‘The courage to be candid’ - Chaput on Francis, and what's next

"We’re meant to be active witnesses of Jesus Christ, not fellow travelers."

Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., is the emeritus archbishop of Philadelphia, a long-time leader among American bishops, and an influential voice among American Catholics for decades.

The archbishop spoke with The Pillar this week about the Francis papacy, and what he thinks the Church needs now.

Pope Francis and Archbishop Charles Chaput, right, meet at St. Peter’s Square in 2015. Credit: Vatican Media.

You met Pope Francis almost 30 years ago —1997 — when you were both diocesan bishops, and you've said you were impressed by him then, and continued to regard him warmly. What attributes of Francis can the Church learn from?

He had a naturally generous instinct toward the people he met, and he understood the nature of small gestures. After the 1997 synod, where we met and worked together in Rome, he sent me a beautiful personal note and novena prayer with a little portrait of Our Lady Undoer of Knots. It was one of his favorite Marian devotions. I had it on my desk every day for years.

Little kindnesses aren’t expensive, but they stay in the memory, lift the spirit, and have an impact much larger than their size. Pope Francis understood that. We could all learn from it, and the world would be a better place if we did.

While you praised Pope Francis and his initiatives during his papacy, and you spoke often of your personal regard for him, you also raised criticisms during the Francis pontificate about issues that concerned you.

The most damaging parts of Francis’ style were his lack of interest in clarifying theological issues and his obvious distaste for some parts of the Church. He declined to respond, for example, to serious questions raised by the dubia of various cardinals after Amoris Laetitia.

Every pope has two key roles in his relationship with the universal Church: a) being, in his person, a source and center of Church unity, and b) clarifying the teaching of the Church in matters of controversy.

Pope Francis was often a cause of disunity because of his style and temperament. And he declined to clarify theological debates when he was called on to do so. He seemed to refuse responsibility in those areas of responsibility required of a pope.

As Catholics, what we believe and how we worship bind us together as a believing community. We have different languages, ethnicities, and local cultures. But we believe and worship as one faithful people who then engage the world with the love of Jesus Christ. In other words, creed matters. So do the teachings that derive from it.

Pope Francis, too often, spoke too loosely about serious issues, confusing his listeners and diminishing the gravity of his office. He created ambiguity around important matters of doctrine, Christian practice, and Church law. And that never ends well.

How did you navigate your approach to a papacy that was challenging?

The faith is lived at the local level. On most issues of a Christian life, Rome is far away and not immediately relevant. It’s the local bishop and his pastors who shape the tenor of Catholic culture. I tried to highlight the good in the Francis pontificate — and there was a lot of good — and I tried to clarify things that were problematic.

How should Catholics weigh their obligations to filial piety, and to obedience, with the convictions of their conscience, and the call of the Gospel to speak the truth?

As St. Paul said, we have a duty to speak the truth, but always with love. Christian obedience is never mechanical. It assumes the good will of those in legitimate authority, shows them genuine respect, and subordinates the self to their guidance until they deviate from what the Church has always held as true. In other words, life in the Church is a bit like life in a healthy marriage. The mutual obedience of spouses involves complete fidelity to each other and putting the other spouse first.

But real love is always grounded in truth. Which means spouses have an obligation to correct each other — with love — when the behavior or thinking of one spouse or the other starts to go wrong. A healthy obedience, including obedience in the Church, demands a lot of humility. That should be our first instinct. But it also demands the courage to be candid on matters of substance. Criticism of authority is not always wrong. Sometimes it’s necessary.

Among some American Catholics, criticisms of the Francis pontificate seemed to spur a kind of cynicism about ecclesial leadership on the whole. It seems to me that cynicism could feed a crisis of hope. What does it mean to endure in hope, for Catholics who struggled with Pope Francis' leadership?

Americans are bad at history. We don’ t really value it because we imagine ourselves as a “new order of the ages.” Those words, in Latin, are stamped on the Great Seal of the United States.

But for anyone who takes his Catholic faith seriously, knowing history is essential.

Church history is our memory as a believing people, and one of its key lessons is that, no matter how badly we fail, no matter how miserably we mess things up, and no matter how bleak things look, God raises up the saints to renew his Church.

So there’s no excuse for cynicism. It gets in the way of self-examination and personal conversion, which are always the first steps in any wider effort of Church reform and renewal. Clinging to resentments about this or that perceived problem in the Francis pontificate achieves nothing.

You've said recently that the Church needs now "a leader who can marry personal simplicity with a passion for converting the world to Jesus Christ.” What other attributes do you think are needed for the Church right now?

A strong Christian intellect, preferably made stronger by the experience of suffering or sacrifice.

Do you think the College of Cardinals will be looking for what you're looking for?

I have no idea. I think most of the cardinals will bring an honest desire for the good of the Church into the conclave.

I have confidence in God and in his Church, whatever the outcome.

Regardless of who becomes pope, diocesan bishops, parish priests, religious, and lay people also need to be those kinds of leaders today. What is your advice to them?

There’s an enormous amount of good in our country, and I’m sad that Pope Francis failed to see and appreciate that. But it’s also true that we’ve created the most successful materialist culture in history. In practice, religion gets squeezed to the margins by an endless parade of consumer appetites and distractions. Supernatural concerns interfere with consumption. God isn’t so much attacked — although more overt hostility is happening now — as ignored and rendered irrelevant.

Over the next generation or two, we’ll need people and leaders who are less eager to assimilate, more critical of what our country’s becoming, and much more serious and courageous about their Catholic faith.

We’re meant to be active witnesses of Jesus Christ, not fellow travelers. That will demand a disciplined life of self-education by immersing ourselves in Scripture and good Catholic reading material, and taking a more active role in faith support groups. We need to pay closer attention to what’s happening in the Church and in the world, and not be afraid to express our concerns to Church leaders.

And of course, the importance of prayer, adoration, and the sacraments can’t be overstated. They’re fundamental.