Chaput rejects cardinal's upbeat appraisal of Obama

As the leader of the Republican bishops, Chaput has to attack any Catholic who has something good to say about Obama even when it is someone of higher rank in the hierarchy. No doubt he preferred the Bush/Cheney reign of error. He is smart enough to know Obama cleaned the Republican bishop's clock at Notre Dame, so it is personal too.

Steve

I should begin by saying that I am not a Catholic, I'm a Lutheran. So any common ground approach that would save even one more life is "not necessarily a good thing?" Wow. How pro-life is that? See this is the disconnect, statements like this suggest that the right wing in this country is more interested in criminalizing the issue then actually producing any results. What has the Republican party accomplished in 30+ years of being the "pro-life" party? today there are as many abortions as ever. This argument by many on the catholic far right like Chaput, Weigel, and Burke that a Catholic or Christian cannot in good conscience support a Democrat based on abortion is plain silly when we've seen little difference when it comes to reults regarding the issue no matter who governs. Yet i hear nothing from the Catholic right when it comes to Republicans supporting a whole host of other rights that are obviously immoral from a Christian perspective. Apparently these issues(such as divorce, drunkenness, adultary, pre-marital sex, etc)can be excused since they are much more common among the public and aren't slam dunk vote-getters. If anything, abortions have tended to decrease when we've had Democratic presidents (whether there is any corrolation or not) Let's all grow up a bit and use reason to come up with ways to actually solve the problem if that's what we're truly interested in.

Chaput(R-Denver) might try growing something in the soil of humility and realism himself. At least he could ask Rupert Murdoch for permission. A majority of American Catholics have always and continue to support Pesident Obama.

"Chaput...suggested that Cottier might have deferred to the judgment of local pastors."

If only Chaput would follow his own suggestion!

But, no, the good hierarch speaks from Rome, of all places!!!

Honest to Pete, these reactionary hierarchs seem to spend more time at the Vatican than in their own sees. "Birds of a feather flock together."

You know it's truly sad that this "Bishop" of our church feels that rather then try to find a way to come part way to an understanding that he is just bellowing like a bull elephant into the wind, which is clearly moving against his type of attitude, he desperately needs to get a life

It is time to remove Chaput, "The Confronter," as was done in Scranton with Martino.

Not compromising certainly won't work, especially since any action granting rights to the unborn must come from Congress and cross Obama's desk. Archbishop Chaput is ill informed if he believes that an individual politician's views on Roe v. Wade have any significance at all.

Maybe it would help if Archbishop Chaput would tone down his rhetoric and acknowlege more positively the aspects of Obama's program that truly reflect Catholic social values.
It seems from his remarks that really that doesn't matter if he doesn't change his views to conform to Catholic moral teachings on the issue of abortion.
This continues to be the prime cause of Archbishop Chaput and a few of the other vociferous bishops. I'm sure if we could take a word count of their remarks regarding this subject and their remarks about clerical abuse there would be no comparison.

Any reader of The Denver Catholic Register, Archbishop Chaput's personal propaganda outlet, is witness to Chaput's habit of cheap-shotting Obama. If it were solely on the basis of differences with Obama on moral interpretations one could accept Chaput's stance but there's also a pervasive anti-Obama sentiment expressed that is clearly solely related to political bias. Chaput has dedicated much of his time and energy in Denver toward the conversion of Joe and Sally Mass-goer to his mode of political thinking; a very narrow, little-compromising, ultra-rightist, rural small-town Kansas provincialism which is little tolerant of those whose intellectual and emotional disposition doesn't conform to it. With Chaput, political consistently trumps ethical behavior. A typical manifestation of this was his recent full court press against the Administration's (or any) effort at health care reform. The rub is he uses Archdiocesan facilities to wage his anti-Democratic Party war. Whether they like it or not Joe and Sally Mass-goer underwrite Chaput's on-going effort to deliver Northern Colorado to the G.O.P.

When you are as close-minded as Charles Chaput, no one who disagrees with you has to be listened to. This is one of the advantages of owning all the truth. You never have to consider anyone else's thought or insights. As my high school English teacher used to say to his 9th grade class, "It must be nice to be so simple."

Has he no shame? Archbishop Chaput has the chutzpah to brush aside the writings of Cardinal Georges Cottier as though the Cardinal was either uninformed or ignorant.
Cunningly, Chaput presents himself, in the title of his remarks "Politics, Morality and a President: an American View", as speaking for America, yet he throws a disclaimer into his remarks.
One should not attack the messenger, just the message. However, knowing from whence a messenger came helps us to evaluate his credibility. Perhaps my remarks will help someone, who is not from America, to take the words of the archbishop "with a grain of salt".
As I read his remarks. I thought he sounded very haughty. Perhaps that comes from his claim to be a descendent of a French king. Nevertheless, he was born in the Western US state of Kansas. He is now the archbishop of the city of Denver in the Western US state of Colorado.
It is helpful to understand that both of those states are very conservative. Since the Cardinal was born in 1944, there have been 17 presidential elections in the United States. In all of those elections, the state of Kansas voted for the Democratic nominee only ONE time. That was in 1964 for the candidate from the Western US state of Texas, Lyndon Johnson. Colorado is not quite as sad; it went to the Democrat 4 of the 17 elections. Diversity or inclusiveness is not a hallmark of either one of these "red states". (In America "red state" means Republican; not communist.)
I looked this information up because of the remark he made in his letter; " ... 'baptized unbelief;' a Christianity that is little more than a vague tribal loyalty and a convenient spiritual vocabulary." Clearly, he uses the word, "tribal" in a disparaging way. Now I don't think that people need to be politically correct, but somehow that word hit a nerve.
While my ancient ancestors referred to their leader as a chief, it's because he was head of a Irish Clan. Notice I did not write "Klan". The infamous KKK still has followers in both of the above mentioned States.
Oh? On the other hand, in the states of Colorado and Kansas, one might think of the western tribes native to those states: Comanche, Kiowa, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Ute or perhaps Arapahoe.
Many people in the western states might very well have a subconscious negative reaction to the word "tribal".
In the Northeast of the US, when someone says tribal, it might evoke a vision of African tribesmen. Now I remember ... President Obama's father was a black African from the Luo tribe of Kenya. (Food for thought?)
Could it just be a coincidence that he used the word "tribal"? He can't help it, he is a product of his environment.
Is it's just possible that a retro-right archbishop from Western Republican states might not have a broad view of America Catholics or the thinkings of Americans?
Let it suffice to say, it seems that Cardinal Georges Cottier, theologian to Pope John Paul II, has a greater understanding of Catholicism then Chaput.

The greatest of these ...

Chaput represents the worst of narrow mindedness in today's church. It is this type of tunnel vision that is driving people out of the church.

Chaput is going to love Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize

Can one just imagine calls to 911 or the need for the Heimlich maneuver in chancelleries across the United States as retro-right “American” bishops choked on their breakfast toast hearing the news of the Nobel Peace Prize? Archbishop Chaput of Denver and his 80 compatriots, who were among the minority of American bishops that signed a petition against Obama’s presence at Notre Dame University, must have been apoplectic. I refer to the list of names of those who signed that petition as the “List of Shame”. I

The greatest of these …

"Chaput added that the president's search for "common ground" with the church, praised by Cottier, is not necessarily a good thing."

Sure, Archbishop...much better for the Church and the country for you to keep the divisive, fear-mongering polemics of the Bush era alive and well. As if you and your brother GOP mouthpiece bishops can SCARE us into submission anymore....You are NOT part of the solution, you are part of the PROBLEM!

And to think that this is the guy the Vatican put in charge of the upcoming investigation of the Legionaries of Christ investigation...
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/denvers-chaput-be-part-legionaries-probe
Gee, I wonder how that's gonna turn out.

Cottier is right and Chaput is dead wrong, again and as usual.

"Humility and realism are the soil where a common-sense, modest, human-scaled and moral politics can grow," the archbishop (Chaput) said.

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These virtues are also essential for hierarchy to practice as well. We don't see it in ALL of the cardinals, arch/bishops, either. So we have a duty to criticize the hierarchy when they do not display these virutes and pray for them as well.

Archbishop Chaput's critique of Cardinal Cottier's reflection suggest a lack of respect for his pastoral insights from a larger view of the Church and work toward "common ground." Archbishop Chaput suggests other bishops favor his opinion which leads one to believe other bishops support Cardinal Cottier's opinion. Could Archbishop Chaput lacks pastoral and fraternal charity toward a fellow bishop in the person of Cardinal Cottier? Instead of reflecting on the Cardinal's insights, the Archbishop chooses to undermine the Cardinal's attempt to build bridges in the larger culture of the USA and world by stating the Cardinal does not understand the USA experience. When will current bishops in the tradition of Archbishop Chaput practice reconciliation and collaboration instead of putting up walls where bishops, faithful and others are misled, confused and worse foster indiginity and harmful words or actions because of self-righteousness. What happened to pastoral charity, respect, participation, subsidiarity, and demonstration of civility among those called to be Good Shepherds who are respectfully prophetic?

I am so impressed with the thoughtfulness of the comments here. The insight and committment to justice is remarkable in all of you. You have expressed it so well, I don't have anything else to add!

To be realistic and not romantic Chaput is a hardnosed churchman/businessman. Nothing more nothing less. Take away the external trappings, like many of our CEO's or exCEO's he leads a nice life of ease as do his compatriots in Rome--Levada, Law etc. These people see themselves as owners of the church and as any owners they look to outside threats. Obama is a threat. Of course they hide behind the smokescreen of "life". But real life in the real world is foreign to them. Church life, of course paid by the sweat of the "laity" is their life. They are really neither Republicans nor Democrats, they are churchmen and they will defend that life.