Faces of Faith: 46th ward alderman James Cappleman
(POSTED: 1/30/12) For every matter brought before the Chicago City Council, Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said his decisions are influenced by his background in faith.
“My beliefs continue to evolve, and I like that,” Cappleman said. “But they are grounded in what’s fair, and also in social justice.”
It’s a kind of spirituality, he said, “that focuses on including others, especially those who feel they do not have a place at the dinner table.”
Cappleman, who won a runoff election in 2011 to represent residents in Uptown and parts of Lake View and Andersonville, is a practicing Roman Catholic and former Franciscan friar. He is also openly gay and planning a civil union ceremony (to be performed by a so-called “Catholic woman priest,” a woman who claims ordination but is not recognized as a priest by the official Church) later this year with his longtime partner, Richard Thale.
A Texas native, Cappleman grew up just outside of Houston in a big Catholic household with seven siblings, including a twin brother. As a young boy, Cappleman said he sensed something was different about him because of his sexual orientation, but he didn’t know what it was at that point.
“I tried to say the Lord’s Prayer over and over again every night, and my goal was to get fixed,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was, but I knew something was wrong. I think that was my initial concept of God. Out of that I developed a spirituality, as I was trying to wrestle with something that was wrong with me.”
When Cappleman was 15, his father committed suicide. In dealing with the tragedy, he really began to question his notion of God, religion and Catholic doctrine.
“At the time he died, we didn’t know if he could have a Catholic funeral,” Cappleman said. “We were always taught that if someone committed suicide it was a mortal sin and they would go to hell. I had to rethink all that.”
His brothers and sisters did the same. Though all raised Catholic, his siblings now represent a broad spectrum of faiths, including Judaism, Lutheranism, Southern Baptist, Catholicism and atheism. One brother is also a Dominican priest.
“To me, that’s wonderful,” Cappleman, 59, said. “Everyone needs to find their own path.”
Cappleman explored other religions, too, and for about 10 years he was Episcopalian. He went back to Catholicism, though, partly because of the sacraments and his family roots.
Over the years, “my notion of prayer has changed and my sense of God has become much more inclusive,” he said. “I see the presence of God in a lot of things and in a lot of religions.”
In 1982, Cappleman entered the Cincinnati-based Province of St. John the Baptist of the Order of Friars Minor. He took temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and for some time contemplated entering the priesthood.
Ultimately, he decided that religious life wasn’t right for him.
“I acknowledged my sexual orientation as a Franciscan friar, but I was fine with being celibate,” Cappleman said. “I had a sense that I wasn’t really being true to myself, that I was taking a safer route.”
After he left the order, Cappleman taught at a Catholic school in Chicago for a few years. He quit after another teacher he knew at a different Catholic school was fired for being seen at a gay pride parade.
“I just knew it was a matter of time until it would be discovered that I was gay,” he said. “It got me nervous. I didn’t like having to live in the closet.”
Cappleman then became a social worker — “a profession where I didn’t have to hide” — and a community activist. He found a home in Dignity/Chicago, an LGBT Catholic organization, and served as the group’s president for a few years.
“There I really understood that as a gay man, I had a responsibility of making others feel accepted and loved for who they are,” Cappleman said. “As the saying goes, God made me, and God doesn’t make junk.”
The Vatican issued a letter in 1986 calling homosexuality a “disorder,” and Church hierarchy continues to adamantly oppose same-sex marriage and denounce homosexual acts.
Cappleman, however, believes “it’s OK to go against some of the teachings if you make an informed decision, and my decision is informed.”
Why does he stay Catholic?
“Just as the cardinal and the pope have every right to claim their faith, so do I,” he said. “We are all on equal footing in that we are all baptized Catholics.”
“I do struggle, still,” he added. “I still become impatient that the Roman Catholic Church has not ordained women and that they still don’t allow same-sex marriage. That is still disappointing, but I think in time that may change.”
By Katie Drews, for ChicagoCatholicNews.com
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked! Why this person is referred to as a “practicing Roman Catholic” is truly mystifying. I sense that we have here, a sadly confused, conflicted, and unstable soul who could use counseling to untangle the pretzel logic that fogs his mind. This is the second article in recent months that I’ve read concerning him. The first one was bad enough, now this.
1. Cappleman is in serious violation of Catholic Church teaching if what he says is accurate, especially if he is a public official. We simply don’t excommunicate public officials that disobey and disregard Catholic teaching and authority. Rather we must pray that Cappleman finds God, reads the Cathecism of the Catholic Church, obeys it, and returns to the flock. We pray for this man and his salvation.
2. If the publisher of this online “news” source is Catholic, he is breaking Canon Law 216 by using the word Catholic in its title. Please remove it or you will be reported to the Archdiocese of Chicago until you receive approval from the bishop.
Where do I gain a sense of God’s unconditional love and acceptance? Is it from someone like Cappleman who comes across in this article as being compassionate and grounded in the values of social justice, or is it from someone pushing obedience in order to avoid God’s wrath?
Everyone has their own thoughts and interpretations of God’s type of interactions with us, but I can’t help but believe it all boils down to this: We should be focused on embracing God’s unconditional love for us rather than God’s expectations of us. Knowing God’s love will ultimately direct us. I pick up more on the unconditional love of God coming from Cappleman than from those Catholics who are so focused on following the letter of the law.
Since we exist in community with all humanity and experience God’s wrath as a people when the numbers who turn from Him are great, it behooves us to strive to please God. Not just because we obey out of fear, but rather out of love for all creation. If pointing out the danger one places himself in when one publicly espouses views that are seriously in contrast with the dogmatic teachings of the Church in which one claims membership, makes me appear to be judgemental, so be it. If fraternal correction is to be withheld because a sinner can find his way home to God without it, why on Earth did Christ send forth His apostles to teach and correct? Are we to disregard St. Paul’s epistles? Is eternal separation from God an empty threat for obstinacy in sin and willful disdain of God’s revealed truth? Just asking.
I just don’t see a God whose anger must be appeased. Jesus introduced us to a radical concept of God as parent… someone who intimately loves us for who we are just as a good parent does. It’s no longer about our love for God, but God’s love for us. I’ll have to go with Cappleman’s understanding of God.