HOMEPAGE for this issue: July 27, 2011 // Download PDF Version // Click to install/update Adobe Reader on your computer

‘What you see is ... what you get,’ Archbishop Chaput tells Philadelphia

By Roxanne King

PHILADELPHIA (CNS)—Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., told a crowd of reporters and guests at a July 19 news conference that “what you see is pretty much what you get. I don’t know why the Holy Father sent me here. But I do trust his heart, and I believe in his judgment,” he said, commenting on his appointment as archbishop of Philadelphia announced earlier that morning.

He will succeed Cardinal Justin Rigali. Pope Benedict XVI accepted the 76-year-old cardinal’s resignation and appointed the Denver archbishop, who is 66, to replace him.

He will be installed Sept. 8.

“I know other bishops would have been smarter than I am, or more talented, or more connected with Philadelphia’s past,” Archbishop Chaput continued. “I know that Cardinal Rigali is one of the great churchmen of my life. He has served the Church with enormous dedication and in ways I will never be able to duplicate. “But I do promise that no bishop will love the people and priests of this local Church more than I will. No bishop will give more of himself than I will give,” he added. “And no bishop will try to work harder to help persons who have been hurt by the sins of the past, or work harder to strengthen and encourage our priests and renew the hearts of our people.”

Many of the questions put to the archbishop by the press centered on the current turmoil in the archdiocese caused by the child abuse scandal and how he would respond to it. Archbishop Chaput said he has not yet read the Philadelphia grand jury reports detailing the situation, but he intends to do so. “It would be unfair and foolish to comment on things I do not yet know about,” he said.