By Bill Blankenship
The Capital-Journal
July 19, 2011
http://cjonline.com/news/2011-07-19/potawatomi-lead-philadelphia-catholics#.TiZoD2Ha9DE
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| Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput is seen during a news conference Tuesday in Philadelphia. Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday named Chaput as Cardinal Justin Rigali's successor as archbishop of Philadelphia. Chaput was born in Concordia and is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. |
The Most Rev. Charles Chaput, a member of the Potawatomi Prairie Band Nation and a native of Concordia, was named Tuesday by Pope Benedict XVI to lead the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the home of nearly 1.5 million Roman Catholics and one of the U.S. church’s most historically important posts.
The pope named Chaput, 66, currently archbishop of Denver, to succeed Cardinal Justin Rigali, 76, whose resignation was accepted by the pope, the Vatican announced.
The Vatican cited age as the reason for Rigali’s departure. As required by church law, Rigali offered his resignation in April 2010 when he turned 75, but it wasn’t immediately accepted.
Rigali, who has been the Philadelphia archbishop since 2003, will serve as its apostolic administrator until Chaput’s installation Sept. 8. He plans on retiring to Knoxville, Tenn.
Chaput was born in 1944 in Concordia, where his older sister, Jolene Harper, and her family live. Oakley is the home of Chaput’s younger brother, Jerry Chaput.
Chaput attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Grade School in Concordia and St. Francis Seminary High School in Victoria. In 1965, he joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, St. Augustine Province, which operates Victoria’s landmark St. Fidelis Church, known as the “Cathedral of Plains,” a nickname given it by William Jennings Bryan in 1912.
Chaput was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. Chaput spent some time in this region, serving from 1980-83 as provincial secretary and treasurer of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America in Kansas City, Mo.
When Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Rapid City, S.D., in 1988, Chaput became the second Native American to be ordained a bishop in the United States. Nine years later, he became the first Native American archbishop.
Chaput likely will become the church’s first Native American cardinal, an honor historically bestowed upon leaders of the Philadelphia church. However, that likely won’t happen until Rigali turns 80 and is no longer eligible to vote in any conclave to elect a future pope.
Chaput’s maternal grandmother was the last member of his family to live on the Prairie Band Potawatomi reservation, but he was enrolled in the tribe at a young age.
Chaput didn’t grow up in the Potawatomi culture, but he told The Topeka Capital-Journal in 1998 when it named him a Kansan of Distinction that in the Diocese of Rapid City where more than 40 percent of Catholics are American Indians, he discovered his own native roots.
Symbolic of his belief that an American Indian “can be wholly Catholic and wholly Native American,” Chaput adorned his crozier — apostolic staff — with an eagle feather, a gift from Indian friends.
His given Native American names, he explained Tuesday, mean “good eagle” and “the wind is rustling.”
“So that’s who I am: A good eagle that rustles the leaves,” he said.
In Philadelphia, Chaput will succeed Rigali, whose handling of clergy sexual abuse cases has come under fire.
A grand jury report five months ago criticized the archdiocese under Rigali’s leadership and that of his predecessor, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, of hiding sex abuse complaints for decades.
A Philadelphia monsignor is fighting unprecedented child-endangerment charges for allegedly transferring problem priests to new parishes without warning, while three priest co-defendants in the case are charged with rape.
“I do not know why the Holy Father sent me here,” Chaput said Tuesday at a news conference in Philadelphia. “(But) no person will work harder to help persons who have been hurt by the sins of the past.”
In Denver, the archdiocese between 2005 and 2008 settled 43 sex abuse allegations against priests for a total of $8.2 million. Chaput attended each mediation session and personally apologized to each victim who would meet with him.
He also publicly apologized to the victims, saying the church was “mortified and embarrassed.”
Chaput has emerged as a strong voice of conservative, orthodox Catholicism very much in line with the pope’s views.
In 2004, he advised Catholic politicians who advocate for legalized abortion in conflict with church teaching to refrain from presenting themselves for Communion.
Those politicians included, in 2008, vice presidential candidate Joe Biden as the running mate of Barack Obama, who Chaput called the “most-committed” abortion-rights candidate from a major party in 35 years.
Last year, Chaput defended a decision by a Catholic school in Boulder not to re-enroll two children of a lesbian couple, saying parents of Catholic pupils are expected to agree with church beliefs, including those forbidding sex between anyone other than married, heterosexual couples.
He also was one of a half-dozen American bishops who warned against letting government play too big a role in health care.
At the same time, Chaput has riled some conservatives for his outspoken support of immigration reform and his stance against the death penalty. He also condemned the slaying of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bill Blankenship can be reached at (785) 295-1284 or bill.blankenship@cjonline.com
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