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Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Nelson Perez to replace Archbishop Charles Chaput, who was Archbishop of Philadelphia from 2011 to 2020. After news of the announcement, CatholicCitizen.org reported that the new bishop was also a “deep sea diver not afraid to swim with the sharks.”
The shark “metaphor” was used because Philadelphia is right up there with Eric Adams’ New York and London Breed’s San Francisco when it comes to Sanctuary City policies—unless, of course, Mayor Cherelle Parker does something to change that.
Philadelphia Catholics take their identity as Catholics seriously while generally going along with whatever the hierarchy advocates in the way of change. There was almost no opposition among area Catholics after the Second Vatican Council’s reformatting of the Mass and the revolution in church architecture; however, that cannot be said when it comes to issues like abortion and euthanasia. As for illegal immigration, that would depend on your politics. A liberal Democrat and nominal Catholic like President Joe Biden would almost surely say that Catholic social teaching demands that the country throw open its doors to everyone—criminals, rapists, cartel drug dealers, serial killers, or dangerous young men “studying” to be revolutionaries.
In many ways, Philadelphia is all about conflating the definition between legal and illegal immigrant. In January of 2019 for instance, WHYY, the Philadelphia PBS affiliate, ran a series entitled, “Why more immigrants are taking sanctuary in Philly.” This multi-part series described the plight of several migrant families who left their home countries and came to the U.S. as refugees, ostensibly under the umbrella of the Refugee Act of 1980 which states that the legal status of an immigrant doesn’t matter during the petitioning for asylum process.
Under the Refugee Act, migrants can claim asylum even after deportation proceedings have begun. The Act does not include specialized “harm” requests that fall outside claims of religious or political persecution, although there are special provisions for refugees “under special humanitarian concerns” to be determined by the President.
The WHYY program profiled families that fell into special harm and humanitarian categories. The New Sanctuary Movement, a nationwide, coordinated network of churches committed to sheltering families and individuals who cannot legally remain in the country, was referenced a lot. ICE can apprehend New Sanctuary refugees as they make their way to and from a church shelter, but once inside the sanctuary the refugees are safe.
At that time of Chaput’s appointment as Archbishop of Philadelphia, the National Catholic Reporter stated, “Charles Chaput, whose blunt speech and strong leadership style made him both a celebrated and a controversial figure for almost fifteen years in Denver, was installed as the ninth Archbishop of Philadelphia on September 8, 2011. To say the very least, he’s had a tumultuous first year on the job.”
The National Catholic Reporter is a left-leaning, pro-illegal immigrant newspaper that might as well be the newsprint version of James A. Martin’s America magazine. “Catholic radical Lite” describes the magazine’s philosophy. During the papacy of John Paul II, for instance, the newspaper published radical papal critics Richard McBrien and (the now-deceased) Hans Küng. Today, NCR sings the praises of Pope Francis; there are certainly no critiques of his papacy but before Francis every pope was vulcanized, especially John Paul II who was regularly denounced as a reactionary Polish nationalist fixated on remaking the Church into a nightmare of intellectual repression.
The NCR (not to be confused with the authentically Catholic, National Catholic Register) also sings the praises of Dorothy Day’s social activism because of her embrace of the poor and racial minorities, while intentionally neglecting her defense of traditional Catholic morality, pro-life issues, the Latin Mass, her hostility to the female priest movement, and her vehement disdain for the “make-it-up-as-you-go-along” liturgies now common in Catholic Worker Houses throughout the country.
In the midst of the current presidential election year, NCR recently reported on a Catholics for Catholics-sponsored event, a “Catholic Prayer for Trump” at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s resort in Palm Beach Florida. The event, which hosted speakers like Roger Stone and the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, was lambasted by NCR as bordering on Christian nationalism.
NCR stated,
[Catholics for Catholics] may be the latest, and perhaps most bizarre, expression of Catholic-branded politics, but the phenomenon has been long in the making. In the past, Catholic-branded politics may have been a distant wish of those who longed for a Catholicism undisturbed by such a demanding Catholic social justice tradition…. those teachings that got in the way of unfettered capitalism and taking advantage of others in the name of progress. All that talk about the poor and justice and nonviolence and excessive military spending and exploitation of other cultures and their resources.
From skewed journalistic reporting to time-honored traditions and institutions, progressives ruin everything. Not only did they destroy the Catholic Mass; they cheapened the quality of liturgical vestments, exchanging the tapestry-evoking liturgical wear of the pre-Vatican II Church for Hilton Hotel bathrobe-style vestments that put one in mind of hot tubs and a bathroom Jacuzzi.
When Chaput first came to Philadelphia, NCR was quick to interview him, asking him why he didn’t offer a benediction for the DNC when it met in Denver.
“I was safe from making that decision because they didn’t invite me,” Chaput said. “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 m y 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.”
Chaput, a New York Times best-selling author, is a man of keen intellect, although one cannot peg him as a Traditional Catholic. When he was Archbishop of Denver, he did nothing to nix “rock band” Masses and liturgical abuse of this sort although he remained a stickler for Church doctrine, including refusing communion for Catholic politicians who support abortion and euthanasia. In Philadelphia, he roused the anger of the gay and lesbian community after his refusal to compromise on the issue of same sex marriage.
From the very start of his tenure, Chaput was at odds with the Philadelphia media machine, which had few good things to say about him since his installation in 2011. He was lampooned constantly and pegged as dangerously polarizing for his defense of unpopular political and religious matters. The demonization of Chaput occurred not only in The Philadelphia Inquirer but in many of the city’s weeklies, including The Philadelphia Gay News, and the (now defunct) Philadelphia Weekly.
Recently, Archbishop Emeritus Chaput published his thoughts on the Francis pontificate and Francis’ “studied ambiguity” in the publication First Things. Chaput writes,
His refusal to live in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, his disdain for some of the normal formalities of his office, and his habit of feeding confusion with imprudent, and even provocative, public comments. It also explains his peculiar hostility for the old Latin Mass and the alleged reactionaries who “cling” to it—some of them, yes, bitter backsliders and nostalgia addicts, but others who are merely young persons and families seeking beauty, stability, and some connection with the faith’s past in their worship.
Retirement doesn’t usually have many blessings, but in Chaput’s case it is enabling him to continue to speak out against the corruption eating away at the soul of the Roman Church.