PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O’Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
A year after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia passed into his hands, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is arguably within his rights when he avows, “It’s hard to say I love it here.”
Since his installation on Sept. 8, 2011, the drama has been unremitting.
He has: closed nine parishes and 27 schools; laid off 18 percent of the archdiocesan administrative staff and shut down the 117-year-old newspaper to shrink a $17.5 million operating deficit; turned over management of the high schools to a private foundation; sold the cardinal’s mansion and put the retired priests’ Shore villa up for sale; led a fervid religious-freedom crusade against President Obama’s health-care law; seen his chief financial officer convicted of embezzling nearly $1 million; weathered the child-endangerment trial and conviction of the former head of the clergy office; removed seven sexually abusive priests from ministry – and in his words, “It’s still not finished.”
The problems have been so grave that any one of them “would be enough for one year, without being all in one year,” Chaput said recently.
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