Pope stays neutral on Durbin-award controversy
September 30, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: Pope Leo XIV has declined to offer a clear opinion on the controversy surrounding the Lifetime Achievement award that the Chicago archdiocese is scheduled to give Senator Richard Durbin.
Questioned by reporters at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope acknowledged that he is aware of the controversy, but said “I am not terribly familiar with the particular case.”
However, the Pontiff went on to give an unambiguous statement of the “seamless garment” approach, saying:
Someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. Someone who says I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro life.
The Pope declined to give his support to either Cardinal Blase Cupich, who has defended the award for Durbin, or the ten American bishops who have protested the honor. Instead he said that it is important to “find the way forward as a Church. The Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.”
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