May 13, 2009

Denver prelate speaks on role of religion in American life

NEW YORK CITY—On May 7, Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput spoke on the role of religion in American life as he accepted an award from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

“If we stick religion in the closet like a dangerously eccentric in-law,” the prelate said, “American public life can’t work as its founders and framers intended.”

His remarks were made at the annual awards dinner of the Becket Fund, during which he accepted the Canterbury Medal, which is given to those who have “most resolutely refused to render to Caesar that which is God’s.”

Past Canterbury Medalists include Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, Governor and Mrs. Mitt Romney, Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson, financiers Foster Friess and Ted Forstmann, and former U.S. Ambassadors to the Vatican James R. Nicholson and Mary Ann Glendon.

“We are especially proud to add Archbishop Chaput to this distinguished list,” said Becket Fund President Kevin “Seamus” Hasson. “He is neither shy nor soft-spoken when he believes religious liberty in general or his Roman Catholic faith are in jeopardy. It is we who are honored by his acceptance of our medal.”

“Freedom of religious faith is woven into our founding documents. It’s hardwired into the assumptions of all of us who treasure the privilege of being an American,” Archbishop Chaput said in his speech.

“I never really understood what that freedom meant, though, until I served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and saw what its absence looks like; until I understood from the facts and from my own eyes the systematic abuse of religious believers that takes place in so many countries around the globe.”

The archbishop’s book, “Render Unto Caesar,” as well as his prominent interventions in the public square have made important contributions to religious liberty and the national political discourse, award officials said. His bold words have been cited and debated by leading commentators across political and religious lines.
The Becket Fund is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. To read the archbishop’s acceptance speech, go online to: archden.org/index.cfm/ID/2019.