Charles Joseph Chaput OFMCap (/ˈʃæpjuː/ SHAP-yoo;[1] born September 26, 1944) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church.

He previously served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Denver in Colorado (1997–2011) and bishop of the Diocese of Rapid City in South Dakota (1988–1997).

[3][4] His mother was a Native American of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe; his maternal grandmother was the last member of the family to live on a reservation.

He was part of a group of Native Americans who greeted Pope John Paul II when he visited Phoenix, Arizona, in 1987.

The investigation was prompted by sexual abuse accusations against the group's founder, Reverend Marcial Maciel, who had been removed from ministry in 2006[12][13][14] On July 19, 2011, Chaput was appointed as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by Pope Benedict XVI.

[23] In his book Render unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, Chaput exhorts Catholics to take a "more active, vocal, and morally consistent role" in the political process, arguing that private convictions cannot be separated from public actions without diminishing both.

[24] Chaput has stated that absolute loyalty to the Church's teachings on core, bioethical, and natural law doctrinal issues must be a higher priority for Catholics than their identity as Americans, their party affiliation and agenda and the laws of their country; Chaput also argues that for a Catholic, loyalty to God is more important than any other identity.

[26] The New York Times in 2004 reported that Chaput said it was sinful for Catholics to vote for Democratic US presidential nominee Senator John Kerry.

[29] In public comments, his linkage of the eucharist to the policy stances of political candidates and their supporters were seen as a politicization of moral theology.

[30] In 2009, Chaput criticized a "spirit of adulation bordering on servility" toward President Barack Obama, remarking that "in democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs".

Chaput also dismissed the notion that Obama was given a broad mandate, saying that he was elected to "fix an economic crisis" and not to "retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life, and abortion".

And the twisting is done by the culture of sexual anarchy, personal excess, political hatreds, intellectual dishonesty, and perverted freedoms that we've systematically created over the past half-century.

[34] In 2015, Chaput supported the dismissal of Margie Winters, the director of religious education at Waldron Mercy Academy in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.

When a parent reported their marriage to Waldron, Principal Nell Stetser asked Winters to resign; when she refused, the school did not renew her contract.

On October 4, 2018, at the Synod on Young People and Vocations in Rome Chaput objected to the use of the terms "LGBT" or "LGBTQ" in church documents.

He accused past Catholic leaders of "ignorance, cowardice and laziness in forming young people to carry the faith into the future.