“Ahead of Pope Francis’s Philly Visit, Media Go After Archbishop Chaput”

“Ahead of Pope Francis’s Philly Visit, Media Go After Archbishop Chaput” August 30, 2015

 

 

First temple in Pennsylvania
Construction of the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple is well underway.

 

I briefly met Philadelphia’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Charles Chaput, when he visited Brigham Young University back in January 2015.  I had been aware of him for several years already, because he has a reputation for theological and social conservatism, and has been quite vocal about his views.

 

Here’s the relevant blog entry from 23 January 2015:

 

I had the opportunity, today, of attending a lecture at BYU by Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput of Philadelphia.  (Given the fact that the new Philadelphia Temple is rapidly rising very near to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Professor Mauro Properzi quipped in introducing him, the Archbishop will be able to enjoy his morning coffee every day with the Angel Moroni.)

  

On the stand with Archbishop Chaput in the Varsity Theater were, among others, Bishop John Charles Wester of the Catholic diocese of Utah, President Kevin Worthen of Brigham Young University, and Brent Top, the dean of Religious Education at BYU.

 

Archbishop Chaput began his remarks by discussing the “Great Charter,” or Magna Carta, of England and its importance in the development of the English-speaking tradition of constitutional democracy.  He noted — citing the statement often (and not quite accurately) attributed to Henry Ford, that “History is bunk” — that Americans tend to be impatient with, and relatively uninterested in, the past.  He thinks that attitude somewhat misguided.

 

I won’t try to systematically summarize Archbishop Chaput’s remarks but will share some of the notes that I hurriedly typed while listening to his speech, which I hope was recorded and which I also hope will someday be published in one form or other.

 

He spoke of the importance of morality in society, and of “people of conviction fighting for what they believe in the public square.”

 

Is there a culture war?  Yes, he said.  In a sense.  But the blame for that, he observed, is often heaped on people who’re trying to defend traditional values and religious liberty.  But there’s another side: those who’re trying to overturn traditional values and to infringe upon religious expression and religious liberty.  “Nobody,” he remarked, “seems to call them culture warriors.”

 

He lamented the fact that, in his view, cowardice and acedia (moral sloth) too often masquerade as tolerance.

 

He endorsed charity and justice for all, but insisted that “that’s never an excuse for compromising with grave evil” nor for permitting our liberty to be whittled away.  “The greatest danger” to American society, he said, “is not religious extremism but narcissism.”

 

On another note, he remarked that “A culture of constant chattering is afraid of the silence that reveals its emptiness.”

 

There’s “a lot of common ground,” he said, between Latter-day Saints and Catholics on such issues as religious liberty, family and sexuality, the value of life, concern for the poor, and so forth.

 

He advised Latter-day Saints to learn from the example of American Catholicism, which he described as both a success story and, more to his point, a cautionary tale of assimilation and absorption.  “There’s a fine line between being leaven in society,” he commented, “and being devoured by society.”

 

“Some of our best Catholic institutions have lost or obscured their Catholic identity,” Archbishop Chaput said, calling special attention to American Catholic colleges and universities.  He offered specific praise for Ralph Hancock’s March 2014 article (“Keeping Faith in Provo”) in First Things, saying that, plainly, Latter-day Saints are now facing some of the same challenges that have diluted and weakened Catholic higher education in the United States.  He paid tribute to BYU’s religious identity.  “Please never lose that,” he admonished his audience.

 

The question-and-answer session that followed was quite interesting, as well.  Questions ranged from how or whether to speak of “Islamic terrorism,” how to foster Mormon/Catholic cooperation, and how to disagree respectfully.  (In response to that question, Archibishop Chaput cited Martin Luther King’s counsel that “You have to love your enemy, but your enemy has to know that you love him.”  Still, he said, don’t be cowed into a false tolerance.)

 

Archbishop Chaput was friendly, good-humored, and engaging.  Partially of American Indian descent, he’s a member of the Prairie Band Potowatomi tribe, the first Native American archbishop in the U.S. Catholic Church and only the second Native American to be ordained a Catholic bishop.  He receives a check every quarter containing his share of the tribe’s casino earnings.  “I don’t go there.  But I get the check.  I felt that I should confess my sin to you.”

 

Here’s a blog entry from 26 January 2015:

 

For those who might be interested, here’s the full text of the remarks given at Brigham Young University on Friday by Charles Chaput, Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia.  They’re entitled “The Great Charter at 800”:

 

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/01/the-great-charter-at-800

 

I agree with what Archbishop Chaput had to say, and found his presentation quite engaging.

 

And now there’s this:

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423251/archbishop-chaput-pope-francis-philadelphia

 

I can identify with him.   I, too, try to be open and candid, and I devote a lot of time to interacting with people who call me and who write to me.  (It’s not especially difficult for me to do that, in one sense, since that’s my natural inclination, almost to a fault.  But I fall short because I run out of time and because I’m chronically disorganized.  I apologize for that to all whom I’ve neglected.  Please be patient with me!)  And yet I receive very similar emails to those that the archbishop receives, and I seem to have a somewhat parallel image in some critical circles.

 

Still, life is very good.

 

Posted from Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany

 

 


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