Peter Joseph Baltes (April 7, 1827 – February 15, 1886) was a German-born American prelate of the Catholic Church.

Peter Bates was born on April 7, 1827, in Ensheim, Rhenish Palatinate in the Kingdom of Bavaria (today a part of Germany).

[1] After attending the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, to study classics, Baltes entered Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1868 or 1869, he persuaded the Illinois General Assembly to pass a law allowing Catholic congregations and institutions to incorporate.

[3] In 1870, Baltes issued a pastoral letter criticizing the Freeman Journal, a Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper that supported the rights of priests.

He said that by allegedly supporting discord between priest and their bishops, the Journal editors and readers were opening themselves up to divine punishment.

[7] Long suffering from diseases of the kidneys, bladder, and liver, Baltes was also unable to attend the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.