Archbishop Emeritus Chaput Calls Out President Biden; SNAP responds

(For Immediate Release October 24, 2022) 

In a talk he gave to Catholics in Arlington, Virginia, Philadelphia Archbishop Emeritus, Charles Chaput calls out United States president Joseph Biden as a liar and a hypocrite, weaponizing the sacraments along the way.

Who is the hypocrite and liar? Charles Chaput is part of a Capuchin province that is far from being the minority of abusive clerics in Guam. In Denver, while archbishop, Chaput wounded victims of sex abuse, note the case of Katia Birge, who was allegedly raped by a Catholic lay minister when she was 25. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, chastised Chaput in the matter.

While in Denver, Chaput never published a list of abusers of his own order. His brother Capuchin, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, is from a Capuchin province that also has never published a list of abusers and who purports to be the lead cardinal for the US response to the Catholic sex abuse crisis. How can O'Malley lead anything when his own order is hiding its abusive clerics?

When he worked in Philadelphia, he let down more victims of abuse. In one case, and with cowardice, Chaput canceled a meeting with a victim once local media learned of the planned appointment. In an address to Ohio seminarians on March 27, 2019, Chaput blamed sexual abuse in the Catholic Church on "a trend of predatory homosexuality and a failure to remove it out of church life." 

In May 2016, the Pennsylvania Legislature was on track to move legislation that would eliminate civil and criminal statutes of limitations in cases of sexual abuse and provide a window of time for victims who were time-barred from civil action. As Archbishop of Philadelphia, Chaput corralled the diocesan priests to give them ‘pulpit tips’ to encourage parishioners to call their local state representatives to vote no on the proposed legislation. That bill never made it through the judiciary committee.

In our opinion, the archbishop should put down the bullhorn and the rocks until he has cleaned up his own glass house while in retirement and active on the speaking circuit. Because of Chaput's and O'Malley's hypocrisy and secrecy, President Biden and all other Catholics may be taking their sacraments from abusers.

CONTACT: Mike McDonnell, SNAP Communications Manager([email protected], 267-261-0578), Becky Ianni, Virginia SNAP Leader [email protected], 703-801-6044) Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Board President, ([email protected], 814-341-8386)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

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