The Pastoral Style of Archbishop Chaput - Responds To You On Pope Francis Interview

Up in Philly Archbishop Chaput has an excellent take on the big Pope Francis Interview. See Pope Francis and ‘The Interview’ . Besides what I think is his right take on the Papal interview I was struck by exactly what Chaput himself was doing .

That was he reading a good many emails from just ordinary folks and I have doubt he was answering them.

This reminded me of some comments Chaput , who at that the time was Archbishop of Denver , made to a panel of journalists .


But see, we’re perceived as doing things we really don’t do. Sometimes that’s our own fault by our failures to communicate very well. But it’s hard to do that when you can communicate so quickly. Everybody does it. You know, all these blog sites now. It’s just amazing. How do you ever respond to all that? I personally – on the average – spend three hours a day answering mail. Most bishops probably wouldn’t do that because they just have a different pastoral style than I do. I do it for two reasons. One, I think that if I don’t answer it, it makes the church look worse because “they don’t care about me.” But secondly, I think it’s an opportunity to evangelize. But it’s hard to do. I mean, three hours a day –

Three hours a DAY ! Which in Philly means he might be putting in much more time.