Lopez and Jansen will both serve on the Diocesan Curia, a primary advisory body to Bishop Gerald Barnes. Lopez replaces the retiring Ted Furlow at the helm of the Planning Department while Jansen fills a vacancy left when former MES Director Joyce Drake passed away April 3. Vice Chancellor Maria Echeverria led that department on an interim basis.
“They both bring unique gifts and talents that will enrich these two important ministries,” Bishop Barnes said. “We welcome them and pray for their success.”
A native of Southern California, Jansen served as Director of the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Office of the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1999 to 2010 and most recently as the Director of Campus Ministry for Rosary Academy in Orange. She oversees the Pastoral Center’s biggest department which includes the Offices of Catholic Schools, Catechetical Ministry, Charismatic Renewal, Evangelization and Adult Faith Formation, Young Catholics, and Campus Ministry. She also directs the Office of Campus Ministry and serves as campus liaison to the University of Redlands.
Having worked in two other dioceses, Jansen says San Bernardino has a unique quality.
“The Diocese has really taken great thought in visioning, understanding their mission and then living out that mission,” she said.
Lopez is familiar with the mission of the Diocese, having worked in the Office of Catechetical Ministry and the Ministry Formation Institute (MFI) at the Pastoral Center before serving as Pastoral Coordinator of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Indio from 2008-15. She calls her time at OLPH her “best university” for learning effective models of leadership in a parish. She said she plans to share that experience with pastors and parish leaders in her new ministry as Director of Planning.
“Now is the time to use that treasure and find a ‘how’ that is not just theory but practice,” she said. “We’re going to plan with intention.”
In addition to providing consultation to parishes, schools and ministries in strategic planning and collecting parish data, the Department coordinates Episcopal Visitations of parishes and includes the Office of Transitions. To reflect this, it is now known as the Department of Pastoral Planning and Transitions.
Lopez has also works as a facilitator in the Diocesan Building Intercultural Competencies for Ministers (BICM) program where she teaches a module about how to foster shared leadership and ministry among the various cultural groups present in a parish. She said she sees the lessons of BICM as being a key part of her work in Planning.
For Jansen, her experience working with youth and young adults in the Church has given her a window of insight into those ministries.
“Jesus was a young adult when he began his ministry,” she notes. “Young people are involved in the movement of the Church and so it’s important that they have a place in the Church where they are being spoken to, allowing a space for conversation.”