Many Catholics in the United States and beyond were shocked by the images of Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich, hiding his pectoral cross and not mentioning Christ, giving the invocation at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago while a few blocks away, in the West Loop neighborhood, a mobile clinic of Planned Parenthood was performing 25 medical abortions and 10 free vasectomies. Although the initiative was not directly linked to the convention that launched Kamala Harris’ candidacy, the organizers of Planned Parenthood themselves claimed the connection, saying they had planned it knowing that “many people would be coming to Chicago from outside Illinois.” One of the couples who had booked an appointment, moreover, admitted to National Public Radio that they had learned about this possibility from “a social media post about a free reproductive health clinic sponsored by Planned Parenthood in Chicago during the Democratic convention.” The organization’s own staff, interviewed by several media, did not hide their desire to demonstrate their support for the pro-choice policies of Dem-led Illinois.
If the opening prayer is pronounced in a similar context and without any reference to the defense of human life from conception (as taught by the Church and reiterated in the magisterium of Francis) has outraged many, it cannot be said that it has surprised those who know the curriculum of the metropolitan archbishop of Chicago. Cupich, on the other hand, despite the fact that the dem agenda is now completely adverse to the so-called non-negotiable principles, must have felt at ease in the Convention of the Donkey: already in the midst of the electoral campaign for the 2008 presidential elections, he was noted for being one of the few American bishops to sympathize with Barack Obama’s race, with just but “smart” statements, such as the appeal to voters to “not allow racism to reign in our hearts and to determine our choice in this solemn moment for our nation [poiché farlo] means cooperating with one of the great evils that has afflicted our society.” The same way of working seen the other night at the United Center in Chicago where Cupich defined the USA as “a nation composed of every people and culture, united not by blood ties, but by deep aspirations for life, liberty, justice and unlimited hope”. All right, but just as 16 years ago giving centrality to the racial issue in the midst of an election campaign showed a preference for the first African-American candidate, this time too his words make clear his distance from the Republican Donald Trump who promises to close the borders.
When it comes to abortion, Cupich has always been much less passionate.: in 2006, when he was bishop of Rapid City, he stood out for his moderation in the referendum campaign that later rejected an anti-abortion law in South Dakota, calling on Catholics to be “more civil” in the debate. Two years earlier, when controversy erupted over whether or not to give communion to then-Democratic candidate for the White House and pro-choice John Kerry, Cupich sided against the bishops (primarily Raymond Leo Burke) who were calling for sanctions for supporters of abortion policies. The then bishop of Rapid City dismissed the position taken by Cardinal Francis Arinze, at the time prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments – and therefore competent in the matter – during a press conference, as an “unofficial statement.” But then he was exposed as a liar by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who in a note gave the official stamp to the line of bishops like Burke, explaining that when faced with politicians promoting campaigns in favor of abortion, “the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.”
In the following years Cupich maintained the soft linedistancing himself in 2021 from the then president of the American bishops, Monsignor José Gomez, who in a statement had polemically greeted the inauguration of Joe Biden, stating that the “second US president of the Catholic faith will advance moral evils”. Words deemed “reckless” by the Archbishop of Chicago who had complained about an initiative taken “without consultation” and indicative of “an internal failure” that “does not contribute to the unity of the Church”. In reality, within the US Episcopal Conference, Cupich has always been in the minority, as demonstrated by the election two years ago of the conservative Monsignor Timothy Broglio. The scarce influence in the American episcopate is rebalanced, however, by the favor that Cupich and the few prelates most similar to him enjoy at Santa Marta. It is no coincidence that over the last eleven years Francis has rewarded him, Kevin Farrell, Joseph Tobin, Wilton Gregory and Robert McElroy with the cardinalate, while denying Gomez and Broglio the presidency of the Episcopal Conference.
The Pope’s protégés in the States have in common their past closeness to Theodore Edgar McCarrickthe former powerful cardinal reduced to the lay state in 2019 after being indicted for sexual abuse, including of minors. Cupich was president of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People from 2008 to 2011, precisely in the years in which Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then head of the Congregation for Bishops, ordered McCarrick himself to abstain from public activity and to transfer from the “Redemptoris Mater” Seminary precisely because of the accusations of immoral behavior that had reached Rome against the former archbishop of Washington. In 2016, when the Vatican’s impositions had been overcome, McCarrick received an award directly from the hands of then-Cardinal-elect Cupich, who praised the predatory prelate, praising “his unique way of leaving his mark on the Church” and saying: “wherever I go around the world, people always ask me: ‘How is Cardinal McCarrick?’” Despite his familiarity with the former Archbishop of Washington, when the scandal broke, Cupich was not embarrassed to appear among the organizers of the anti-abuse summit held in the Vatican at the beginning of 2019.
The zero tolerance for which he did not shine in the fight against abuse within the Church and in the defense of the right to life, however, it was seen in the relationship with communities of traditional liturgical sensibility. Already in 2002, as bishop of Rapid City, he prohibited the ancient rite on Good Friday in the chapel of the Immaculate Conception, forcing the faithful to celebrate on the sidewalk and then claiming his decision as “an invitation to unity”. Not content, faced with the intention of the community to write to the Pope to inform him of what had happened, Cupich used less than reassuring tones, saying that such a move would not help their cause. It was not surprising, therefore, to see him as archbishop of Chicago enthusiastically welcome Keepers of Traditiondefined as “a gift” and which he immediately implemented with very strict directives.
On the other hand, Cupich’s career took off during the pontificate of Francis. after the ambitious prelate had seen two longed-for goals slip away during the years of Benedict XVI and the final phase of John Paul II: the election as president of the Episcopal Conference in 2004 and the appointment as bishop of Pittsburgh. In 2010, after twelve years in Rapid City, Ratzinger had entrusted him with the “hot potato” of leading the diocese of Spokane, which was then bankrupt due to the consequences of the abuse scandal. Bergoglio’s election changed the course of things, allowing him to succeed Cardinal Francis Eugene George, 77 years old and suffering from cancer, in the role of archbishop of Chicago in 2014. His was Francis’s first important appointment in the United States and gave a signal of change that remained, however, confined to Rome: the axis of the star-spangled episcopate, in fact, has not moved, while the only conquest was the entry of the minority into the sacred college liberal.