Archbishop Chaput's speeches

Young adults and ‘secrets of the heart’

In an address to Catholic Campus ministers this week in Florida, Archbishop Charles Chaput described the daunting cultural landscape facing today's young adults, which makes campus ministers' task of sharing the faith a complicated one. Too often the Church has held on to the same institutional patterns of organization, the same methods of preaching and teaching that worked in a religion-friendly past, but can’t and don’t work today. Young people in search of meaning won’t choose Jesus Christ if they constantly encounter a faith life of worn-out structures in various stages of decline. Emerging adults are the future of Catholic life in flesh and blood, the key to triggering a chain reaction of conversion and new zeal in the Church. All Catholics need to be and make a fire on the earth that consumes human hearts with God’s love.

Archbishop Chaput sends Christmas card to the faithful

See Archbishop Charles Chaput's Christmas greeting to everyone, along with a pledge of his prayers.

English martyrs call to today’s bishops in America: ‘Do not be afraid’

In the coming year, Catholic and other Christian leaders face tough choices concerning the HHS contraceptive mandate. They can refuse to comply and decline to pay the consequent fines, or try to pay them; they can divest themselves of institutions that the regulation will impact; they can seek some unexplored compromise or way of circumventing […]

The new communities and the ‘New Evangelization’

Archbishop Charles Chaput gave a talk Nov. 29 in Lima, Peru on the value and role of new religious movements in the Catholic Church. "In an age of aggressive individualism and the isolation it breeds," he says, "the new ecclesial movements offer two absolutely priceless gifts: community and purpose." Read the full text of his moving talk.

Renewing the Church and her mission in a Year of Faith

Catholic Life Congress, Philadelphia November 17, 2012 +Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. My comments today will be simple. I want to focus on just three points. The first point is where we are as a Church and as individual Catholics, given the current environment of our country.  The second point is what we need to […]

Fighting the good fight for religious freedom

Key people in this administration simply do not seem to believe in “religious freedom” in the sense the American Founders originally intended it – in other words, as a distinct human liberty and a priority human right. If we want to lead others to do the right thing; if we want to turn our country away from duplicity and toward real justice; then we need to do it without anger or fear or despair. In his letters, St. Thomas More writes, "...you must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the wind.” The wind is the business of God. Success is the business of God. Our business is to fight the good fight. Read more of the comments by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.Cap., as he accepted the annual Meese Award Nov. 16 in Washington, D.C., from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which specializes in legal defense of religious liberty.

Living the Year of Faith: Some thoughts on the Christian vocation

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Los Angeles Prayer Breakfast, 9.18.12 Writing in about the year 116, the pagan historian Tacitus described a fringe group of religious blasphemers who lived in Rome under the emperor Nero.  They refused to honor the gods.  They engaged in “superstitious abominations” and worshipped a crucified criminal.  They were blamed for […]

“We have no king but Caesar:” Some thoughts on Catholic faith and public life

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics and Culture Villanova University, 9.14.12   A priest I know does a lot of spiritual direction.  Two of the men he was helping died suddenly this past year, one of a heart attack and one of a stroke.  In both cases they were […]

Building a culture of religious freedom

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput Keynote address at Napa Institute Conference, Napa, Calif. July 26, 2012   A friend of mine, a political scientist, recently posed two very good questions.  They go right to the heart of our discussion today. He wondered, first, if the religious freedom debate had “crossed a Rubicon” in our country’s political […]

Catholics and the next America

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Assumption College November 10, 2011 My theme tonight focuses on Catholics and the American future.  But sometimes the best way to look at the future is through the lens of the past. One of the most sacred symbols of the Roman state was an altar to the goddess Victory.  […]