ABOUT SANTIAGO RETREAT CENTER
Santiago Retreat Center is a Catholic Christian Retreat Center. We provide a beautiful rustic venue to hold your next retreat or event that is comfortable and accommodating for both small and large groups. We have a variety of activities including a large swimming pool, Whiffle Ball field, hiking trails, low ropes, game room, as well as chapels, picnic areas, indoor/outdoor meeting spaces, and more.
Located in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, just 17 miles from heart of Orange County, the newly consecrated Christ Cathedral. Situated on 500 acres of wilderness setting, our facility includes 500 beds with four distinct retreat areas, each with its own chapel, meeting rooms, recreational space and dormitories.
The vision for Santiago Retreat Center is as simple as it is necessary, to assist you in the renewal of parish life through retreats, camps and events which meet the family in each stage of development and walk with them to where Christ is calling them to be.
We place a special emphasis on Confirmation preparation, but our summer camps and Catholic school science camps are particularly helpful to our families throughout the southland.
EVER LIFTED BY THESE PILLARS
UNWAVERING CHRISTOCENTRISM
Placing Jesus Christ at the Center of All Activity
EVANGELIZING THE CULTURE
Producing & Managing Kairos, Confirmation & Catholic Retreats
LEADING WITH BEAUTY
Embracing the Natural Splendor of God’s Creation
COLLABORATIVE APOSTOLATE
Working in Support of Catholic Parishes, Schools, & Ministries
GROUNDED IN THE EUCHARIST
Celebrating Daily Mass and Monthly Adoration
about OUR CHAPLAIN
Fr. Glenn Baaten | Chaplain of Santiago Retreat Center.
Fr. Glenn is a Roman Catholic priest in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, or “The Anglican Ordinariate”. As an Ordinariate priest, he is a former Anglican priest who has come into full communion with the Catholic Church. Married to his dear wife of 37 years, Cathy, he is the grateful father of two adult children, Christine and Adam, and is the blessed grandfather of three.
In the 1970s, Fr Glenn came to his faith through the Jesus Movement when he responded to the “altar call” to receive Christ. Father regularly attended Calvary Chapel services throughout his teens. His life mission of Christian evangelization grew clearer to him over the next few decades, and he became an ordained Presbyterian minister (PCUSA) in 1998. After 12 years as a Presbyterian pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio, Fr. Glenn resigned his pastorate with the PCUSA over the denomination’s increasing departure from historical Biblical truths and morals. He then started his journey with the Anglican Church of North America.
Returning to his home state of California, Fr Glenn was ordained an Anglican priest in 2012. While serving at St James Church in Newport Beach, Fr. Glenn felt the draw of the Holy Spirit leading him into seeking visible communion with the Catholic Church.
At the same time, his wife Cathy experienced a similar and personal draw to the Catholic Church. On Christmas Eve, 2013, Glenn and Cathy were received into the Catholic Church. They were home!
Fr. Glenn is blessed to be the Chaplain at Santiago Retreat Center. He celebrates daily Mass, leads our Missionary Disciples in faith formation, and administers the sacraments for the Santiago retreatants. His work spans beyond the typical chaplain - he is frequently found working on construction projects and even serves as our designated “pool boy”. He also serves as the Parochial Administrator at St. John Henry Newman in Irvine with a growing and vibrant congregation.
Fr. Glenn's call to serve Christ and His Church is three-fold – pastoral, ecumenical, and evangelical. He shows pastoral care for his two flocks at Santiago and Covina, invites our Protestant brothers and sisters into dialogue and relationship with the Catholic Church, and shares the Good News of Christ's love poured out to every person.