Catholics To Protest Cardinal Cupich's Lifetime Achievement Award For Pro-Abortion Sen. Durbin

A growing number of Catholic bishops of the United States have taken the unusual step of publicly calling out Cardinal Blase Cupich for seeking to grant a lifetime achievement award to U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). The Catholic Durbin has long supported abortion.
 

Public opposition to the proposed award started with Bishop Thomas Parrocki of Springfield, Illinois, who voiced his concern that it “risks causing grave scandal.” Bishop Paprocki also said that Democrat Durbin has been banned from the Holy Eucharist in Springfield, where he resides, because of his support for legal abortion.
 

"I was shocked to learn that the Archdiocese of Chicago plans to honor Senator Richard Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award through its Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity Immigration. Given Senator Durbin's long and consistent record of supporting legal abortion - including opposing legislation to protect children who survive failed abortions - this decision risks causing grave scandal, confusing the faithful about the Church's unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life,” wrote Bishop Paprocki.
 

Following an outpouring of confusion and repudiation, Cardinal Cupich issued a statement defending the award for Durbin as a form of “dialogue”:
 

“Recently some have criticized the decision of the Archdiocese of Chicago to recognize Senator Dick Durbin at our annual fundraiser for our immigration ministry, Keep Hope Alive. 
 

“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. 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.’ 
 

“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. The annual celebration of immigrants, Keep Hope Alive, will recognize all the critically important contributions Senator Durbin has taken to advance Catholic social teaching in the areas of immigration, the care of 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 was raised to the cardinalate by Pope Francis.
 

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wrote:  "Would anyone think it reasonable to honor such a senator for the senator's pro-life record on abortion? No one who advocates for the direct, intentional killing of innocent human life should be honored. Period." Other bishops who piled on their disconcert over the ward were James D. Conley of Lincoln NE, James Wall of Gallup NM, David Ricken of Green Bay WI, Carl Kemme of Wichita KS, Michael Olson of Ft. Worth TX, 
 

When Cupich was asked about Durbin's eligibility to receive Holy Communion, he told the State Journal Register of Springfield in 2018, "I leave it to each bishop who has an obligation to be in dialogue with his elected official on this matter in terms of their own practice of the Catholic faith. I was not part of the discussion between the bishop and Senator Durbin on that, so I can't comment on that, but I do respect any bishop who nees to take action within their own diocese, and I also believe that conversation should remain between those two."
 

Bishop Paprocki responded that, because Durbin is domiciled in Springfield, he has jurisdiction and the obligation to tell Durbin not to receive Holy Communion. He told Our Sunday Visitor that he believes that Durbin receives Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of Chicago where Cupich presides. 
 

CatholicVote, a political advocacy organization, has launched a campaign urging Cardinal  Cupich to cancel his plans for Durbin’s award. Through its website, Catholics can send remarks to the cardinal.  “After decades of faithful prayer, pro-lifers marching, the U.S. bishops fighting to defund Planned Parenthood, and even the founding of a religious order to end abortion, this award shocks the Catholic conscience with its insensitivity to the evil of abortion and undermines the Church’s leading role in defending the unborn,” said President and CEO of CatholicVote Kelsey Reinhardt.
 

In addition to calling on subscribers to its daily LOOP and El LAZO news digests as well as followers of its CatholicVote.org and VotoCatolico.org websites and various social media platforms to join the effort, CatholicVote is supporting plans by March for Life Illinois to peacefully protest outside the November 3 fundraiser at which Cardinal Cupich intends to honor Durbin. 
 

“We hope that protest will not be necessary,” Reinhardt said. “We join the seven US Bishops who have, in a spirit of fraternal correction, encouraged Cardinal Cupich to change his mind. That is why we need all those who recognize that killing an unborn child is intrinsically evil to ask Cardinal Cupich to cancel his plans to honor Senator Durbin.”