Scandal in Chicago Continues: Cardinal Cupich’s Dangerous Gamble

By elevating Senator Durbin while silencing dissent, the Archdiocese risks undermining the integrity of Catholic teaching.

The storm is refusing to abate over Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to bestow a “Lifetime Achievement Award” on U.S. Senator Dick Durbin at the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Keep Hope Alive immigration ministry fundraiser. The Archdiocese has tried to frame this as recognition of the senator’s work on immigration, care for the poor, and other social concerns, invoking the language of a “consistent ethic of life.” Yet that framing itself has provoked outrage. To highlight Durbin’s work on immigration while disregarding his decades-long record of supporting abortion rights is to ignore a glaring moral incoherence.

Cupich Blocks Discussion on Durbin Award by Cancelling Meetings

The chronology of events only underscores the unease. On September 23, John Breen, a board member of the Catholic Conference of Illinois and lay representative for the Diocese of Joliet, asked that the Conference discuss the award at its upcoming meeting. Breen warned that honoring Durbin would undermine the Church’s credibility on life issues. Almost immediately, that meeting and a subsequent provincial gathering of Illinois bishops were cancelled. Official explanations cited quorum problems, but the timing appeared to pre-empt precisely the discussion Breen had sought. Several bishops, including Durbin’s own ordinary, Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, have since called on Cardinal Cupich to rescind the honor. Cupich has defended the decision by stressing Durbin’s registration in a Chicago parish and insisting that a consistent ethic of life cannot be reduced to abortion alone.

Further revelations deepen the sense of contradiction. Clergy in the Archdiocese have shared an email with Catholic Unscripted from the Vicar General instructing priests not to be political in the period leading up to the award.