PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
BY WILL BUNCH, Daily News Staff Writer bunchw@phillynews.com, 215-854-2957
POSTED: April 04, 2014
IT WAS 33 months ago that Archbishop Charles Chaput rode into Philadelphia from out west, with a whirlwind of social conservatism at his back.
The former top cleric in Denver had made a national name for himself with harsh words for President Obama and Catholics who were blase about Obama’s support for abortion rights – and in his first major Philadelphia interview he proclaimed that stopping gay marriage is “the issue of our time.”
But a little more than a year ago, Pope Francis took charge in Rome – and the winds of Catholicism shifted 180 degrees.
Under former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the mission of fighting poverty has taken center stage while the hard-line approach on social issues has been moved to the background. As the new pope famously said of gay priests, “Who am I to judge?” …
But most agree that the big picture for Chaput has been blurred by the more immediate day-to-day crises of the Philadelphia Archdiocese – including the sex-abuse scandal involving dozens of priests named by two grand juries, multimillion-dollar budget deficits and controversial school and parish closings.
“Being vocal is not going to help him,” said Anthea Butler, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, suggesting another reason that Chaput has been less overtly political since arriving here.
Indeed, the raw feelings caused by the abuse scandal has some local Catholics saying that Chaput could still be even more humble.
One group calling itself Catholics4Change questioned the cost of the recent donation-funded trip in which Chaput and top Pennsylvania pols went to Rome, as well as the archbishop’s failure to meet with their protesters outside the Center City cathedral on a recent Sunday.
The group’s leader, Susan Matthews, said that despite his recent remarks on inclusion, she believes that Chaput is still “all about a smaller church, a more pure church.”
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