teaching theology and Scripture to both teenagers and adults including:

• Clifton College, Bristol: Lectures on the relationship between Philosophy and Religion
• Wycliffe Hall, Oxford: Lectures on Liturgy, Hermeneutics, and Justification
• Jesus College, Oxford: a course on the relationship between hermeneutics and ethics for undergrads
• Rotterdam, Netherlands: Lectures given to different churches and colleges on the Sacrament of Marriage and Ecclesiology
• Charleston, SC: 7 week course on the Eucharist (Comparing Transubstantiation, Consubstantiation, and Memorialism). Extensive Bible studies with a particular focus on Romans.

Erik is married to Allison with three boys: Carter, Mason, and Cooper. Both he and Allison are converts to Catholicism, having spent much of their lives as evangelical Protestants prior to being received into the Catholic Church.