Charles J. Chaput

This shows my bias up front, I guess.

Um, uh, it r- after reading it and understanding it, uh, so easily, um, it made me pretty convinced that the, um, figureheads of resistance against Amoris Laetitia, people like Cardinal Burke and, um, Archbishop Chaput and others, um, that it seemed like manufactured, um, controversy, uh, more like manufactured controversy rather than genuine, um, seeking to understand.

Um, so yeah, i-in any case, um, this document, Amoris Laetitia, was a pivotal document for me in my own deconstruction away from a rigid and transactional faith, um, into a faith grounded much more on the gratuitous love of God.

It's also a document that I cite often in my work, um, trying to address spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience in the Church.

Okay.

So Pope Francis taught this in Amoris Laetitia.

Um, people did not like what he taught, um, especially some folks in the United States like Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Chaput, et cetera.

Um, and there was some resistance there, but there wasn't in all parts of the church.

They're going to imitate your example.

And I remember Archbishop Chaput saying, hold on, that the greatest gift a father could give his children is to love their mother.

And conversely, the greatest gift a mother could give her children is to love their father.

She could douse them in gifts and all of that.

And I know him for forty years, and as all he ever was, was a servant.

Archbishop Chaput as well.

And the great diocesan priests I know were servants.

Cardinal Terence Cook, a servant.

I act like a priest by giving to him the sacrifice of my life, all of it in its entirety.

We were talking last night to the men in the men's fellowship, quoting a little bit from Archbishop Chaput, who's the archbishop in Denver.

And he was addressing the question, what service, if you will, or what gift can Catholics best give to the country in which we live? And Chaput's answer is, don't lie.

If you say you're Catholic, prove it.

If we're going to be disciples of Jesus, strive to give him everything.

This now goes back about 20 years.

It was Archbishop Chaput had a lot to do with the reform of this whole thing, to have what we now call the propaedeutic year, right? Before you even enter into seminary formation formally, there's a year, and they often use the term of detox.

You have to detox a young person from this internet, uh, culture.

Because part of the propaedeutic, and I would say to a person, 'cause I talk to these, these young kids, um, what they remember the most and appreciate the most about the propaedeutic year, they, they study, they pray, and all this, but what they remember most is, "They took my phone away, and how my whole life changed for the better," you know? So yes, I do think at times r- real abstention from it is a good thing, to learn a more temperate approach to it.

So we put it away in the storage closet, didn't think anything else of it.

The sisters told us that Archbishop Chaput wanted to buy us dinner.

So we left the convent that day and we went off, and he took us out to this amazing Italian dinner, and he knew the waitress, and she sang opera for us.

And I'm like, "Who are you?" Like, who do you know that you can get somebody to sing opera for you-