George Weigel, a prominent Catholic writer and Pope Saint John Paul II’s official biographer, has criticized Cardinal Blase Cupich’s attempt to use a speech by the late pontiff to justify honoring Sen. Dick Durbin, who is pro-abortion.
The Archdiocese of Chicago, of which Cardinal Cupich is the archbishop, was set to award Durbin with a lifetime achievement award for his service to immigrants, as CatholicVote previously reported. Several bishops publicly spoke out against the move, and many prominent Catholics, including Weigel, criticized Cardinal Cupich for intending to honor a senator with a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Cardinal Cupich announced Sept. 30 that Durbin had declined the award. However, in his letter, the cardinal defended his decision, in part by quoting Pope St. John Paul II.
“Thirty years ago, St. John Paul II preached a homily in our nation in which he vigorously defended the rights of the unborn, the elderly, and disabled people, and cited the poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty,” the cardinal wrote. “He asked, ‘Is present-day America becoming less sensitive, less caring towards the poor, the weak, the stranger, the needy? It must not!’”
In an Oct. 1 article in Catholic World Report, Weigel agreed that the section of the speech Cardinal Cupich quoted was perennially relevant. However, he lamented that the cardinal had not quoted a later point in Pope St. John Paul II’s homily and recognized its importance for the archdiocese.
Weigel provided an extensive quotation from Pope John Paul II’s homily, which included the following statement from the late pontiff:. “The right to life is the first of all rights. It is the foundation of democratic liberties and the keystone of the edifice of civil society. Both as Americans and as followers of Christ, American Catholics must be committed to the defense of life in all its stages and in every condition.”
American Catholics are obliged to see threats to life such as abortion as paramount in their political lives, Weigel said. He observed that Durbin, who was baptized Catholic, abandoned his original pro-life principles for political convenience and has spent much of his career supporting pro-abortion legislation. Weigel also indicated that Durbin contributed to the virtual extinction of pro-life Democrats.
“He did everything in his power to see to the defeat of Illinois Representative Dan Lipinski, one of the few remaining pro-life Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Weigel wrote.
Weigel said that while he believes dialogue is important and that people can change their minds, an archdiocese honoring a politician like Durbin would not contribute to genuine dialogue and conversion.
“It ought to be obvious that it takes two to dialogue,” Weigel wrote. “And at the moment, it is not easy to see how a more mature, rational conversation on the life issues can be engaged when, in the matter of abortion at least, there are no dialogue partners to be found in the party that once prided itself on being the champion of human rights.”
>> Illinois Right to Life to protest Cardinal Cupich’s decision to award pro-abortion senator <<
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