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Pope Francis names Cardinal Cupich a member of Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago presents the Spirit of Francis Award to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, at an awards dinner on Oct. 27, 2016 in New York. (CNS photo/ courtesy Catholic Extension)

Vatican City, Jun 1, 2022 / 05:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday named Cardinal Blase Cupich as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The archbishop of Chicago’s appointment was announced by the Holy See press office on June 1.

In 2021, Cupich welcomed the publication of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, restricting celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Other churchmen named as members of the congregation include the Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, and the Bronx-born Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Di Noia also welcomed the publication of Traditionis custodes, saying in a 2021 interview with the Catholic News Service that “the TLM (Traditional Latin Mass) movement has hijacked the initiatives of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI to its own ends.”

Other members of the Congregation include Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, and Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.

Members of Vatican congregations normally have five-year terms.

According to his official biography, Cupich was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 to the Congregation for Bishops and in 2017 to the Congregation for Catholic Education.

In 2020, he was named to the Vatican Task Force to Assist Episcopal Conferences, Congregations of Religious and Societies of Apostolic Life in preparing and updating guidelines for the protection of minors.

In a November 2021 essay, Cupich said that Traditionis custodes (TC) offered an “opportunity to help all of our people come to a fuller understanding of the great gift that the [Second Vatican] Council has given us in reforming the way we worship.”

“I take seriously my obligation to move forward in a way that promotes a return to a unitary celebratory form in accord with the directives of TC, but in the meantime, we all need to pray, as Jesus did the night before he died, that all may be one,” he wrote.

In December 2021, the 73-year-old cardinal issued a new policy for the Archdiocese of Chicago that curtailed the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and other sacraments in Latin using liturgical books that predate Vatican II.

Under the policy, which took effect on Jan. 25, 2022, priests, deacons, and ordained ministers who wish to use the Old Rite must submit their requests to the cardinal in writing and agree to abide by the new norms.

The Congregation for Divine Worship is led by the English Archbishop Arthur Roche, who will receive the red hat at a consistory on Aug. 27. Roche succeeded Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah in the post in May 2021.

The Congregation will be renamed the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments when the new Vatican constitution comes into force on June 5, Pentecost Sunday.


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21 Comments

  1. Most important [not to diminish liturgy] is Roche, Tagle, Farrell, Cupich assigned to Discipline of the Sacraments. Whatever Burmese Bo or Scot Gilbert may prefer they’re outnumbered by among the most liberal cardinals in the Church. Adherents of Amoris Laetitia and all it entails. Nonetheless the ordinary of the diocese the likes of Archbishop Cordileone, Bishop Paprocki et al cannot be compelled to ignore the canons of the Church 915 in particular. Although the appointments anticipate engagement ahead.

  2. The photo says everything we need to know about Cupich. Somehow I doubt he has that one hanging in his office.

  3. Yeah, I’m not sure about the picture. McCarrick was promoted by JP2, and promoted again, despite allegations going back to the 1990s. B16 never did anything about him, and even Archbishop Vigano was in Ted’s corner until he wasn’t. As far as I know, Mr McCarrick was never involved in liturgical governance, unlike the new DDWDS archbishop.

    So, is this just more simmering discontent about Amoris, or McCarrick, or Cupich because all is not right in CatholicWorld? Or is there a point? I’m sure if we combed the internet just as carefully we could find all sorts of conservative heroes ponying up to the greatest fundraiser of all time, right?

    • So true. To try to smear Cardinal Cupich with the photo even before a single word of the story is surely a type of “journalism” unworthy of Catholic World Report. I suggest you make amends by digging up and publishing every single photo of McCarrick with every Catholic prelate, including recent popes!

  4. The Catholic hierarchy is looking more and more like an exclusive club for closeted homosexuals. God help us.

  5. I believe that when Jesus prayed that all might be one He was likely thinking that the ONE would be in line with his teachings. It sure seems like Francis is taking a play out of the book of Chairman Joe in appointing people to posts based on their political leanings rather than their support for Church teaching. Both seem determined to destroy what they are sworn to defend.

  6. Unfortunately, this simply further reinforces the suspicion that long before being elected pope, Senor Bergoglio was, and perhaps still is, one of “them”.

  7. Since one of our commenters has posted an open question as to what concerns might connect with photos and reports involving the message communicated by items such as “Cupich-McCarrick” above, and as most other commenters have noted their disgust of these 2, I offer this video posted in February by Damian Thompson, of Holy Smoke (Spectator) showing what Thompson says is the Pontiff Francis “lying” to a reporter confronting his actions as head of the Argentine Bishops Conference, to defend and protect the Argentine child sex predator “Rev.” Julio Grassi, now serving a 15 yr prison sentence in Argentina. See video here:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/holysmoke/with_replies

    As other commenters have alluded to the larger problem (which includes being silent about warehousing sex abusers near schools…such as Cupich did…and behavior like Cardinal Bergoglio/Pontiff Francis in defending sex abusers, smearing accusers, and rehabilitating and promoting both sex abusers…McCarrick and “Rev. Inzoli…and coverup artists…such as Danneels of Belgium…protector of his friend “His Excellency” Vanguelwhe…the Belgian McCarrick…who raped his own nephew), I believe that the understandable and wholesome response to photos and stories involving the message conveyed by “Cupich-McCarrick” imagery is this:

    The problem with all of the above named high-ranking clerics etc etc etc, is that they are simply all of the same mind, “the mind of McCarrick” (to paraphrase St. Paul).

    • If this is the point, then the DDWDS angle is irrelevant. CWP aimed wrongly. Instead, they could have produced an op-ed about corruption in the Church, from John Paul II and Benedict XVI on down. Or out.

      Mr Thompson is an opinion writer. In other words, a gossip columnist. Is that the kind of journalism that good Catholics aspire to produce, read, and desire? Mr Thompson is essentially the same as the rest of us here: we offer opinions on stuff. And sometimes we find a picture, a tweet, a snapchat to back up what we believe or want to believe. When our opinions offer untruths, it is detraction. Then it becomes a grave sin against the Commandments.

      “The problem with all of the above named high-ranking clerics etc etc etc, is that they are simply all of the same mind …”

      I can think of a few feminists who might say the same. Their problem would be that they are all clerics–all men, in other words.

      • Mr. Flowerday:

        Your contempt for Damian Thompson is not a reasonable argument, and it gives the impression that your intention id to ignore the case of then-Archbishop Bergoglio and his defense of the predator Julio Grassi.

        The accusation made by Thompson is that the video shows the Pontiff Francis in the act of denying that he defended and tried to protect Julio Grassi.

        Multiple sources in Argentina and outside it, have stated that Archbishop Bergoglio defended Grassi, and spent millions of Church dollars doing it, and smearing Grassi’s accusers. Among the sources are a judge on the Argentine high court, who stated that Archbishop Bergoglio tried to intervene in the trial by submitting the reported “defense/smear” to him, presumably with the intent that it be shared with other judges on the Argentine supreme court, as an inside maneuver, an act hidden from the eyes of Argentine public.

        The video shows a reporter confronting the Pontiff Francis about his role in defending Grassi, and all can see that the Pontiff denies it.

        This matter is not the first denial, as in a recent hagiography of the former Archbishop Bergoglio, the then-Archbishop says he never had any sex abuse issues when he was tbe Archbishop. I believe that statement, if memory serves, was made in Austin Ivereigh’s book in Pontiff F, “The Great Reformer.” We can all go find it, as it is in print now.

        When a is charge made, then we are on the ground of rebuttable presumptions. Silence in the face of charges involving sex abuse are not “Christ-like,” as many opinion-peddlers prefer to insist.

        The fact of Grassi’s abuse has been decided in the Argentine high court, and the charges that Archbishop Bergoglio orchestrated a behind the curtsin defense if Grassi are made by people in Argentina, including one of the high court judges.

        The people making these charges are doing it publicly, in writing snd here in video.

        Luke any man, Pontiff Francis is duty bound to answer, and others are duty bound to press the charge, and Thompson and others are doing it.

        The charge is very consistent with the behavior pattern of Pontiff Francis regarding sex abusers (e.g., Inzoli of Italy) and coverup Cardinals (e.g., Danneels of Belgium).

        The pattern of behavior is a fact, and the charges are lsid in public.

        Pretending that this particular Pontiff is above it all shows a degree of “devotion” to this particular Pontiff.

        Whether or not there is a comparable degree devotion to the pursuit of truth is in question.

        The preference for avoidance and silence on the matter may very likely explain why the Pontiff Francis has avoided traveling to visit his home country.

        Pretending reality isn’t happening is a bad modus operandi for the Church.

        It ought to trade that in for a pursuit of the truth.

        That might cause us all to intersect with The Man Who Is The Truth.

        I hope it does, in every case, including those involving the Pontiff Francis.

  8. “I take seriously my obligation to …pray, as Jesus did the night before he died, that all may be one,” he [Cupich] wrote.

    If God had wanted the Church to be one according to Bergoglio and Cupich, He surely would have let us know. NB: Cupich does not define his ‘one.’ It’s a sure bet that his meaning differs from mine and my Catholic friends.

    Meanwhile, I and my family shall follow the Lord and the Church He handed onto His apostles. When the one big moshey mess of immoral relativist hierarchs claim the Church must follow their way of progress, I’ll pray the breath of God to blow them away like the fluff of cottonwood seeds. And He shall.

  9. Cupich is one of the most notorious coverup artists in the US Episcopate. When he was in charge of the Josephinum in Ohio he allowed it to be turned into a gay bathhouse. Whe he was Bishop of Spokane he allowed the Jesuits to turn Gonzaga University into a retirement home for predator priests from Alaska. He has continued to cover up sexual abuse as Archbishop of Chicago. And yet, despite all this (or possibly because of it) Pope Bergoglio continues to reward and promote him. It is long overdue for him to exchange his red hat and cassock for an orange jumpsuit.

    • What’s in yellow, below:

      comments containing … personal attacks

      Mr du Toit, can you prove these allegations?

      Look: I get the culture of anti-celebrity. It’s a flip side of hero-worship. And many, many contemporary heroes have been sullied: Maciel, Law, Finn, Nienstedt, Corapi, etc.. We dislike someone in the public eye–what they did, the way they look, an opinion we don’t like.

      When we chase after a hero–a mentor we know, a saint we can read about–we engage our faith constructively. Does the picture above engage us to grow closer to Jesus Christ? Do the allegations about bathhouses, retirement homes, lavender mafia, etc. help us in faith? Or do they stir up passions about which we can never satisfy? Cardinal Cupich isn’t going to jail anytime soon. Just standing next to a sex predator isn’t a crime. Some people have even been made saints despite having such a history.

      • I congratulate CWR on being open enough and faithful enough to print items like this that attack those opposed to the Church.
        Onward all…we are in this together.

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