By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, October 01, 2025Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Richard Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a hearing on pharmacy benefit managers in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The committee met to examine pharmacy benefit managers and competition issues in the prescription drug supply chain. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesSen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has declined to accept a coveted award from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago following a firestorm over the cardinal’s decision to recognize him despite his advocacy for abortion, prompting reporters to demand a response from Pope Leo XIV. Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago released a statement Tuesday announcing that Durbin has decided not to accept an award he was slated to receive at the archdiocese’s upcoming Keep Hope Alive Benefit. Durbin’s move comes as many bishops have called on Cupich to reverse his decision to recognize the senior politician due to his longstanding support for abortion, which contradicts the teachings of the Catholic Church. Cupich commented on the development, which comes a little over a month after Durbin was slated to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Archdiocese’s Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity Immigration Ministry on Nov. 3, lamenting that he has “seen the divisions within the Catholic community dangerously deepen.”“The tragedy of our current situation in the United States is that Catholics find themselves politically homeless. The policies of neither political party perfectly encapsulate the breadth of Catholic teaching,” he claimed. Cupich also addressed the criticisms he’s received for honoring a politician with a pro-abortion voting record:“Some would say that the [Catholic] Church should never honor a political leader if he pursues policies diametrically opposed to critical elements of Catholic social teaching. But the tragic reality in our nation today is that there are essentially no Catholic public officials who consistently pursue the essential elements of Catholic social teaching because our party system will not permit them to do so.“Total condemnation is not the way forward, for it shuts down discussion,” he insisted. “But praise and encouragement can open it up, by asking their recipients to consider how to extend their good work to other areas and issues. More broadly, a positive approach can keep alive the hope that it is worth talking to one another — and collaborating with one another — to promote the common good. No one wants to engage with someone who treats them as a thoroughgoing moral threat to the community.” Cupich added that his hope for the Keep Hope Alive event would be that it would invite “Catholics who fiercely defend the vulnerable on the border between the United States and Mexico to ponder why the Church defends the vulnerable on the border between life and death, as in cases of abortion and euthanasia” and prompt “Catholics who tirelessly promote the dignity of the unborn, the elderly, and the sick to extend the circle of protection to immigrants facing in this present moment an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their families.” “It would be wrong to interpret the decisions regarding the Keep Hope Alive event as a softening of our position on abortion,” Cupich added. “We firmly assert what the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear: ‘Since the first century the church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.’” “Likewise, there should be no question about our duty to advocate for laws protecting human life as well as for the church’s right to the free exercise of religion,” Cupich added. While the Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, and the Archbishop of San Francisco were the first to state their objections to the Archdiocese of Chicago’s impending recognition of Durbin, they were joined in recent days by the Bishops of Lincoln, Nebraska; Gallup, New Mexico;, Green Bay, Wisconsin; Fort Worth, Texas; Wichita, Kansas and Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, as well as the former Archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas, and the former Bishop of Tyler, Texas. The pope, a native of the Chicago area, weighed in on the debate when asked by a reporter during a press gaggle on Tuesday. While acknowledging that he was “not terribly familiar” with the situation, the pontiff stated, “I think that it’s very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done” during his career that spans 40 years in Congress, 28 of those years being in the Senate. His term will end in January 2027. “It’s important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the church,” he said. “Someone who says I’m against abortion but says I’m in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life, so someone who says that I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of [illegal] immigrants who are in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life. So, they’re very complex issues. I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them.”When asked about Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, the pontiff replied that he thought it was “realistic” and hoped it would be “accepted.”Leo concluded his remarks by urging Catholics to “look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward” because “the [Catholic] Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.” Both Cupich and the pope’s comments about illegal immigration and what constitutes being pro-life come as House Democrats said at a Wednesday press conference responding to the U.S. government shutdown after Congress failed to pass a stopgap funding bill, Democratic Minority Whip Katherine Clark noted that 40% of all births in the U.S. are now covered by taxpayers via Medicaid. Outcry over the archdiocese’s planned recognition of Durbin stems from concerns that bestowing an award upon the pro-abortion lawmaker would violate the Archdiocese of Chicago’s policy stating: “Any Catholic entity subject to the Archbishop of Chicago, and any boards/fundraising committees affiliated with them shall not give awards of honors or host presentations, speaking opportunities or appearances by individuals or organizations whose public position is in opposition to the fundamental moral principles of the Catholic Church.”The plan to give Durbin an award also raised concerns about the harm done to the Catholic Church’s pro-life witness as it relates to its position on abortion. Durbin has been barred from receiving communion in his home Diocese of Springfield because of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law declaring that those “persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion,” and a 2004 guidance from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI, calling for communion to be withheld from openly pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
Pope Leo, Cupich react to Durbin declining award after backlash
