Despite Rigali’s ignominious exit, however, the pope’s Tuesday (July 19) choice of the 66-year-old Chaput was actually about much more than the abuse crisis.
In fact, Chaput’s appointment may portend a pivot away from the crisis-management era of the past 10 years toward the kind of assertive and even combative stance that was Chaput’s signature style in his 14 years in Denver.
Chaput is a Native American who has two Indian names, one from the Potawatomi tribe of his mother that means “he who makes the leaves rustle like the wind” and the other from the Lakota, meaning “good eagle.”
Overseeing a growing flock in the Rockies, the Kansas-born Chaput developed a national reputation as a champion of Catholic orthodoxy and conservative activism. He decried John F. Kennedy’s famous dissection between his Catholic faith and his public duties, and argued that Catholics should take a “more active, vocal, and morally consistent role” in politics.
His 2008 book, “Render Unto Caesar,” was released just as Democrats gathered in Denver to nominate Barack Obama; four months into Obama’s presidency, Chaput became a sharp critic when the University of Notre Dame invited the president to give the commencement address and pick up an honorary degree.
Chaput also stirred controversy by declaring that gay couples cannot send their children to Catholic schools. His penchant for outspokenness even extended to many of his fellow bishops, who he believes have been too quiescent when it comes to battling cultural trends in America.
“I don’t have a whole lot of concern about what people think of me,” the congenial Chaput said in an interview last September. He traces his penchant for admittedly “frank and direct” talk to his role model, St. Francis of Assisi, and to his passionate belief that ideas and beliefs—and the actions that flow from them—matter.
“Everything we do has huge consequences,” said Chaput, a member of the Capuchin order of Franciscans. “To me, NOT to say something is really very destructive, because silence implies consent.”
“So I feel obliged to talk.”
“A lot,” he added with a chuckle.
Not that Chaput is a blunderbuss. He is savvy with a lifelong passion for politics, though he started out as a Democrat. As a seminarian he worked on Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign; as a priest he volunteered for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and 1980.
Like many leading Catholic conservatives today, Chaput felt mugged by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. He is unapologetically conservative (though he embraces many of the “liberal” policy stances of the hierarchy, such as immigration reform). Yet he maintains close friendships with Democrats, including old friends from the campaigns and new ones like Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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