Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput will join a growing array of distinguished invitees when he presents the keynote address at the 2012 Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Sept. 18 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.It was also announced this week that this year’s event is a sellout, but will be streamed live via the Cathedral’s website, www.olacathedral.org.The Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast was first held in 2005 after three Los Angeles Catholic couples — Tom and Margie Romano, Bill and Helen Close, and Allen and Kathleen Lund — were struck not only by the number of people present (almost 2,000) at the annual national Catholic event held a few months earlier in Washington, D.C., but also by their fervor in celebrating their Catholic faith.After a quickly organized yet highly successful beginning, the local Prayer Breakfast now draws in excess of 1,500 people from all walks of Catholic life, from school students to business executives, from lay to religious. The first Native American archbishop in the U.S., Archbishop Chaput joins a list of Prayer Breakfast presenters that also includes Cardinals William Levada, Timothy Dolan and Donald Wuerl, Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl Anderson, and Catholic Relief Services president Carolyn Woo.Born in Kansas and a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe, Archbishop Chaput was named archbishop of Philadelphia in July 2011 and installed last September. Ordained a Capuchin Franciscan priest in 1970, he previously served as bishop of Rapid City, S.D., and archbishop of Denver, where his auxiliary bishop was current Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez. Archbishop Chaput recently released a new e-book on religious freedom, “A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America” (www.Amazon.com). As in prior years, the 2012 event begins with 6:30 a.m. rosary followed by Mass, breakfast and keynote on the Cathedral Plaza. Information: (800) 838-1356 or www.catholicpb.com.{gallery width=100 height=100}gallery/2012/0914/breakfast/{/gallery}
