Denver Catholic

22 APRIL 8-21, 2017 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives Everyone deserves a chance to compete in the job market I n 2000, Pope John Paul II pro- claimed that, "we are still a long way from the time when our conscience can be certain of having done everything possible…to o• er those who commit crimes a way of redeeming themselves and making a positive return to society." In this statement, His Holiness reminded us that our faith requires us to ensure that our neighbors who sin receive both justice and mercy, not just the former.¶ Fast forward 17 years, re-entry into society is still both a daunting and discouraging task for too many formerly incarcerated individuals. The stigma of a criminal record — no matter how petty the o• ense — fol- lows people for life, as they try to sup- port their families, realize their full potential and become fully contrib- uting members of society. Perhaps nowhere is this stigma more prom- inent for an individual than in the search for a decent-paying job.¶ Nationally, only 40 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals report fi nding a job one year after their release. For those who can fi nd meaningful employment, they often earn substantially less than those without a criminal background. For the 1.5 million Coloradans on the state criminal data base, these facts hold profound implications for the course of their lives.¶ We agree with, and our faith calls for, reasonable punishment when one commits a sin against society. But our faith also calls for mercy and the vast majority of those who have com- pleted their punishment return home wishing to provide and care for their families. The fact that those among us who have been involved with the criminal justice system are often unable to compete in the workforce is a stain on our social fabric. When our neighbors are unable to work, their children su• er and our communities remain vulnerable to criminal acts. As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops notes: "We are all sinners, and our response to sin and failure should not be abandonment and despair, but rather justice, contri- tion, reparation, and return or reinte- gration of all into the community."¶ Reasonable steps can be taken to help these individuals compete in A bishop of consequence W hen I fi rst met Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., more than twenty years ago, I was struck by his boyish demeanor, his exquisite courtesy, and his rock- solid faith. Then the bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, a diocese that serves several res- ervations, Chaput was obviously proud of his Potawatomi heritage without wearing his roots, so to speak, on his sleeve. Moreover, his striking modesty and personal gen- tleness exemplifi ed the Franciscan vocation he had embraced. Here, I thought, is a real pastor, living out the meaning of his episcopal motto, "As Christ loved the Church." He was also a lot of fun. It was no easy business to return service in the rapid-fi re repartee led by our host that night, then-Msgr. Timothy Dolan. But Chaput played the rhetori- cal baseline like a pro. A few years after we met, he was named archbishop of Denver. And for the next fourteen years, I watched in admiration as Archbishop Chaput led what was, in many people's judgment, the premier New Evangelization dio- cese in the country. He was always the bottom line. But he governed the archdiocese in a genuinely collegial manner, which is one reason he drew many highly talented lay collabora- tors to Denver. No one who knew him doubted that he would have happily spent the rest of his life in the Mile High City. In 2011, however, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was in grave trouble, and Archbishop Chaput accepted the unenviable task of fi xing what had become a serious mess, fi nancially and otherwise. To agree to that trans- fer was an act of fi delity and courage by a man who loved his current job and had zero interest in what might once have been thought a "promo- tion." Yet when Pope Benedict asked him to do it, Chaput agreed. I thought then, and think now, that perhaps no other bishop in the country could have turned the Philadelphia situa- tion around as Archbishop Chaput did. Pope Francis's highly successful visit to Philly in 2015 was all to Cha- put's credit — although, typically, he publicly shared the credit with others. Immediately after the papal visit, Chaput, who had been elected by his American brother bishops to Synod- 2015, spent almost a month in Rome, where his qualities were quickly recognized by the world episcopate. After hearing him and watching his work as one of the Synod discus- sion-groups' secretaries, Archbishop Chaput drew the largest vote to the Synod General Council among the elected North American Synod del- egates, in an open ballot that some wags refer to as the "Iowa caucuses." It was a striking compliment. Archbishop Chaput has just published his third book, "Strang- ers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World" (Henry Holt). Like any sen- sible person, Chaput knows that the United States is living through a season of profound moral and cul- tural turbulence — turbulence that threatens to unravel the American democratic experiment. Yet for all his penetrating analysis of how the United States came to its present season of discontent, "Strangers in a Strange Land" is, fi nally, a hopeful book: a point that eluded reviewers whose familiarity with the actual text seems rather slight. Thus the arch- bishop closes on this note: "The Word of God testifi es to the goodness of creation, the gift that is life, and the glory of the human person. With this glory comes a duty. We are born for the City of God. The road home leads through the City of Man. So we are strangers in a strange land, yes. "But what we do here makes all the di• erence." For years, I was angered by the vicious caricature of Archbishop Charles Chaput as a dour, stridently orthodox, rigid culture-warrior: a calumny that dominates certain circles of portside Catholic commen- tary, here and elsewhere. But I'm no longer angry at the poor souls who continue to treat Archbishop Chaput as an ideological punching bag or dismiss him as a pre-Pope Francis bishop. Rather, I feel sorry for them. If Charles Chaput does not embody the spiritual and pastoral qualities the Pope says he values in bishops, no one does. Those who continue to miss that truth, here and elsewhere, are to be pitied for having failed to appreci- ate an admirable human being, a man of God, and a great churchman. The Catholic Di• erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL Guest Column Jenny Kraska is the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference. JENNY KRASKA FILE PHOTO BY JAMES BACA

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