Indian Archbishop To Be Ordained

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

Thousands of Catholics he’ll leave behind in South Dakota’s Black Hills ask for goodbye hugs and handshakes, and Chaput never disappoints. He’s 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,” says Chaput, who will be ordained Monday. “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.”

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,” says Chaput, who did not grow up on a reservation but is an official member of the Prairieband Potawatomi Indian tribe of northeastern Kansas.