Charles J. Chaput

The Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput is the current archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, serving there since 2011. In 1968, he became a Brother in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a branch of the Franciscans and was ordained a priest in 1970. In 1977, he became pastor of Holy Cross parish in Thornton, Colorado and appointed Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota in 1988. The same year he was consecrated bishop of that diocese. In 1997, he was appointed Archbishop of Denver. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at The Catholic University of America and served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2003 to 2006. Chaput is the author of Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life (2008), in which he argues that Catholics should take a more active role in the political process and that private convictions cannot be separated from public actions without diminishing both. He believes that American democracy depends upon an engaged citizenry, including religious believers, to function properly.