Philly.com,
September 08, 2011
Advice
for new archbishop: Real Catholic agenda is way broader than abortion
By NICHOLAS
P. CAFARDI
When
Pope Benedict XVI transferred Archbishop Charles Chaput from Denver
to Philadelphia, one of the nation's most prominent Catholic archdioceses,
the appointment captured the attention of faithful Catholics,
the media and undoubtedly a few nervous elected officials.
The archbishop has earned a reputation as one of the church's
most outspoken conservatives. During the 2004 presidential race,
he warned Catholics they would be "cooperating in evil"
if they voted for Democrat John Kerry, a devout Catholic who does
not favor criminalizing abortion but whose positions on support
for pregnant women, immigration reform, nuclear disarmament and
other issues align with Catholic teaching. The archbishop has
also scolded the University of Notre Dame for honoring President
Obama and, in contrast to most of his fellow bishops, insists
that Catholic politicians who depart from church teaching on abortion
should be denied communion.
Chaput's appointment is likely to have national implications in
the 2012 election. As the presidential campaign gains momentum,
Pennsylvania Catholics will again be aggressively courted as swing
voters in this battleground state. GOP presidential candidates
Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum are staunch Christian
conservatives. "Values voters" are back in the news.
If history is any guide, Catholic voters in Pennsylvania will
be key to who wins the White House.
Despite the media fixation on the religious right, the Public
Religion Research Institute and other experts on faith in politics
consistently find that most religious voters reject a culture-war
approach to politics and instead embrace a broad spectrum of values
- protecting the poor from budget cuts, passing immigration reform,
expanding health care to all Americans and building a moral economy.
A disproportionate focus on criticizing politicians who do not
accept that criminalizing abortion is the only way to solve this
terrible problem gives the false impression that the Catholic
Church is a religious wing of the Republican Party. Elected officials
who support the death penalty, demonize immigrants and slash programs
that protect the poor and most vulnerable, all in contradiction
to church teaching, rarely receive the sort of public rebukes
Chaput and other conservative Catholic bishops direct at those
who deviate from the church position on abortion.
I believe in the sanctity of human life and support policies and
laws that care for pregnant women and prevent abortions. But Catholicism
is not a single-issue faith. Catholic social teaching and the
moral principles of diverse religious traditions challenge the
agendas of both political parties by insisting that the poor,
the unborn, the undocumented immigrant and even the prisoner are
children of God. Religious leaders must preserve this essential
voice as a prophetic witness to truths that transcend the partisan
fray.
Philadelphia will officially welcome its new archbishop today
with an installation Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter
and Paul. The pageantry of a ceremony both solemn and joyous will
soon give way to sobering realities. Five years after a grand
jury excoriated archdiocesan leaders for protecting abusive priests,
a new grand jury report unsealed in February found that nothing
had changed. Chaput arrives in an archdiocese where three priests
have been indicted for sexual assaults on children and another
priest, an archdiocesan official, has been charged with two counts
of endangering the welfare of children. Philadelphia has replaced
Boston as the epicenter of the clergy child-sexual-abuse crisis
in the U.S.
The archbishop has pledged to do all he can to address this crisis.
The pope has tasked him with other sensitive assignments in the
past, and the archbishop has demonstrated integrity and strong
leadership in carrying them out. As a former chairman of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board for the
Protection of Children and Youth, I encourage Chaput to bring
fierce urgency to the daunting task of rebuilding trust among
the Catholic faithful in Philadelphia who have been wounded by
the clergy's sexual abuse of children and his predecessors' collusion
in it.
Until this task is accomplished, Chaput would be well-advised
to leave politics aside. Issuing divisive political rebukes will
only undermine his ability to minister to a city in desperate
need of healing.
Nicholas P. Cafardi is dean emeritus of Duquesne Law School
and author of "Before Dallas: The U.S. Bishops' Response
to Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children."
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