The Most Reverend Charles Chaput, OFMCap, was appointed to become the Archbishop of Philadelphia on July 19, 2011, in part due to his aggressive and responsible handing of priestly sex abuse cases. The Archdiocese had serious problems in that regard, under former Archbishops Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua and, to a lesser extent, Justin Cardinal Rigali. One would have thought that such would have made The Philadelphia Inquirer’s far-left columnist Will Bunch happy, but no, Mr Bunch preferred to refer to him as Archbishop Rush Limbaugh.
Actually, being Archbishop Rush Limbaugh, someone dedicated to the letter of the law, would be a good thing!
And today? The distinguished columnist decides to tout an OpEd by Alfred G. Mueller II, an assistant dean of the William T. Daly School of General Studies and Graduate Education at Stockton University, and it seems that Dr Mueller doesn’t like Archbishop Emeritus Chaput very much.
Philly Archbishop Emeritus Charles J. Chaput recently wrote about Pope Francis. His take is narrow and troubling.
Chaput may assert the pope was “inadequate to the real issues,” but the truth is that Francis was challenging to those more often concerned with ideological policing than with pastoral care.
by Alfred G Mueller II | Wednesday, May 7, 2025 | 5:00 AM EDT
Archbishop Emeritus Charles J. Chaput’s recent critique of the late Pope Francis in the publication First Things, published with the authority of someone who once led Philadelphia‘s archdiocese, presents a narrow and troubling view of a pontificate that resonated deeply with millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
His assertion that Pope Francis was “inadequate to the real issues facing the Church” rests on a flawed premise that fidelity to the Gospel must resemble rigid continuity with the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI in form, rather than in spirit.
Francis was not hostile to the Second Vatican Council, nor to his predecessors.
What he challenged, rightly, was the uniquely militant strain of conservatism that has taken root in segments of the Catholic Church in America. This is a conservatism more often concerned with ideological policing than with pastoral care, more invested in patrolling doctrinal borders than in proclaiming the liberating joy of the Gospel.
That’s a pretty much standard criticism of the late Pope Francis. But it misses, I think, one of the most important parts of the Gospel of John, chapter 8:
7: When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8: And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground.
9: But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst.
10: Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?
11: Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.
Jesus shows the woman caught in adultery the forgiveness of sin, but he also commands her not sin again. Too frequently we have those two separated, with those championing the forgiveness of sin, without the command not to sin again, and vice versa. Both are part of the message Jesus teaches us.
But here is where I have the biggest problem with Dr Mueller’s OpEd, significantly further down:
Nowhere is this starker than in the calls among some of the militant conservatives for a return to the Latin Mass, a rite conducted in a dead language, unintelligible to most Catholics, with the priest literally turning his back on the people. That gesture speaks volumes: a church turned inward, away from its faithful, away from the world it is called to serve.
I did something really radical and followed Dr Mueller’s hyperlink, and what did I find? An article in The Pillar, an independent Catholic journalism site which is definitely on the conservative side.
Capitol Latin Mass: ‘Traditional Catholics are not terrorists’
About 50 Catholics attended a Traditional Latin Mass in the U.S. Capitol Tuesday
The Pillar | January 23, 2024
Catholics gathered in room H-137 of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, for a celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, believed to be the first time the extraordinary form of the liturgy has been celebrated at the seat of the federal legislature.
The noon Mass, organized by the Arlington Latin Mass Society, was originally scheduled to take place in a different room, H-122, the private dining room of the Speaker of the House, but was moved shortly before the event began to accommodate the congregation.
According to organizers, the Mass was not approved by the Archdiocese of Washington, despite restrictions on liturgies celebrated with the preconciliar liturgical texts.
The congregation for the Mass numbered nearly 50 people, and ranged in age from a 1-year-old baby to Massgoers in their middle 60s. The attendees, which included both visitors to the Capitol as well as Congressional staffers, gathered to mark the one year anniversary of the FBI’s “Richmond memo.”
That memo, written Jan. 23, 2023, identified the supposed domestic security threat posed by “radical-traditionalist Catholics” and outlined a rationale for Federal law enforcement to develop sources and informants within Latin Mass communities.
We have previously reported on the FBI surveillance of “radical traditionalist Catholics”, noting that this occurred under President Joe Biden, who is (supposedly) Catholic himself.
After it leaked, the memo triggered considerable backlash among Catholics, with Virginia’s two bishops denouncing the text as “alarming,” “outrageous,” and “troubling and offensive to all communities of faith as well as to all Americans.”
The memo also kicked off a political storm, with the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government holding hearings, and issuing a report which found that while the FBI’s director testified that the agency did “not categorize investigations as domestic terrorism based on the religious beliefs” of Catholics, “an FBI-wide memorandum originating from the FBI’s Richmond Field Office did just that.”
The Wall Street Journal characterized then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony as concealing that the investigation was “more widespread” than he admitted.
There’s a lot more in The Pillar article, but what you will not find is a call for “a return to the Latin Mass,” which in any proper understanding of English grammar is a statement that those evil, radical, traditionalist Catholics are calling for the Tridentine (Traditional Latin) Mass to replace the Novus ordo Mass. What they were calling for is the relaxing on Pope Francis Traditionis custodes, which does not ban the Tridentine Mass, but greatly restricts its availability. There are, of course, a few very traditional Catholics who do believe that the Traditional Latin Mass should replace the Novus ordo, but that wasn’t what Dr Mueller cited.
Mr Bunch, as you’d guess, only sees the Archbishop of Philadelphia, and the Catholic Church in general, in political terms, but that’s not how the Church should be seen or defined. In American political terms, the Church is very liberal on some things: immigration, welfare, capital punishment, and ‘social justice’, to name a few. But the Church is also very conservative on other things, condemning prenatal infanticide, homosexual activity, ‘transgenderism’, in vitro fertilization, homosexual ‘marriage,’ and divorce. If your only view of the Church is through a political lens, you’ll never understand it.