Archbishop Chaput: Pope Francis’s election is ‘huge benefit for the Church’
March 18, 2013
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia sees the election of Pope Francis as “a great gift, a huge benefit for the Church, and also a candid recognition of the new Catholic reality worldwide. I think it will have a wonderful energizing effect on Latino Catholics in the United States who already contribute so much to American Catholic life in great numbers.”
“I was struck by how keenly he listened to the synod’s speakers, and how well he understood the issues facing the Church in both North and South America,” Archbishop Chaput said as he recalled meeting the future Pope in 1997. “But mainly I remember the warmth of his personality and how generously he greeted me as a brother.”
“He liked my Synod intervention because I referenced Charles Borromeo, one of his favorite saints,” he added. “The portrait he gave me is Mary, the Virgin of Desatanudos, an Argentine devotion that originally began in Germany. In the portrait, Mary is seen untying knots, and the knots are the difficulties in our life as a Church.”
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Posted by: unum -
Mar. 18, 2013 9:09 PM ET USA
Archbishop Chaput is a loyal soldier and a wonderful example for all Catholics. I was privileged to attend his Mass on Father's Day when he preached about "our obligations as fathers to those we love". Like Pope Francis, he did not talk down to the Catholic men in the congregation, but spoke of the responsibilities of fatherhood for all of us, laity and clergy alike. God bless him.
