Q & A: Archbishop Chaput talks about his new appointment
By Roxanne King, Denver Catholic Register (July 20, 2011)
On July 19 Cardinal Justin Rigali announced that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted his resignation and has named Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., as the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pa. He will be installed Sept. 8.
Archbishop Chaput spoke to the Denver Catholic Register about the appointment.
DCR: King: When and how did you learn of your appointment?
Chaput: I learned about it in Denver in my office at about a quarter of 12 Tuesday of last week (July 5). I had just finished a staff meeting and my secretary told me I had a call from Archbishop (Pietro) Sambi. After some words of greeting, he told me the Holy Father had appointed me to be the archbishop of Philadelphia and asked me if I would accept. I said I would.
King: What was your reaction to that news?
Chaput: There were rumors going around that I might go to Philadelphia but knowing the real situation—that bishops don’t move from Colorado to Philadelphia, at least not very often—I never took those rumors very seriously; so I was very surprised that this actually happened. I wouldn’t have expected it at all.
King: Philadelphia is in the midst of a sex-abuse scandal. How do you feel assuming responsibility for a diocese in that situation?
Chaput: I want to go to Philadelphia with an open heart and an open mind and see how I can be the father of the diocese. Every family has its problems and sometimes there are moments in our history that are more difficult than others. I know that Philadelphia is at an important moment in its history. At the same time, Philadelphia has been a great and glorious Church for many years, from the beginning of our country, so it’s important not to lose confidence in the future by what’s going on now. I’m going to the diocese with confidence and hope that my presence will help the priests and the people of the archdiocese to move through this in the appropriate kind of way so that people are helped and the glory of God is accomplished.
King: I understand you will be installed in Philadelphia in September, where will you be in the interim?
Chaput: I will be in Denver most of the time between now and then. I imagine I will go to Philadelphia one other time to talk about details of the installation but I continue to be the archdiocesan administrator of the Archdiocese of Denver until I am installed in Philadelphia. … Just as I am the archdiocesan administrator here, Cardinal Rigali will be the archdiocesan administrator there until I show up there.
King: You’ve been in Denver for 14 years, what are you most proud of about your ministry here?
Chaput: The thing I am most proud about in Denver is the whole Church. We have an extraordinary gathering of people here—the clergy and the laity. We have extraordinary movements of apostolic energy.
I’m very proud of our two seminaries and the number of seminarians that they serve. I’m proud of the creative imagination that shows itself in so many things that are based here like ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women), which teaches women of all ages the new feminism of Blessed John Paul II; FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) campus ministry; and the Augustine Institute Catholic graduate school.
And we have the movements like the Neocatechumenal Way (a post-baptismal catechumenate), the Community of the Beatitudes, Communion and Liberation and others. These movements are a sign of life and vitality. I’m very much inspired by what I see in the life of our clergy and lay faithful in terms of their apostolic enthusiasm—and I’m encouraged by it. It’s been a time of mutual encouragement: I hope I’ve encouraged them but they have certainly encouraged me by the holiness of their life and their very commitment to the Gospel.
King: In belonging to the Neocatechumenal Way catechumenate, I know there’s awareness among movements that certain dioceses are friendlier to them than are others. Archbishop, now-Cardinal J. Francis Stafford invited the Way here and you have been supportive of it and all the movements in the archdiocese—and they have flourished here. What would you say to the people who belong to these different movements and entities who may afraid of what might happen to them with your departure?
Chaput: Whenever there is a transition there is a lot of fear, especially when it comes to movements and entities that aren’t in and of themselves parish-based because the support of the local bishop is very important for those movements to have confidence. I want to say that the Holy Spirit caused these movements to flourish and bloom here. I don’t think the Holy Spirit will let them down. I think we all need to pray for a good bishop who will be enthusiastic to continue the direction of the Church that’s been going on here for many, many years before me. We hope the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us into the future he has planned for us.
King: What are your feelings about leaving Denver?
Chaput: I have very sad feelings about leaving Denver: It’s been home for 14 years and a lot of people have been supportive of me—beginning with our clergy—even from the first days until now. For me, it’s like losing one’s family. For the clergy, religious and laity, it’s like losing one’s father and when that happens there’s always a sadness of separation. But I am a man of obedience and I know—with joy and peace—that wonderful accomplishments happen when people are obedient; so when the pope said to go to Philadelphia I didn’t even wait a minute to say yes because I felt that is what I always should do. It’s part of my Capuchin background and training—you say yes without calculating its implications for yourself.
King: You entered religious life as a Capuchin, an order that follows a very simple lifestyle. Obviously your journey has taken you to broader experiences and broader things. How do you personally make sense of that when your initial call was to a life of simplicity?
Chaput: When I look at my vocational life, I began it in a seminary as a diocesan student and felt called by the life of St. Francis to be a Franciscan, so my personal choice in terms of vocation was to be a Capuchin Franciscan priest and all that entails. Twenty-three years ago this month the Lord called me out of that and made me a bishop in Rapid City, S.D.
When one is a bishop he’s a diocesan priest—he is actually the first priest of the diocese he serves. I’ve seen myself in the last 23 years as a diocesan priest more than as a Capuchin, but a diocesan priest inspired by the values and virtues of Franciscan life. That influenced my life in Rapid City and influenced my life in Denver and I can’t imagine it won’t influence my life in Pennsylvania.
One of the things that is interesting about this is I spent 10 years as a Capuchin in western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia, but none-the-less it’s part of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I enjoyed my time there and the people there. In some sense going back to Pennsylvania is not going to a place of strangers—it’s going back to a part of my life I found very beautiful and am grateful for. I would never have expected to go back there but that has happened in God’s plan so I hope to respond to that grace as best I can.
King: You are now going to the sixth-largest diocese in the United States, what are your thoughts about that?
Chaput: I believe Denver is about 25th or 28th in size; I didn’t realize Philadelphia is the sixth-largest. The way I’ve been a bishop in Rapid City and Denver is to be very much personally involved in everything. Although I delegate responsibility, I’m still informed about all the details of diocesan life. I’ve been able to respond personally to the mail that comes to me from Denver and all parts of the world but I'm going into a much larger situation and I don’t know if I’m going to have the time to continue to operate that way. My desire, of course, is to continue to operate in a very personal apostolic way and not to become too involved in bureaucracy. I would say that of all the things about the move to Philadelphia, the one that is of concern to me is its size and how do I operate as a bishop in a pastoral way in a diocese that large?
King: Two weeks after then-Archbishop Rigali was installed in Philadelphia he was made a cardinal. There have been rumors for a long time that you would one day become a cardinal. What are your thoughts about that?
Chaput: Every diocese thinks its bishop should become a cardinal because the people love their bishop—and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Several of the last ordinaries of Philadelphia have been made cardinals. The pope is free to continue to do that or not. I don’t think there is an automatic connection between going to Philadelphia and becoming a cardinal, so I don’t expect that to happen. If it happens, that’s God’s will, too, but the most important part about being in Philadelphia is being the local ordinary to serve the priests and people there—and to live in the present and not in the future.
King: Do you have a message for the faithful here about your departure?
Chaput: The message I have for the faithful is that it’s been a wonderful experience being the local ordinary here. I leave with great sadness but also with great gratitude and hope for the future. I will certainly begin praying immediately—and have already prayed—that the next bishop here will do a much better job than I did and will lead the Archdiocese of Denver into an even better and more perfect future. I’ll keep this intention in my prayers and thoughts in the months that lie ahead.
Roxanne King is editor of the Denver Catholic Register.
To read more from Archbishop Chaput, visit www.archden.org/archbishop.
