Archbishop Chaput at the University of Notre Dame once more

Charles Chaput, the archbishop of Philadelphia, spoke at the University of Notre Dame again on 19 October 2016.  The National Catholic Register reports here.  

He begins by discussing a manuscript illustration of Mary he received via e-mail a week before his talk.  He writes:

It’s a picture of Mary punching the devil in the nose. She doesn’t rebuke him. She doesn’t enter into a dialogue with him.  She punches the devil in the nose. So I think that’s the perfect place to start our discussion.

He then gives an overview of his talk:

I want to speak first about the people we’ve become as American Catholics. Then I’ll turn to how and why we got where we are.  Finally, I’ll suggest what we need to do about it, not merely as individuals, but more importantly as a Church. We need to recover our identity as a believing community. And I think a good way to begin doing that is with the “catechetical content” of our current political moment. 

He speaks about the need to speak plainly and honestly, and how we live in an age that thrives on the subversion of language.  Near the close of his talk he says:

A theologian in my own diocese recently listed “inclusivity” as one of the core messages of Vatican II. Yet, to my knowledge, that word “inclusivity” didn’t exist in the 1960s and appears nowhere in the Council documents. 

If by “inclusive” we mean patiently and sensitively inviting all people to a relationship with Jesus Christ, then, yes, we do very much need to be inclusive. But if “inclusive” means including people who do not believe what the Catholic faith teaches and will not reform their lives according to what the Church holds to be true, then inclusion is a form of lying. And it’s not just lying, but an act of betrayal and violence against the rights of those who do believe and do seek to live according to God’s word. Inclusion requires conversion and a change of life; or at least the sincere desire to change. 

Saying this isn’t a form of legalism or a lack of charity. It’s simple honesty. And there can be no real charity without honesty. We need to be very careful not to hypnotize ourselves with our words and dreams. The “New Evangelization” is fundamentally not so different from the “old evangelization.” It begins with personal witness and action and with sincere friendships among committed Catholics — not with bureaucratic programs or elegant-sounding plans. These latter things can be important. But they’re never the heart of the matter.

It is an excellent talk and you should read it in its' entirety.