Bishop Robert Joseph Baker, S.T.D., was ordained a priest on March 21, 1970 at his home parish of St. Wendelin in Fostoria, Ohio. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s in divinity from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He received his doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1977 and served on the faculty of St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, before being appointed pastor of the Cathedral of St. Augustine in 1984.

While serving as the Cathedral’s pastor he helped to establish a soup kitchen, shelter house and a farm for the homeless and addicted.

He was appointed bishop of  Charleston, South Carolina, by Pope John Paul II on July 12, 1999.

He served on the Florida Catholic Conference’s Committee on Capital Punishment. He is co-editor of three books, “Welcome the Stranger: Contemporary Ministry in the Church of Florida” (1983), “Historic Catholic Sites of St. Augustine” (1988), and “When Did We See You, Lord?” (2005). He also penned a pastoral letter in 2005 on “The Redemption of Our Bodies: The Theology of the Body and Its Consequences for Ministry in the Diocese of Charleston.”

He was appointed Bishop of Birmingham in Alabama on August 14, 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI and celebrated his Installation Mass on October 2, 2007.