Archbishop Chaput: People Should Want Trump To Succeed
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, spoke out on criticism of President Donald Trump, telling Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that some of his opponents are overly vigorous in their hostility to his administration.
"What my concern is about the way people are treating the president really has nothing to do with him. It has to do with his office. We should all want our countries to succeed and our country is not going to succeed if it's leaders are not given, somewhat, the support of the people. I think it's fine for us to disagree with the policies of our political leaders and I've done that very clearly and publicly sometimes, but to make them, as individuals, the object of scorn is never appropriate. That's what's happening these days. I'm very worried about the unity of our country. People should want him to succeed even if they don't like him at all."
Chaput said that while everyone should be free to speak openly, he hopes Trump's detractors will be more respectful in their discourse.
"We all have the right to our opinion. I think opinions of others, even when they very seriously disagree with me, should be respected and I think the tone of some people...isn't civil. They don't have an honest discussion. They just want to do their best to destroy who they see as their opponent."
He also explained the potential closure of the Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary as a cost-cutting measure that will allow for a better disbursement of funds.
"We going to make the decision at some time, hopefully in April or May, no later than June. We're going to close out the seminary that we've experienced here for so many years because it's just too big. It's a building that holds 500 people and we have 150 seminarians. For 20 or so, we've had a building that we were only using 40 percent of and that's not a prudent use of resources. Our seminary is actually growing, so it's not something for us to panic about. It's just that we want to be better stewards of the resources that God gives us. We're going to move near one of the Catholic college campuses here in the Philadelphia region so that we can share some things, faculty and other resources in order to make it more viable for us."
