Page Download(s)
file size: 217KB
Twenty-Fourth Sunday of the Year
13 September 2009
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput is the Archbishop of Denver and one of the most energetic and courageous pastors in the United States. During a time of chaos in our seminaries, Archbishop Chaput reformed the seminary of his archdiocese and made it one of the most outstanding houses of priestly formation in the country. At a moment when the forces of secularization are aggressively seeking to exclude the voice of religion from the public square, he has been a steadfast witness to the truth of the Gospel both within in the Church and to the world around us. And among the Catholic bishops of the United States, Archbishop Chaput stands as a model of fulfilling the threefold duties of the priesthood: to teach, to sanctify, and to govern the Church of Christ.
In the summer of 2008, Archbishop Chaput published a book entitled Render unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life. This outstanding exploration of the complex relationship between religion and public life provides both theoretical and practical guidance needed to help Catholics bear witness to the Lord Jesus in the midst of a culture increasingly hostile to the Gospel, and I highly recommend this proverbial slim volume for your reading list.
For all of these reasons, Archbishop Chaput will be honored on Thursday 8 October with a banquet at the Hilton Charlotte Center City in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The dinner is sponsored by the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College, a program of Catholic formation for young adults founded and directed by Patrick Madrid, a well-known apologist and publisher of Envoy magazine. During the dinner on October 8th, tributes will be offered to Archbishop Chaput by George Weigel, the biographer of Pope John Paul II, and by Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things magazine and successor of Father Richard John Neuhaus in that post. At the end of the evening, Archbishop Chaput will give an address on the themes described above.
As you can see from the list of speakers, this will be a splendid gathering of Catholics, and those who want to join this thought provoking evening can make reservations by contacting Joan Bradley at joanbradley@bac.edu or 704.461.6009. You can also learn more about the Envoy of the Year Gala and the work of the Envoy Institute by going to www.envoyinstitute.net. Individual tickets are $175, and tickets for couples are $300. Together with the trip to Charlotte for the dinner, this is not a cheap affair! But all proceeds will support the important work of the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College, and you can be sure that the evening will be spectacular.
Father Newman