Charles J. Chaput | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia | |
 Chaput atGeorgetown University | |
| Archdiocese | Philadelphia |
| Appointed | July 19, 2011 |
| Installed | September 8, 2011 |
| Retired | January 23, 2020 |
| Predecessor | Justin Francis Rigali |
| Successor | Nelson J. Perez |
| Previous posts |
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| Orders | |
| Ordination | August 29, 1970 by Cyril John Vogel |
| Consecration | July 26, 1988 by Pio Laghi,John Roach, andJames Stafford |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1944-09-26)September 26, 1944 (age 81) |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Motto | As Christ loved the church |
| Styles of Charles Joseph Chaput | |
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| Reference style | |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Archbishop |
Ordination history of Charles J. Chaput | |||||||||||||||||
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Charles Joseph ChaputOFMCap (/ˈʃæpjuː/SHAP-yoo;[1] born September 26, 1944) is an Americanprelate of theCatholic Church. He served as the ninth archbishop of theArchdiocese of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania from 2011 until 2020. He previously served as archbishop of theArchdiocese of Denver in Colorado (1997–2011) and as bishop of theDiocese of Rapid City in South Dakota (1988–1997). Chaput was the first archbishop of Philadelphia in 100 years who was not named acardinal.
Chaput is a professedCapuchin Franciscan. A member of thePrairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Kansas, he is the secondNative American bishop and the first Native American archbishop.[2]
Charles Chaput was born on September 26, 1944, inConcordia, Kansas, one of three children of Joseph and Marian Helen (née DeMarais) Chaput.[2] His father was aFrench Canadian who was descended fromKing Louis IX.[3][4] His mother was a Native American of thePrairie Band Potawatomi tribe; his maternal grandmother was the last member of the family to live on areservation. Chaput himself was enrolled in the tribe at a young age, taking the namePietasa ("rustling wind").[3][5] His Potawatomi name is "the wind that rustles the leaves of the tree" while hisSioux name is "good eagle".[6]
Chaput received his early education at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Grade School in Concordia.[2] Deciding to become apriest at the age of 13,[3] he attended St. Francis Seminary High School inVictoria, Kansas.
In 1965, at age 21, Chaput entered theOrder of Friars Minor Capuchin, a branch of theFranciscans, inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2] In 1967, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy from St. Fidelis College Seminary inHerman, Pennsylvania. On July 14, 1968, he made his solemnprofession as a Capuchin friar. In 1970, he graduated with aMaster of Arts degree in religious education fromCapuchin College in Washington, DC.[2]
Chaput wasordained to the priesthood for the Capuchin Order by BishopCyril Vogel on August 29, 1970. He received aMaster of Theology degree from theUniversity of San Francisco in 1971. From 1971 to 1974, he was an instructor in theology andspiritual director at St. Fidelis College. He then served as executive secretary and director of communications for the Capuchin province in Pittsburgh until 1977.
As a seminarian, Chaput was an active volunteer in the 1968 US presidential campaign of SenatorRobert F. Kennedy. As a young priest, he supported the election of Georgia GovernorJimmy Carter as US president in 1976.[7] Chaput was appointed pastor of Holy Cross Parish inThornton, Colorado.
Chaput was elected vicar provincial for the Capuchin Province of Mid-America in 1977 and became secretary and treasurer for the province in 1980 and chief executive andprovincial minister in 1983. He was part of a group of Native Americans who greetedPope John Paul II when he visitedPhoenix, Arizona, in 1987.
On April 11, 1988, Chaput was appointed bishop of Rapid City by John Paul II. He was consecrated on July 26, 1988, by ArchbishopPio Laghi, with ArchbishopJohn Roach and ArchbishopJames Stafford serving asco-consecrators.[8]
Chaput was the second priest of Native American ancestry to be consecrated a bishop in the United States, after BishopDonald Pelotte. He was the first Native American to be consecrated as an ordinary bishop rather than atitular bishop.[citation needed] He chose as his episcopalmotto:"As Christ Loved the Church" fromEphesians 5:25.
On February 18, 1997, Chaput was appointed by John Paul II as archbishop of Denver, replacing ArchbishopJames Stafford.[8][9] In 2007, Chaput delivered the commencement address at Denver'sAugustine Institute. In 2008, he became the episcopal moderator of theTekakwitha Conference.
In 2007, Chaput conducted anapostolic visitation to theDiocese of Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia, on behalf of theCongregation for Bishops. The Vatican was concerned by statements that BishopBill Morris had made regarding theordination of women.[10] In May 2011,Pope Benedict XVI removed Morris as bishop of Toowoomba after he refused to resign.[11]
Chaput was one of five bishops who conducted a Vatican-ordered investigation into theLegionaries of Christ in 2009 to 2010. The investigation was prompted by sexual abuse accusations against the group's founder, ReverendMarcial Maciel, who had been removed from ministry in 2006[12][13][14]
On July 19, 2011, Chaput was appointed as archbishop of Philadelphia byPope Benedict XVI.[15] He succeeded CardinalJustin Rigali, who had reached retirement age of 75 in April 2010.[16] Chaput's strong record in handling cases of sexual abuse by priests was cited as a rationale for his appointment.[17] He was installed on September 8, 2011.
From August 17 to 19, 2011, Chaput gavecatechesis at theWorld Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain, similar to the function he performed at the2008 World Youth Day in Sydney.[18][19] On November 14, 2014, at a meeting of theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Chaput was elected as a delegate to the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family, pending Vatican approval.[20] Though Chaput led a historically important see and his five immediate predecessors were cardinals, Benedict XVI did not appoint him a cardinal in his two 2012 consistories, nor did Pope Francis in any of his.[21][22]
Pope Francis accepted Chaput's letter of resignation as archbishop of Philadelphia on January 23, 2020.[23]
Regarding whether Catholic politicians who supportlegalized abortion should be deniedcommunion, Chaput wrote in 2004 that, while denying anyone theEucharist is a "very grave matter" that should be used only in "extraordinary cases of public scandal", those who are "living in serious sin or who deny the teachings of the Church" should voluntarily refrain from receiving communion.[24]
TheNew York Times in 2004 reported that Chaput said it was sinful for Catholics to vote forDemocratic US presidential nominee SenatorJohn Kerry. He noted Kerry's views on abortion, among others. According to theTimes, Chaput said that anyone voting for Kerry was "cooperating in evil" and needed "to go to confession". After the interview, Chaput criticizedThe New York Times for the way it allegedly construed his remarks. The archdiocese criticized the article as being "heavily truncated and framed" and posted a full transcript of it.[25] He stopped responding to the paper's inquiries for six years, in part because he believed theTimes had misrepresented him.[26] Chaput was seen by some critics as "part of a group of bishops intent on throwing the weight of the Catholic Church into the elections".[27] In public comments, his linkage of theeucharist to the policy stances of political candidates and their supporters were seen as a politicization ofmoral theology.[28]
In a 2009 interview withCatholic News Agency, Chaput criticized a "spirit of adulation bordering on servility" toward PresidentBarack Obama, remarking that "in democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs". He said that Obama tried to mask his record on abortion and other issues with "rosy marketing about unity, hope, and change". Chaput also dismissed the notion that Obama was given a broadmandate, saying that he was elected to "fix an economic crisis" and not to "retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family,sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life, and abortion".[29]
Chaput in a 2012 interview with theCatholic News Service stated that absolute loyalty to the Church's teachings on core, bioethical, andnatural law doctrinal issues must be a higher priority for Catholics than their identity as Americans, their party affiliation and agenda and the laws of their country; Chaput also argues that for a Catholic, loyalty to God is more important than any other identity. He says that themartyrs and confessors gave witness to this importance.[30]
Chaput in September 2016 said that the2016 American presidential election offered Americans the "worst choice in 50 years". In his view, bothDonald Trump and former Secretary of StateHillary Clinton were "deeply flawed" candidates.[31]
Following the 2019 mass shootings inEl Paso, Texas, andDayton, Ohio, Chaput wrote that he supportsbackground checks for purchasers of firearms, but added this comment:
Only a fool can believe that 'gun control' will solve the problem of mass violence. The people using the guns in these loathsome incidents are moral agents with twisted hearts. And the twisting is done by the culture of sexual anarchy, personal excess, political hatreds, intellectual dishonesty, and perverted freedoms that we've systematically created over the past half-century.[32]
In a 2011 interview withNational Catholic Reporter, Chaput expressed his oppositionsame-sex marriage and questioned the upbringing of children of same-sex couples. He has said that same-sex couples cannot show children that their parents love each other in the same way that opposite-sex couples can.[33]
In 2015, Chaput supported the dismissal of Margie Winters, the director of religious education atWaldron Mercy Academy in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. Winters had married her female partner in a civil marriage ceremony in 2007. When a parent reported their marriage to Waldron, Principal Nell Stetser asked Winters to resign; when she refused, the school did not renew her contract.[34] Chaput said the school administrators had shown "character and common sense at a moment when both seem to be uncommon".[35][36][37]
On October 4, 2018, at theSynod on Young People and Vocations in Rome, Chaput objected to the use of the terms "LGBT" or "LGBTQ" in church documents. He said:
"There is no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ Catholic' or a 'transgender Catholic' or even a 'heterosexual Catholic,' as if our sexual appetites defined who we are; as if these designations described discrete communities of differing but equal integrity within the real ecclesial community, the body of Jesus Christ."
Chaput in 2013 advocated the reform of immigration laws to regularize the status of mostundocumented immigrants as a moral imperative.[38]
In his 2008 bookRender unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, Chaput exhorts Catholics to take a "more active, vocal, and morally consistent role" in the political process, arguing that private convictions cannot be separated from public actions without diminishing both. Rather than asking citizens to put aside their religious and moral beliefs for the sake of public policy, Chaput believed thatAmerican democracy depended upon a fully engaged citizenry, including religious believers, to function properly.[39]
Chaput has denounced what he sees as a lack of orthodoxy in the church. He accused past Catholic leaders of "ignorance, cowardice and laziness in forming young people to carry the faith into the future."[40] On March 27, 2019, in a speech to Ohio seminarians, he blamedsexual abuse in the Catholic Church on "a pattern of predatory homosexuality and a failure to weed that out from church life".[41][42][43]
In 2014, Chaput delivered the twenty-seventhErasmus Lecture, titledStrangers in a Strange Land, organized byFirst Things magazine and the Institute on Religion and Public Life. In his address, Chaput reflected on the challenges of living a Christian life in a post-Christian society, urging believers to remain faithful witnesses amid cultural and moral upheaval. His lecture anticipated themes he later developed in his 2017 book of the same name, emphasizing the need for courage, community, and clarity of faith in modern public life.[44]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Bishop of Rapid City 1988–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of Denver 1997–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of Philadelphia 2011–2020 | Succeeded by |
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