Charles Chaput

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput posted a defense of the decision by Sacred Heart parish in Boulder to expel the children of a lesbian couple. In the face of mounting bad press criticizing the school for discrimination, Chaput explained simply that Sacred Heart is Catholic and that gay sex and marriage are not condoned by the [...]

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput made media-catching public pronouncements during the Democratic National Convention here that Catholic pro-choice then-Senator Joseph Biden should not take communion while he was in town. It was a strong anti-abortion political statement. U.S. bishops have taken very public similar stances against pro-choice Catholic lawmakers Patrick Kennedy and John Kerry.
But, as [...]

DENVER– In the next few months, as the Kansas-based Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System assumes control of two hospitals in the metro area formerly run by Exempla Healthcare, nearly 40 percent of hospital beds here will be run under directives approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Abortions will be limited to cases where the mother is at risk of death. Reproductive services will also likely be severely curtailed, as will end-of-life care, regardless of legal advance directives authored by patients.

Conservative “Backbone Radio” talk show host John Andrews wrote an end-of-the-year Denver Post column Sunday nominating Archbishop Charles Chaput as his Coloradan of the Year. “The good archbishop models self-government and self-giving,” Andrews wrote. But how can it be a good idea to be lauding any member of the Catholic hierarchy for doing anything remotely [...]

Religious leaders signed a pledge Friday announcing that they won’t abide by laws that support gay marriage or abortion. Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and Focus on the Family’s Founder James Dobson and President Jim Daly joined 125 other conservative religious leaders in signing the so-called Manhattan Declaration. The declaration comes amid the contentious national health [...]

This past weekend the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops instructed pastors at parishes across the country to distribute material urging Catholics to oppose the health reform bills making their way through Congress for allowing public funding of abortions. Priests were to insert the Bishops Conference pdf leaflets and letters into parish news bulletins, distribute them [...]

According to a poll conducted this month by Belden Russonello and Stewart for the group Catholics for Choice, churchgoing Catholics support both a public option in health reform and a national plan that would include funding for abortion.
Catholics for Choice president Jon O’Brien said the poll results suggest the views of Catholics on health [...]

Catholic leadership has worked to block health care reform mostly by arguing that Democratic plans fail to guard against public funding for abortions. Money paid into a government plan would be “fungible,” argued Cardinal Justin Rigali (pdf), chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in an August letter to [...]

Two conservative leaders in Colorado, Archbishop Charles Chaput and state Senator Greg Brophy, R-Wray, are advancing the position that no health reform is better than the reform presently being proposed by Democratic leaders in Washington. It’s a refreshingly honest if shockingly hard-line position to adopt in the face of a national crisis that affects people [...]

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, head of the North American Vatican investigation into the secretive Legionaries of Christ Catholic order, has long been familiar with negative allegations concerning the order and its leader Father Marcial Maciel Degollado. Some ten years ago, Chaput received into the archdiocese and gave prominent places here to three unhappy emigres from [...]