Denver Bishop Is Known for Personable Style

Letters from new congregants in the Rocky Mountains arrive by the hundreds, and Bishop Charles J. Chaput answers every one.

Thousands of Catholics he will leave behind in South Dakota’s Black Hills ask for goodbye hugs and handshakes, and Chaput never disappoints. He is determined that his selection as the nation’s first American Indian archbishop will not change the way he connects with people.

“I don’t think I can remember 340,000 Catholics’ names, but I will certainly try my best to be present to people in a real way,” said Chaput, who was ordained this week. “That’s the most important thing I do as a bishop--to be present to people as their bishop and not just be a distant figure.”

In his nine years as bishop of the diocese in Rapid City, S.D., Chaput (pronounced SHAP-yoo) has always been more than just a symbolic figurehead. The energetic 52-year-old is as likely to be spotted on a racquetball court as to be seen entering a confessional.

Chaput’s racquetball time has been severely trimmed in the two months since he was named successor to former Denver Archbishop J. Francis Stafford.

“One of the things this has done is just throw my life out of balance. . . . You wouldn’t believe how much mail has come from Denver,” Chaput said. “I just haven’t had time for the kind of balance in my life that I usually have. I didn’t focus on Lent this year like I have in the past. I hope that doesn’t scandalize you.”

Scandalize? More like humanize.

“He doesn’t discriminate against young people, old people, babies, anybody,” said Ruby Gallegos, chief custodian at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Thornton, where Chaput was pastor from 1977 to 1980. “He opens his arms and greets you, and if he can’t open his arms, he waves.”

Placing others first has been a lifelong habit for Chaput. He mimicked Mass as age 5; he left for the seminary in Victoria, Kan., at 13. And he has spent most of his life as a member of the Capuchin order, which requires a vow of poverty.

Chaput donates his $11,000 Rapid City salary to the order, and many of his personal possessions are gifts from his years in South Dakota.

They include Indian artifacts, paintings, quilts and bedspreads--many made by members of the local Lakota Indian tribe, which he has helped into a more active role in the Catholic Church.

“I think the native people feel like one of their own has been the bishop here,” said Chaput, who did not grow up on a reservation but is an official member of the Prairie band Potawatomi Indian tribe of northeastern Kansas.

“They sense there’s a natural kind of sympathy toward their issues and concern about them. It’s been a wonderful blessing for them to welcome me so easily and openly, and they’ve really been friends in a deep kind of way. I’m going to miss that.”

The feeling is mutual in South Dakota, where Gov. William Janklow, a Lutheran, once said, “If the pope ever fires him, I’ll take him back and make him secretary of education.”

Chaput is not a Denver neophyte. He served here as regional head of the Capuchin Order from 1983 until his 1988 appointment to Rapid City.

“I always felt he was as close to Jesus walking on the Earth than anybody I’ve ever seen,” said Holy Cross business administrator Jackie Stanley. “I’ve never known anybody before or anybody since with that quality.”

Celine Erk, chancellor of the Rapid City diocese, knows that quality well.

“There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t thank you for what you’ve done for the day,” she said. “There’s always a pleasant smile and a look on his face that says he appreciates what you’ve done.”