Chaput, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, was ordained a priest in 1970. Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Rapid City, S.D., in 1988 and archbishop of Denver, making him the first Native American archbishop, in 1997. He served for three years as a White House-appointed commissioner with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. He is the author of Living the Catholic Faith: Rediscovering the Basics (Servant) and Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life (Doubleday).

Archbishop Chaput gave the 2009 Archbishop J. Michael Miller Lecture on the subject of health care titled, “The implications of current health care initiatives for Catholic medical professionals.” It was presented at the Hilton Houston Plaza Medical Center. The event was coordinated by Sister Paula Jean Miller, FSE, director of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas.

Each year the Miller lecture invites an expert who has overcome the dichotomy of faith and life and risen to greatness precisely by embodying the values of the Catholic Intellectual tradition.  This year’s J. Michael Miller award was given to Dr. Herbert P. Edmundson, Jr.   Father Joseph Pilsner, CSB presented the Miller Award to Dr. Edmundson, a neurologist, for his service to the University of St. Thomas Board of Directors and its Academic Committee, as well as for his dedication to the UST Basilian Fathers over the years. Dr. Edmundson was asked to hold the award in the name of his professional colleagues who strive to integrate their faith with their medical practice.  The Miller Lecture this year was a memorial to Dr. James Considine, a Houston psychiatrist whose generosity endowed the Miller Lecture Series, and who died August 8, 2008.  A Memorial Plaque containing the names of all receiving the Miller Award was presented to Mr. W. Clarke Gormley, chair of the Considine Foundation, and will be hung in the foyer of Jones Hall together with a portrait of Dr. Considine.

The transcript of this event is available.

The Lecture Series was inaugurated in 2004 -2005. Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and member of the President's Commission on Bioethics, gave the inaugural lecture in Catholic Studies February 2, 2005, Public Morality: The Obligations of Government, the Responsibility of Citizens.
Subsequent lectures include:

2005-2006: Mary Ellen Bork, co-founder with Mary Ann Glendon of Women Affirming Life, The New Feminism of John Paul II and its Impact on the Catholic Professional Woman

2006-2007: William L. Saunders, Senior Fellow and Director Center for Human Life and Bioethics Family Research Council, International Law, the Family, and the U.S. Supreme Court

2007-2008: John Allen, CNN Vatican Correspondent, Megatrends in Catholicism

2008-2009: Steve McEveety, Hollywood Producer and Director, The Passion of the Christ

Donors of the University of St. Thomas have honored Archbishop Miller with The Archbishop J. Michael Miller Chair in Catholic Studies, held by the Founding Director of Catholic Studies, Sister Paula Jean Miller, FSE, and the Archbishop J. Michael Miller Endowed Scholarship.

Archbishop Miller studied from 1974-1979 at the Gregorian University in Rome where he completed the licentiate and doctorate in Theology. He was ordained to the Basilian priesthood by Pope Paul VI on June 29, 1975. Father Miller joined the faculty of the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1979 and was subsequently chair of Theology and Dean of the School of Theology. In 1990 he was named vice president of Academic Affairs. In 1992 he was assigned by the Vatican to serve the English section of the Secretariat of the State of the Holy See. On July, 1997, he returned to Houston to become the seventh president of the University of St. Thomas.