Cardinal Cupich defends award to Senator Durbin
September 23, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: Responding to public criticism from Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Cardinal Blase Cupich has defended his decision to present a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago to Senator Richard Durbin.
“Recently some have criticized the decision,” the cardinal acknowledged—not mentioning the name of Bishop Paprocki, in whose Springfield diocese Senator Durbin keeps his official residence. Bishop Paprocki has announced that the senator is barred from receiving Communion in that diocese, because of his outspoken support for unrestricted legal abortion.
Cardinal Cupich countered, however, by saying: “Senator Durbin informed me some years ago that he had purchased a condo in Chicago, registered in a parish in the archdiocese and considers me to be his bishop,“ The cardinal said that he had opened a dialogue with Durbin about his political stands.
Cardinal Cupich went on to say that “the consistent ethic of life is the recognition that Catholic teaching on life and dignity cannot be reduced to a single issue.” He said that Durbin would be honored for his work “to advance Catholic social teaching in the areas of immigration, the care of the poor, Laudato Si’, and world peace.”
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