Goodbye Archbishop Chaput

This week another conservative Catholic Bishop goes into retirement — Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput. He leaves not having obtained his life’s goal, and we in our community can take credit. This is a form of activism that others around the nation need to learn, so I’m sharing it here. 

This week another conservative Catholic Bishop goes into retirement — Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput. He leaves not having obtained his life’s goal, and we in our community can take credit. This is a form of activism that others around the nation need to learn, so I’m sharing it here. 

Before coming to Philadelphia from Denver, Chaput was already known as homophobic. Under his tabernacle reins, LGBTQ people were tossed out of their jobs, and lesbian couples were refused communion. 

Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, he and I both had a similar idea. He felt that his work here would earn him a promotion to cardinal, which gets one that famous red cap. Due to his position and actions against the LGBT community, my goal was to keep him from getting that cap he so desired. 

Each time he took action against our community, we published that information and forwarded it to every possible place you might think, even the Vatican. When he created conversion therapy for Catholics, we wrote about it. When he got caught up in the various priest sexual assault scandals, we wrote about it, and not in diplomatic terms like child abuse, but by blatantly writing that priests raped children. Words matter and the truth hurts.  When he closed schools in poor neighborhoods, we again told it like it was. The Church was a business to him, not a place to go to for services. When he tricked Pope Francis into meeting Kim Davis, the woman from Kentucky who wouldn’t issue marriage licenses to LGBT people, we were among the first in the nation to print that story. When he fired lesbian teachers, it became a crusade. Bishops are accustomed to doing negative actions in silence. This bishop got scalded.  And guess what happened, other mainstream media took note, and the churches income dropped. 

Then came his 75th birthday and by custom, his resignation, which the pope could ignore. Pope Francis made it clear immediately — thank you for your service, and we’ll see you out the door. Chaput became the first archbishop of Philadelphia to not be promoted to cardinal in over 100 years.  

The point is that the church doesn’t want or need the kind of negativity Chaput brought.

I have little pity for him since he didn’t seem to understand a simple Christian fact, that his hate speech causes harm, and it does so mostly among the young.  How many LGBT children have been harmed? 

It is my hope that Chaput will go into retirement with some grace, and I will no longer have to admonish him on this issue.  You can be assured that if I must, I will, and I will speak loudly. Then he can appreciate the turmoil he caused and the lives he destroyed. He can also appreciate his own self-hatred.

As a true Christian might say, “Go in peace,” and let me add, do no more harm.

This week another conservative Catholic Bishop goes into retirement — Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput. He leaves not having obtained his life’s goal, and we in our community can take credit. This is a form of activism that others around the nation need to learn, so I’m sharing it here. 

Before coming to Philadelphia from Denver, Chaput was already known as homophobic. Under his tabernacle reins, LGBTQ people were tossed out of their jobs, and lesbian couples were refused communion. 

Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, he and I both had a similar idea. He felt that his work here would earn him a promotion to cardinal, which gets one that famous red cap. Due to his position and actions against the LGBT community, my goal was to keep him from getting that cap he so desired. 

Each time he took action against our community, we published that information and forwarded it to every possible place you might think, even the Vatican. When he created conversion therapy for Catholics, we wrote about it. When he got caught up in the various priest sexual assault scandals, we wrote about it, and not in diplomatic terms like child abuse, but by blatantly writing that priests raped children. Words matter and the truth hurts.  When he closed schools in poor neighborhoods, we again told it like it was. The Church was a business to him, not a place to go to for services. When he tricked Pope Francis into meeting Kim Davis, the woman from Kentucky who wouldn’t issue marriage licenses to LGBT people, we were among the first in the nation to print that story. When he fired lesbian teachers, it became a crusade. Bishops are accustomed to doing negative actions in silence. This bishop got scalded.  And guess what happened, other mainstream media took note, and the churches income dropped. 

Then came his 75th birthday and by custom, his resignation, which the pope could ignore. Pope Francis made it clear immediately — thank you for your service, and we’ll see you out the door.  The point is that the church doesn’t want or need the kind of negativity Chaput brought.

I have little pity for him since he didn’t seem to understand a simple Christian fact, that his hate speech causes harm, and it does so mostly among the young.  How many LGBT children have been harmed? 

It is my hope that Chaput will go into retirement with some grace, and I will no longer have to admonish him on this issue.  You can be assured that if I must, I will, and I will speak loudly. Then he can appreciate the turmoil he caused and the lives he destroyed. He can also appreciate his own self-hatred.

As a true Christian might say, “Go in peace,” and let me add, do no more harm.

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