archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

A senior Vatican official has offered his support to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver in a dispute in Colorado over the ability of Catholic Charities to hire and fire personnel on the basis of religious affiliation.

In mid-January, Chaput objected to a proposed measure currently before the Colorado legislature which would bar charitable agencies that receive state funding from discrimination on the basis of religion in personnel policies. In a column in his archdiocesan newspaper, Chaput argued that such a measure would compromise the Catholic identity of church-run charities, and that he would rather see those charities stop delivering services rather than comply.

"You are a renegade priest and a renegade citizen. Many people think you're a hero of nonviolence, but you're a phony. You're a fraud. You are a person of violence because you used a hammer on one of our nuclear weapons! You're a coward. You're afraid. You are no Gandhi. I will not join your cause, but I will not make a martyr out of you so that the world thinks you are the heir of Gandhi."