Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has elected to honor Senator Dick Durbin with an award for his work with undocumented immigrants. The problem with that is that Senator Durbin has a strong pro-abortion record; so strong, in fact, that his own bishop has barred him from receiving Holy Communion while in his home diocese.

Senator Durbin, however great his record is on immigration and protecting migrant workers’ rights, support for abortion is absolutely inexcusable and is the preeminent issue of all guides to Catholic voters. The seamless garment of life runs from conception to natural death, and so while all people have the right to exist and to protections under the law, it has to start at conception.¹

Much like the Avengers, we don’t trade lives in the Catholic Church. You can’t permissibly support a pro-choice politician even if they work to increase social welfare as a means of reducing abortion. Honoring an outspokenly pro-choice politician is inexcusable.

While Cardinal Cupich tries to double down on his folly,² other bishops are standing up and taking notice. The charge is led by none other than Senator Durbin’s own bishop, Thomas Paprocki, who said the award is “gravely mistaken” and it “threatens to scandalize the faithful,” as well as “injure the bonds of ecclesial communion.”³ Bishop Paprocki issued a press release expressing his shock, citing USCCB policy.⁴

Bishops Carl Kemme (Wichita, KS) and Michael Olsen (Ft. Worth, TX) have both urged Cardinal Cupich to retract the award. Bishop Olsen stated the Senator Durbin’s views on abortion disqualify him from any Catholic honors.⁵

Then we have the following round up of tweets:

Cardinal Cupich must revise his stance on this. Now. He’s going against Catholic teaching and his brother bishops have done a great job of calling him out on it.

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 2271 ↩︎
2. https://www.archchicago.org/en/statement/-/article/2025/09/22/statement-of-cardinal-blase-j-cupich-archbishop-of-chicago-on-the-keep-hope-alive-immigration-ministry-fundraiser ↩︎
3. https://www.osvnews.com/bishop-paprocki-on-cardinal-cupich-durbin-showdown-its-not-against-unity-to-speak-truth/ ↩︎
4. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/durbins-abortion-stance-sparks-backlash-ahead-of-archdiocese-award/3827850/ and https://catholicreview.org/four-more-bishops-speak-out-against-sen-durbin-lifetime-achievement-award/ ↩︎
5. https://catholicvote.org/backlash-grows-7-bishops-oppose-cardinal-cupich-honoring-pro-abortion-senator/ ↩︎