As widely speculated over recent weeks, this morning, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Charles Chaput, 66, as the ninth archbishop of Philadelphia. According to the Catholic News Agency, Pope Benedict handpicked Chaput for the appointment, selecting him over the recommendations by the Congregation for Bishops. (If that doesn’t show us how the Pope really cares about the direction of the Church throughout the world, I don’t know what will.) Until this time, Chaput has served as Archbishop of Denver.

Since becoming the shepherd of Denver in 1997, Chaput has focused most of his efforts on promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life, advancing the mission of the church, defending its authentic teachings, and embracing its cultural diversity.

According to the Denver archdiocesan website, Chaput has ordained nearly half of the priests serving the estimated 550,000 member church. In 1999, building off of the efforts of its former archbishop, the Archdiocese of Denver established the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. The establishment of the seminary was not only important for the promotion of vocations to the priesthood but also for the encouragement of vocations to the permanent diaconate and lay ministry.

In 2002, Archbishop Chaput and Bishop Jose Gomez–then Auxiliary Bishop of the Denver church–founded Centro San Juan Diego, an apostolic ministry focused on embracing the Hispanic heritage of the Catholic Church in the West. Chaput also co-founded the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (CALL) and ENDOW, a Catholic leadership initiative for promoting education on the dignity of women.

This year has been quite a year for me in seminary formation. The 2009-2010 year started way back during the second week of August as the new seminarians arrived at St. John Vianney College Seminary for New Student Experience. When the returning seminarians arrived back for the year on August 20th, we met a LARGE group of new men who had already bonded and congealed. The first few months were a bit difficult adjusting to the large number of seminarians, the largest sized house in some 35 years. However, once the returning men and the new men came together, walking on the same journey of discovering the Lord’s love for each one of us, we were able to bond as a house of brothers. It was going to be an interesting, grace-filled 50th Anniversary Year for the seminary community!!

On Thursday, September 17, 2009, the seminary community welcomed Christopher West, who came to share a bit about John Paul II‘s Theology of the Body. At the time of his visit, Mr. West had been receiving criticism of many people stating that his commentary on the JPII’s work had been misrepresented by the Theology of the Body Institute. However, the seminarians here can attest to the powerful ministry of Christopher West and the institute he founded. The day after his visit, Justin Cardinal Rigali (Archbishop of Philadelphia) and the Most Rev. Kevin Rhoades (then Bishop of Harrisburg) issued a joint statement in support of Christopher West. They wanted to “express strong support for the important work of the Theology of the Body Institute and, in particular, that of Christopher West.” They continued by saying: