The Archbishop of Philadelphia, who is a member of the Capuchin order (a Franciscan).
He recently gave an extensive interview.
We have excerpted what he had to say about politics, values, and voting.
Chaput in Philly swims against 'nostalgia and red ink'
Politics
We’re speaking on the night Barack Obama is delivering his
acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. Let me ask
flat-out: Do you believe a Catholic in good faith can vote for Obama?
I can only speak in terms of my own personal views. I certainly can’t vote for somebody who’s either pro-choice or pro-abortion.
I’m not a Republican and I’m not a Democrat. I’m registered as an independent, because I don’t think the church should be identified with one party or another. As an individual and voter I have deep personal concerns about any party that supports changing the definition of marriage, supports abortion in all circumstances, wants to restrict the traditional understanding of religious freedom. Those kinds of issues cause me a great deal of uneasiness.
What about the wing of the church that says a party that supports the Ryan budget also ought to cause concern?
Jesus tells us very clearly that if we don’t help the poor, we’re going
to go to hell. Period. There’s just no doubt about it. That has to be a
foundational concern of Catholics and of all Christians. But Jesus
didn’t say the government has to take care of them, or that we have to
pay taxes to take care of them. Those are prudential judgments. Anybody
who would condemn someone because of their position on taxes is making a
leap that I can’t make as a Catholic. ... You can’t say that somebody’s
not Christian because they want to limit taxation. Again, I’m speaking
only for myself, but I think that’s a legitimate position. It may not be
the correct one, but it’s certainly a legitimate Catholic position; and
to say that it’s somehow intrinsically evil like abortion doesn’t make
any sense at all.
That said, do you find the Ryan budget troubling?
The Ryan budget isn’t the budget I would write. I think he’s trying to
deal with the same issue in the government I’m dealing with here
locally, which is spending more than we bring in. I admire the courage
of anyone who’s actually trying to solve the problems rather than paper
over them. I think a vigorous debate about the issues, rather than the
personalities, is the way through this problem. It’s immoral for us to
continue to spend money we don’t have. I think that those persons who
don’t want to deal with the issue are, in some ways, doing wrong by
putting it off for their own political protection or the protection of
their party.
Religious freedom has become the signature issue for the bishops’conference. Was the ‘Fortnight for Freedom’ a success?
It was a success in the sense that it brought this issue to greater
awareness in the lives of many Catholics. In terms of really changing
either the church or the national situation concretely, we have to yet
to see its effects. The history of the world demonstrates that if we
aren’t always on guard about religious freedom, we’ll lose it. It
happens everywhere, and it could happen in the United States.
Church officials in Europe, bishops and cardinals, have told me that they’re astonished there is an actual threat to religious freedom in the United States. They’ve always seen us as embodying religious freedom more clearly than any other government or country in the history of the world. It’s also surprising to me. I would never have thought, even ten years ago, that we would be dealing with it so quickly. What opened my eyes was my service to the United States as a member of the Commission on International Religious Freedom. I saw things in Western Europe that disturbed me in terms of limitations on religious freedom, mostly for non-Christian groups such as the Muslims. I thought that if Western Europe could do this, it could happen in the United States too.
Also tonight, Cardinal Timothy Dolan is delivering a
benediction at the DNC, after having done the same thing for the
Republicans. In 2008, you didn’t offer a benediction for the DNC when it
met in Denver. Had you been invited, would you have accepted?
I was safe from making that decision because they didn’t invite me. It
would have been very hard for me to have done it without saying things
about abortion and the meaning of marriage. If they would be willing to
let me be myself and say something about my convictions in my prayer,
then I would have prayed. If they would have restricted my freedom about
what I thought should be said, I wouldn’t have accepted.
Both U.S. Senators in Pennsylvania and the Governor are Catholic. How are your relationships with them?
I’m committed to on-going relationships with them because I’m the
Catholic bishop here. For the first time in a long while, we have three
or four men who could be executed under the death penalty law in the
state of Pennsylvania. I’m communicating formally with the governor
right now and the state legislature on this matter, because the church
is opposed to capital punishment and I’m certainly opposed to it.
Are you optimistic?
I certainly am. We haven’t executed anyone in Pennsylvania for a long
time, and there’s just no reason for anyone to be committed to doing
that.
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