The Cupich assault on episcopal unity

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 23, 2025

Defending his decision to honor Senator Richard Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich proclaimed that “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.”

Let’s assume, then, that Cardinal Cupich has spoken to Durbin about the senator’s consistent record of support for unrestricted legal abortion on demand. If that is the case, since the senator’s public stand has not changed, we can reasonably infer that:

1. Cardinal Cupich has been unable to improve Durbin’s comprehension of Catholic teaching, or
2. Senator Durbin has deliberately chosen to flout the Church’s teaching, or
3. Both.

If Cardinal Cupich cannot explain the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human life, he should not be a metropolitan archbishop. (And as a matter of fact, since he is over the age of 75, his resignation should already be on the Pope’s desk.) If Senator Durbin is ignoring the Church’s teaching—despite innumerable warnings from his bishop, the bishops’ conference, and the Vatican that this is a grave matter—then he does not deserve any archdiocesan award. Am I missing something?

Back in 2021, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released those instructions that Cardinal Cupich claims to follow, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the CDF prefect, wrote that the US bishops’ conference should clearly emphasize that “those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life.” In 2004, his predecessor as CDF prefect, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had instructed the US bishops that in the case of a Catholic politician who supports legal abortion, “his pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”

Acting on that policy, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, in whose diocese Durbin was living, announced that the senator was barred from receiving the Eucharist. In doing so, he was following not only the directive from Cardinal Ratzinger, but also the provision of the Code of Canon Law (#915), which stipulates those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

So it appears that a prominent Catholic who persists in manifest grave sin is going to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago archdiocese. No wonder Bishop Paprocki said that he was “shocked” by that decision, adding that the award “risks causing grave scandal, confusing the faithful about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life.”

By banning Durbin from Communion, Bishop Paprocki sent a strong message—not just to the senator, but to the world at large—that the Catholic Church is serious about the gravity of abortion, that politicians who support the practice are endangering their souls. Now by honoring Durbin, Cardinal Cupich is effectively erasing that message.

In his bid to justify this scandalous award, the cardinal disclosed: “Senator Durbin informed me some years ago that he had purchased a condo in Chicago, registered in a parish of the archdiocese and considers me to be his bishop.” We do not know, at this point, whether the Illinois senator has changed his legal domicile. Bishop Paprocki was evidently under the impression that Durbin remained a resident in the Springfield diocese. But even if he has, the physical move does not alter his moral problem. If he is guilty of manifest grave sin in Springfield, he is equally guilty in another jurisdiction, and his soul remains in jeopardy. A residence in Chicago is not a Get Out of Hell Free card.

Cardinal Cupich brought out the now-familiar canard that “Catholic teaching on life and dignity cannot be reduced to a single issue, even an issue as important as abortion.” (Did anyone ever suggest it could?) He lauded Senator Durbin’s “critically important contributions” on public issues including care for the poor, the environment, world peace, and especially immigration. That argument is a fraud; the issues are not commensurate in their moral weight. There is no reason why a faithful Catholic cannot seek reasonable restraints on immigration (and especially on illegal immigration), whereas—how often do we need to make this argument?—it is always and inherently wrong to promote the deliberate destruction of innocent human lives.

But just for the sake of the argument, pretend that Durbin’s voting record on immigration constitutes a stellar example of political action attuned to Catholic social teaching. If that were the case, would the senator be deserving of a major archdiocesan award, as a legislator who defended human dignity in one political venue, but assaulted human dignity in another?

The US bishops’ conference, as a body, has been unable to reach an agreement on disciplinary action against politicians who support abortion. But the conference has at least agreed on a policy that public figures who promote abortion should not receive honors from Catholic institutions. As Bishop Paprocki pointed out, the Chicago archdiocese has its own policy against honors for “individuals or organizations whose public position is in opposition to the fundamental moral principles of the Catholic Church.” Cardinal Cupich is making a mockery of those policies.

Under the circumstances, it should not be surprising that Bishop Paprocki took the unusual step of criticizing another prelate’s decision. Rather, it should be surprising that, at least at first, Bishop Paprocki was the only American bishop who protested the scandal. (San Francisco’s Archbishop Cordileone soon joined him.)

If other American bishops think they should remain silent to preserve the unity of the episcopal conference, their reasoning is flawed; Cardinal Cupich, by approving this award, has already sundered that unity. More to the point, as Bishop Paprocki says, “What’s violating unity is not speaking out, it’s that something has been done contrary to Church teaching.”