Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 23, 2025 / 16:52 pm (CNA).
Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich is defending his decision to honor pro-abortion Illinois Democrat Sen. Richard Durbin with an award at the archdiocese’s upcoming Keep Hope Alive immigration ministry fundraiser.
“Recently some have criticized the decision of the Archdiocese of Chicago to recognize Sen. Dick Durbin at our annual fundraiser for our immigration ministry,” Cupich wrote in a Sept. 22 statement, which came after several bishops spoke out against the move.
“Sen. Durbin informed me some years ago that he has taken up residence in Chicago, registered in a parish of the archdiocese, and considers me to be his bishop,” Cupich stated. “Accordingly, I have remained faithful to the May 2021 instructions of the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, advising bishops to ‘reach out to and engage in dialogue with Catholic politicians within their jurisdictions … as a means of understanding the nature of their positions and their comprehension of Catholic teaching.’”
Durbin has been prohibited from receiving the Eucharist in what has been previously reported as his home diocese of Springfield — the state capital — since 2004. In a Sept. 23 article in First Things magazine titled “Sen. Durbin Is Unfit to Receive Any Catholic Honor,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, wrote that he was “shocked” to hear of the Chicago Archdiocese’s plan to honor Durbin with a lifetime achievement award.
“Because this decision threatens to scandalize the faithful and injure the bonds of ecclesial communion, it should be reversed,” he stated, noting Durbin’s pro-abortion voting record includes efforts to block legislation banning post-birth abortions and protections for babies who survive failed abortions.
In light of Durbin’s record, Paprocki said “it is absurd that Sen. Durbin should be given an award from the office of ‘human dignity and solidarity.’”
Paprocki pointed out that bestowing an award on Durbin violates Church teaching and goes against what U.S. bishops have said on the matter as well as the Archdiocese of Chicago’s own policies regarding honors and awards, which state: “Any Catholic entity subject to the authority of the archbishop of Chicago … shall not give awards or honors or host presentations, speaking opportunities, or appearances by individuals or organizations whose public position is in opposition to the fundamental moral principles of the Catholic Church.”
The Springfield bishop further claimed Cupich “did not consult with me about this award or even notify me about his decision,” despite Durbin remaining under his care as a resident of Springfield.
“This failure to consult with a brother bishop concerning a member of his diocese is even more troubling given the fact that Cardinal Cupich knows that Sen. Durbin has not been permitted to receive holy Communion in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois since 2004,” Paprocki added.
Addressing criticism on Monday surrounding his decision, Cupich said: “At the heart of the consistent ethic of life is the recognition that Catholic teaching on life and dignity cannot be reduced to a single issue, even an issue as important as abortion.”
Cupich emphasized that Durbin would be honored for his efforts to advance Catholic social teaching in immigration, care for the poor, Laudato Si’, and world peace.
“The recognition of his defense of immigrants at this moment, when they are subjected to terror and harm, is not something to be regretted but a reflection that the Lord stands profoundly with both immigrants who are in danger and those who work to protect them,” Cupich said.
In a social media post on X, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone expressed his solidarity with Paprocki and urged Cupich to “reconsider” granting Durbin a lifetime achievement award, “given his long record of supporting legal abortion.”
I stand in solidarity with Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, in urging Cardinal Cupich to reconsider giving Senator Durbin a Lifetime Achievement Award through the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity given his long record of supporting… https://t.co/T9X5R7ai2T
— Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone (@ArchCordileone) September 21, 2025
Cordileone described Paprocki as “Sen. Dick Durbin’s bishop” and stated that “he is correct that both clarity and unity are at risk” in giving Durbin the award.
“I hope this will be a clarion call to all members of the body of Christ to speak out to make clear the grave evil that is the taking of innocent human life,” Cordileone added.
Responding to Cupich’s latest statement, in an email to CNA Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states: “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches a canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
“The killing of the defenseless child in the womb is a grave moral evil,” Zander told CNA. “Cardinal Cupich’s apparent indifference to this reality is scandalous in every sense of the word. His ambiguity poses a great risk to all persons who might be affected by a lack of clarity on this issue.”
According to Zander, Durbin’s record on immigration “simply does not matter so long as he refuses to acknowledge that it is evil to murder an unborn child.” Further, she said, Durbin’s support for abortion, especially partial-birth abortion, places his soul “at serious risk.”
“Our organization will proceed with our protest and we intend to work with local, state, and national pro-life organizations to bring clarity to this highly scandalous event,” she said. “Make no mistake: The Lord always extends his infinite mercy to those who seek it, but it is our hope that no person will be confused by the cardinal’s actions — abortion is a very grave sin.”
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Bishop Thomas Paprocki ought to be Cardinal Cupich’s inevitable successor.
This is a very simple matter.
Cupich is not Catholic.
He’s not Christian.
He serves the unholy spirit, the ratfaced angel of death.
The Democratic Party is the ratfaced one’s personal cult of death.
Democrats — and their odious supplicants in the hierarchy of the Church — have the blood of 70 million American children on their hands.
It is thanks to them that abortion causes more deaths in the world than the next two causes combined.
And Cupich tells us that this isn’t as big a deal as the need to open our borders to drug smugglers and child traffickers and terrorists.
Meanwhile, Pope Leo is nowhere to be seen.
brineyman, I’m in total agreement. I think he’s a weak, effeminate male who gets off on throwing his ecclesial weight around. I doubt very much whether at his death 100,000 Catholics will gather to memorialize him and another one million view the proceedings online. He gives Catholicism a bad name and an excuse for somone NOT to enter the Church. The blood of aborted babies drips from his hands. God is not going to be made a fool of by the likes of him. He’s a disgrace.
Brineyman: I’ve a few more rocks, if you’d like to borrow them! 🥴
Frère Jacques!
Faced with nearly a million children slaughtered each year in America, and some 43 million more around the world, you’re objecting that I am being too harsh in my comments about their murderers?
Right.
Not arguing with that at all, but there are bad Catholics and bad Christians.
And all bad Catholics are bad Christians!
No need. All we have to do is pick up the rocks that hit us during the Franciscus pontificate.
Yah, know what you mean, but he took his fair share as well! 🤭
Br. Jaques, unfortunately with all the corrupt bishops we have, there simply are not enough rocks to go around.
Gee whiz, brineyman, why don’t you quit beating around the bush and just say what you mean?
As the one who branded abortion as a “rabbit hole” issue, Cardinal Cupich should know that when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
SJW’s always lie
SJW’s always double down.
“did not consult with me about this award or even notify me about his decision”
So much for that collegiality thing.
I suspect Cupich, being the angry narcissist that he strikes me as, thinks he’s right about everything, can do whatever he pleases, owes no explanation to anyone and answers to no one. The rude awakening will come when he finally learns that he is answerable to God. In that regard, I wonder if he has a confessor and just how often he avails himself of the Sacrament of Penance. I happen to think that Cardinal Sarah would be a good confessor for Cupich.
As the Veil is being lifted, The Great Apostasy is being exposed.
Cardinal Cupich shows by his actions that the Church still needs to purge the evil yet rampant in it. I guess he didn’t hear the Words of Christ this past weekend that you can’t serve both God and Mammon
Francis should have accepted Blaise Cupich’s retirement in March, 2024. He is a disgrace to the Catholic Church. Perhaps the excommunication of Durbin should also include the not-good Cardinal.
More hot air. Given his dearth of reason he has no other means of expression.
Keep Hope Alive gala. Orwell would be proud.
The murdered unborn are alive with God. Are we prepared to face them forever?
This comes to mind:
“When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I’ve often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God — and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there’ll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world — and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, ‘Spare him, because he loved us!'”
Henry Hyde
Thank you dear Edward J Baker.
How very beautiful is truth.
This is a bright line issue with no nuance. Cardinal Cupich should know better, and Dick Durbin should refuse the award.
More proof that the “seamless garment” of Cardinal Bernardin is a sham. Senator Durbin did everything in his power to legislate the mass murder of children in the womb.
The US Bishops were not consecrated to be shills for a political party. This scandalous honor is not about “right” or “left” but right or wrong.
Thank God for Bishop Paprocki and Archbishop Cordileone. Where are the rest of
the bishops and cadinals?
I suspect that Cardinal Cupich, like many Francis appointees, likes an “in your
face” approach to conservative or traditional or faithful Catholics. He enjoys offending them. Francis too was at
war with these good people – hence the attacks on the Latin Mass and the Vatican
protection given to McCarrick, Rupnik, Zanchetta, etc.
How does this bring us closer to Christ?
Is an excommunication a diocesan thing?
Br. Jaques, could very well be.
This is why the Catholic Church is viewed as being less relevant in the modern world. We reduce moral actions to the “fine print” of legal residence and som bishops turn a blind eye to the very public evils committed by public officials while others call them out for it. Yes, confusing times for all of us.
All I can say is that Cardinal Cupich doesn’t have leg to stand on. His excuse to honor Senator Durbin is completely flawed. The unborn are the most precious and innocent in our society. Those that promote the killing of the unborn which is murder should not receive any honor from the Catholic Church. If Cupich does not understand this he’s not fit to be a Prince of the Church. It’s time to retire and as they say in Hollywood find another gig!