 Baker had great respect for the ideals held by John Henry Newman.His encounters with then Redemptorist Father Augustine Hewit and Archbishop Francis Patrick Kenrick of Baltimore as well as the intellectual ferment fostered by the Oxford Movement persuaded Baker to become Catholic in 1853, a conversion that created considerable stir at the time.He then changed his name to Francis Aloysius, in honor of Francis de Sales and St. Aloysius.