During the dust-up the last several days over the controversy surrounding Cardinal Blasé Cupich’s decision to give a Lifetime Achievement Award to pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin, most of the focus has an appropriately been on Durbin’s pro-abortion record and how giving him an award is inappropriate for the Catholic Church.
But one part of a controversy has been lost a little bit in the discussion surrounding the decision.
In his comments condemning the decision, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois made a statement that makes Cupich’s decision to bestow the award on Durbin even worse. The bishop says that Cupich didn’t even bother to consult with him before deciding to give the abortion advocate an award.
“Cardinal Cupich did not consult with me about this award or even notify me about his decision,” Bishop Paprocki said. “I learned about it in the media.”
“It is unclear why Cardinal Cupich saw fit to ignore both his brother bishops and his own diocesan policy manual.”
Why does that matter?
It’s extremely important because Bishop Paprocki had prohibited Durban from receiving communion in his diocese since 2004. Cupich is well aware of the decision, and obviously knows that Durbin’s radical record of voting for and supporting abortion has been a problem for decades.
TAKE ACTION: Contact Cardinal Cupich and tell him to rescind Senator Dick Durbin’s award. Or call 312-534-8200.
That points to just how much Cupich doesn’t really care about the fact that Durbin supports and votes for 66 million abortions. Durbin’s radical pro-abortion record supporting not just abortions up to birth but also infanticide is not just a one-off for a new thing that most people are not aware of. This has been a problem for many years and it makes it even worse that Cupich completely ignores the fact that Durbin is a pro-abortion extremist and glosses over that to give him an award celebrating a lifetime of work. That lifetime of work undoubtedly includes propping up the extermination of 66 million babies.
The fact that that runs completely and totally contradictory to the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church is obvious and it puts Cupich in an even worse light.
How can a Catholic cardinal so arrogantly go against one of the central moral teachings of his own church?
In a disgusting irony, Cupich is calling Durbin’s award one for honoring “human dignity and solidarity.”
“This is darkly ironic,” Paprocki wrote, “because the slaughter of the innocents in utero is nihilistic and always without hope, and the policies Durbin has supported have denied a lifetime to countless unborn children.”
In his condemnation, Bishop Paprocki knows this award will cause the scandal that Cupich has clearly created.
“I offer this fraternal correction in the hope that Cardinal Cupich might reverse this erroneous decision, and so preserve the integrity of the Church’s moral teaching and avoid the scandal that this decision will otherwise cause to the faithful.”
Also ironically, Paprocki is the new chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.
“People will be understandably confused as to whether the Church is sincere in its opposition to abortion, as to whether the Church really views abortion as a matter of life and death, and as to whether the Church believes human dignity is really at stake,” he wrote. “Some Catholics may conclude that abortion is, at the end of the day, really not that important. They may conclude that some of the Church’s teaching can be safely ignored if one supports other policies that are consistent with the Church’s teachings on other matters, such as immigration.”
Cupich only has himself to blame, but he can right this wrong by withdrawing the award.
