Philadelphia, Pa., Jan 23, 2020 / 05:30 pm (CNA).- Four months after submitting his mandatory letter of resignation to Pope Francis, Archbishop Charles Chaput officially stood down as leader of the Philadelphia archdiocese on Thursday.
With his successor, Bishop Nelson Perez, set to be installed on Feb.18, Chaput enters retirement after 32 years as a bishop — much of it spent on the national stage, and widely recognized as a spiritual and intellectual leader in the Church in the United States.
Chaput reflected on his vocation as bishop to CNA on Thursday, citing St. Augustine as the model of service he has sought to emulate in his ministry.
“Augustine lived simply, never abandoned his people, and never avoided difficult decisions or issues,” Chaput told CNA.
“That didn’t always make him popular. But he served his people sacrificially, as a good father, in a spirit of love. That’s the gold standard for a bishop’s ministry.”
During his episcopal ministry, and especially as Archbishop of Philadelphia, Chaput faced criticism from secular outlets and within the Church for taking “conservative” stands on leading debates in the Church, including statements discouraging Catholic politicians who support abortion from presenting themselves for Communion and opposing efforts to redefine marriage.
His stances led to him being branded as a “culture warrior” and “political.” Yet, he explained to CNA on Thursday, his pubic stances were required of him as a responsible Catholic leader in the public square.
“Was Augustine ‘political’ for writing City of God? Or for criticizing Roman state corruption and bad officials? Of course not,” Chaput said.
“Politics is a subset of Christian discipleship, and sometimes bishops need to speak and act with conviction in the public square in an unpopular way. That’s always been the case.”
“Politics is important, but it’s not what the Gospel is about,” he said.
The terms “conservative” and “liberal” when applied to bishops only serves as a way of dividing Catholics within the Church, he said.
“The conservative vs. pastoral narrative is just another tactic to divide the Church against herself. And people who think they’re getting a clear sense of Catholic thought and teaching from reading the New York Times are simply feeding their confusion, not healing it.”
Chaput has served as Archbishop of Philadelphia for more than eight years, overseeing almost 1.3 million Catholics and more than 200 parishes.
Before that, he served for 14 years as Archbishop of Denver, helping start evangelization initiatives like the Augustine Institute, founding the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, as well launching the Centro San Juan Diego to serve the local Hispanic community.
Born in Kansas in 1944, Chaput entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1965 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He eventually rose to the rank of chief executive and provincial minister of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America.
In 1988, he was ordained bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, and in 1997, he was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II as the archbishop of Denver. Chaput became the second Native American to be ordained bishop in the U.S., and the first as archbishop, as he is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe.
In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Chaput as Archbishop of Philadelphia. His episcopal motto is “As Christ Loved the Church” (Ephesians 5:25).
Chaput also served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2003 to 2006, and has served on the board of EWTN since 1996. He was appointed the Apostolic Visitor to the Legion of Christ for Canada and the United States in 2009-10.
When appointed to Philadelphia, the archdiocese was reeling from financial problems in the fallout of the sexual abuse crisis, facing an operating deficit of at least $6 million in 2012-13, leaving Chaput with a series of difficult and controversial decisions.
The archdiocese considered closing dozens of its elementary and high schools and partnered with the Faith in the Future foundation for 17 high schools and four special education schools. Chaput also sold off the archbishop’s residence and the summer home for retired priests, as well as other archdiocesan properties.
“Complacency is the enemy of faith. To whatever degree complacency and pride once had a home in our local Church, events in the coming year will burn them out,” Chaput wrote in a pastoral letter during Advent of 2011.
“The process will be painful. But going through it is the only way to renew the witness of the Church; to clear away the debris of human failure from the beauty of God’s word and to restore the joy and zeal of our Catholic discipleship.”
At a Jan. 23 press conference announcing the appointment, Chaput’s successor Archbishop-elect Perez paid tribute to him, saying that he “made calls that, today, have placed the archdiocese in a way better place.”
“Watching him from afar, I saw him make tough decisions. Many times, like a father has to do in a family,” Perez said.
Asked by CNA what he is most proud of in his 32 years as a diocesan bishop, Chaput responded “I don’t think that way.”
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what I’ve accomplished. I’m just grateful to have been the archbishop for eight-and-a-half years,” he said.
He did, however, thank his staff and auxiliary bishops for assisting him with tough decisions, particularly the archdiocese’s pressing financial and sexual abuse problems when he arrived.
He also mentioned the decision to sell the property of St. Charles Borromeo seminary and relocating it to nearby Neumann University. Chaput called that “an extraordinary accomplishment.”
“I’m proud of the things that we have done together,” he said.
Chaput said on Thursday that he will eventually resume responsibilities as archbishop emeritus, including giving talks and retreats, but will spend the next three months on a quieter schedule without regular commitments.
“I am going to continue to be a part of the life of the archdiocese,” he said.
“It’s also important for me to understand that he [Perez] is my archbishop, and I owe him my respect and my obedience, and I do that gladly because I think he’s going to accomplish great things for us, but also with us because the Church is all of us working together,” Chaput said.
“The history of the Church is not the history of bishops, it’s the history of all of us together working for the glory of God.”
[…]
After Theodosius had ordered the slaughter of 7,000 innocents in Thessalonica, St. Ambrose locked the emperor out of the cathedral until he sincerely and publicly repented. It was one of the first Church-state differentiations that is still with us today.
Or is it? How will it turn out, Pope Francis with anti-pope Biden and this matter of 66,000,000 missing pairs of innocent eyes?
Ambrose counseled Theodosius to follow David, who had repented at having Uriah killed so that he might make of with his wife, Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). David actually “got it” and truly repented, and regained coherent access to the Church, the cathedral, and the Eucharist.
And so, today???
Kudos to EWTN correspondent, Owen Jensen, for his regular questioning of the Biden administration’s efforts on abortion.
Oops. Like David, Theodosius repented…etc.
Material matters will be discussed. Moral matters appear not to matter.
Bergoglio may “speak differently” than Biden but his actions are the same as Biden’s. Witness only this week Bergoglio’s appoint of globalist pro-abortionist Jeffrey Saks to a Vatican dicastery after repeatedly headlining him at Vatican conferences and symposia. We have had 9 years of Bergoglio’s charade and it is long past time to call both Bergoglio and Biden what they are: pseudo-Catholic hypocrites whose focus is solely on this world and the power and fame it offers.
Jesus also chose sinners to follow Him. What other choice did He have?
Sinners who repented their sins, converted and changed their lives radically to follow Him. He did not confirm sinners in their sins. To imply otherwise is not only false but blasphemous.
Wrong, Donna.
Judas wasn’t the only apostolate Jesus taught and showed.
His Apostle “pool” may have been limited in that manner, but surely he did expect more of them than one gets from a Joe Biden or a Nancy Pelosi. I think just maybe he wanted them–and us–to be better than they/we were when he found us. Being within his orbit should facilitate that, but then we do have to cooperate.
Francis called the morally depraved President Higgens, who enshrined abortion in Ireland, a great and wise man and he thanked God that Ireland had such a great leader. In every prior opportunity to date upon meeting a morally depraved head of state, he acted in a similar fashion, until he met Trump, the man who saved more innocent lives than any man in history, whom Francis treated as though he were Satan. So now we’re supposed to believe Francis will do anything but yuk it up with Biden?
The President may be “morally depraved” as you put it, but this odes not mean that writer, poet and teacher is not a very knowledgeable person. I know some very intelligent people, who have numerous degrees, but harbor hatred which is also morally wrong.
The Pontiff Francis is delighted to have the American-abortion-champion Biden in photo-opportunity with himself, in the same way the Pontiff was delighted to award the papal medallion to Frau Ploumen, the Belgian-abortion-champion.
Because in “the movement,” there are “no enemies on the left.” Just ask General Secretary Xi…
Biden’s faith must indeed be “very important” to him, since he so regularly uses it as a campaign pitch to Catholic voters. It seems to work, doesn’t it?
“Let the children come to Me.”
Since Pelosi’s meeting with Pope Francis was private, we can expect that Biden’s meeting will also be private. Whatever was discussed with Pelosi and whatever will be discussed with Biden will not be public. We don’t know if the pope spoke to Pelosi, pastorally of course, about her support for killing the unborn. We won’t know if the pope will speak to Biden about his support for killing the unborn. The pope certainly won’t make private discussions public, and if he corrected Pelosi or will correct Biden, they certainly won’t make that public. We, as Catholics, trust that the pope has and will continue to correct these self-professed “devout Catholics” in a pastoral way, explaining that they are endangering their immortal souls by promoting immoral murders of unborn humans. We don’t need to know, they do.
Yes, we do, because when Biden and Pelosi come out of their “private” meeting with Bergoglio that is photographed and sent online all over the world, they will loudly proclaim their absolute pro-abortion public position which they declare they will enact in legislation that applies to every American. What is at issue is not their internal, subjective state of soul but their external, objective acts that are mortally sinful.
The Pope has a duty to admonish them publicly. The faithful who are scandalized by politicians who support legalized abortion while flagrantly passing themselves off as “faithful” Catholics have a right to expect that he do so. These people have been promoting this crime for decades. We are well past the point where “private discussions” are adequate.
No. The Pope does not have a duty to admonish them publicly. His duty is to proclaim the Lord’s and the Church’s teachings – which he has done very emphatically – but what you suggest is not proper. Jesus. taught his followers and even said woe to some groups but never did he condemn anyone. Not even the adultness! Not even the sinners with whom he hate and drank. Why? Because he made it clear that he did not come to judge but to save. Publicly shaming people is our human way of doing things, but it is not our Lord’s way.
Hmmm… then what was “you are like white washed sepulchers filled with dead men’s bones?”
As I said, Jesus did condemn attitudes and actions of people or groups, but never did he condemn any particular person.
“if he corrected Pelosi or will correct Biden” – let’s be plain about what that means – “unless you repent and stop supporting the killing of the most innocent, I will excommunicate you”.
Of course those two (and many others) have already excommunicated themselves by their actions, but it would help if the Pope (finally) made it official.
Which he won’t.
God is our Creator, we are His creatures. A woman has no more right to kill her son or daughter than a man has to kill his son or daughter. I pray every day for 9 months to name and save an unborn baby and I pray every day for all Planned Parenthood facilities to close permanently. It takes humility to accept the Kingship of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the narrow gate and the road less traveled that we are called to. May God have mercy on their souls who deny God’s commantments.
Just an hour ago, secular publication “The Hill” announced that the Vatican ‘abruptly’
canceled a previously publicized live broadcast of Biden meeting Pope Francis.
Such secret “transparency” reveals more than what Nancy and Francis showed last week. What hides behind shall be revealed, but until then I’m voting it’s nothing more than smoke, levers, gears, and mirrors–toys of the devil’s playmates.
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I think you should have used that skeleton photo the “In the Defense of Trick or Treating” for this article.
Funny! Other ideas: Olive Oyl with Popeye or Laurel and Hardy.
Or, how about one which shows village idiots throwing stones at them.
I guess in this case one could then argue that words do indeed kill.
Biden “speaks differently than Pope Francis on abortion.” Some day Biden will “hear” from the tens of millions whose right to governmental protection was thwarted by this slaughter of the innocents. They will have opportunity to voice their “differences” with Biden (and others.). It will not be a “warm” meeting—quite heated one would imagine.
Once tredeau gets to Rome that would be the ideal time to drop a Bomb on these abortion loving ,family destroying , lavender loving Catholics !!!!
The earlier comment is correct, Jesus DID NOT embrace sinners and tell them “its ok, just keep sinning and follow me.” THEY repented. Calling them “good catholics” is reinforcing their sinfullness and there by putting their souls at risk. Thats what excommunication is all about Mal and Donna. It is supposed to put people on notice to repent from their sins for their own sake.
I have finally come to the belief, many of our catholic clerics are really not opposed to abortion, just secular progressives posing as ministers of the Gospel.