Berkley Center

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. He was then appointed bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota in 1988 and of Denver in 1997. 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 also served on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2003 to 2006.