Claude Lopez: 1926-2024
Pioneer in Catholic Charismatic Renewal
Claude was born in Egypt and migrated in the 1950’s to Australia. He first experienced Baptism in the Holy Spirit in June 1973 when he attended a prayer meeting which began in the Redemptorist Monastery in Kew which later became the Sacre Coeur Prayer Community. As a member of the earliest leadership teams Claude was given responsibility for Conferences and Finance. Later he became a full member of the coordinators under the leadership of Allan Panozza. Claude and Allan became a formidable team at both local and state and international levels of CCR. Claude’s sense of service and his many talents in organisation, finances, networking, and insurance, but above all his love for Jesus and desire to spread the work of the Holy Spirit, all contributed to rising to leadership prominence. At one stage he was the chairman of the National Service Committee. From 1985 to 1988 Claude, with his gracious wife Miralda, served at the International CCR Office in Rome, using his great facility of languages. Their homes, whether local or International, became homes of hospitality as well as places where decisions were made. Claude had a significant influence on the lives of many people individually, with the most frequently heard comment about him being…”he was the man who the Lord used so that fatherhood could be re-discovered in my life”.
The leadership team with Claude ran many successful seminars and country ministry trips the number of attendees reaching about 200. Claude had an organising role in many initiatives, which included the setting up of a service office, the ecumenical Praise Magazine, the Good News quarterly, Melbourne based state and national conferences, retreats, rallies, visiting speakers such as Ralph Martin, Fr Scanlan OFM Tor, Fr Emilien Tardif MSC, Charles and Sue Whitehead, Sr Briege McKenna and Fr Kevin Scallon CM, Mark Nimo, Michelle Moran, Fr (now Cardinal) Raniero Cantalamessa, and many other luminaries in CCR from different parts of the world.
Claude worked well together with the other Coordinators and had a significant influence on the activities and direction of the Renewal in Melbourne, through the many teaching ministries which strengthened the spread of the Life in the Spirit, especially through the fostering of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as the means of renewing the Catholic Church.
One of Claude’s great strengths was his ability to relate to members of the hierarchy and the fostering of these relationships with clergy who were destined to become bishops in the future. His charm and sensitivity and hospitality were legendary. Having some interest in politics may have added to developing these characteristics. He always ensured that the guests were well cared for and made comfortable in Melbourne or wherever his talents took him, such as National Leaders Conferences in Canberra.
Claude’s official period of service in CCR began about 1974 and continued to around 2012, unofficially a few more years in his later retirement years. Apart from organising conferences and pilgrimages, not only in Australia but also significant ones in Jerusalem and in Rome, Claude was also instrumental in setting up our CCR service centres. First in Fitzroy with Sr Patricia Brown FCJ, later in Kew with Mary Quin (later Spizzica), later again at St Augustine’s in Bourke Street, Melbourne, and finally the Centre in Holden St, North Fitzroy. Much of the rebuilding requirements were organised by Claude. His financial skills enabled all these activities to be conducted with a positive result at the end.
Claude gave his life to the Lord and to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. The Renewal has appreciated his enormous efforts, but it is the Lord who will be his reward as he enters eternal life with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and his beloved wife Miralda and daughter Bernadette. Claude is survived by his son George and daughter Claudette.