Meet the Board
Matthew A. Penza
Co-Founder & President
Matthew Penza sits on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Latin Mass Society and serves as President, having previously served as the founding Vice President from 2022 to 2024. From September 2020 to October 2022, he served as a founding member of the leadership team for the Young Adults Apostolate at St. Rita of Cascia in Alexandria, Va. In summer 2022, he joined Noah Peters in organizing weekly Rosary Rallies at the Apostolic Nunciature and the first National Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage in September. A software engineer by profession, he manages our websites and social media, and drives various other aspects of our mission. As an amateur organist, he also directs and accompanies the schola cantorum for ALMS-sponsored liturgies. His writings have appeared in CatholicVote and LifeSiteNews.
James Baresel
Vice President
James Baresel sits on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Latin Mass Society and serves as Vice President. A freelance writer, his work has been published in Epoch Times, Tudor Life, Catholic World Report, American History, Fine Art Connoisseur, Military History, Catholic Herald, Claremont Review of Books, The Wanderer, Crisis Magazine, One Peter Five, and University Bookman.
Ryan Ellis
Treasurer
Treasurer
Ryan Ellis sits on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Latin Mass Society and serves as Treasurer. He is a parishioner of St. Rita of Cascia in Alexandria, Va., along with his wife and three daughters. Professionally, he is a nationally recognized tax expert. He has managed a tax preparation firm for two decades, and is an IRS Enrolled Agent. Ellis works in politics as a consultant, and for many years was Tax Policy Director at Americans for Tax Reform. Ryan Ellis is the president of the Center for a Free Economy, a free market 501(c)(4) organization. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, National Review, and The Washington Examiner.
Noah B. Peters
Founder, Secretary, & President emeritus
Founder, Secretary, & President emeritus
Noah Peters sits on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Latin Mass Society and serves as Secretary, having previously served as the founding President from 2022 to 2024. A convert to Catholicism, he married his wife at a traditional Latin Mass nuptial wedding at St. John the Beloved in McLean, Va., in 2021. In 2022, he spearheaded a petition drive to preserve the traditional Latin Mass that attracted nearly 3,000 signatures. He followed that effort by organizing weekly Rosary Rallies in front of the Papal Nunciature beginning in July 2022, and by organizing the National Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage in September 2022 that attracted nearly 300 marchers. An attorney by trade, his writing and speeches on Catholic topics have appeared in Crisis, OnePeterFive, and Rorate Caeli.
David L. Alexander
David Alexander sits on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Latin Mass Society. Before his retirement in July 2022, he was a design and multimedia professional for over 40 years. He wrote for several Catholic publications in the late 1990s, including Saint Catherine Review, The Arlington Catholic Herald, Catholic World Report, and more recently, Regina Magazine. In 2002, he began the blog man with black hat, which today remains his primary writing venue. His service at the altar dates back nearly sixty years, "back when 'the Old Mass' was known as 'the Mass.'" He was recently instituted to the Ministry of Acolyte with the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, and serves at St. Luke in Fort Washington, Md. He also sings with the schola cantorum at St. Rita of Cascia in Alexandria, Va.