Overview

• Cardinal Blase Cupich said Tuesday that Sen. Dick Durbin informed him he would not accept a planned Lifetime Achievement Award at the Archdiocese of Chicago’s November Keep Hope Alive benefit.
• Cupich said the honor was intended to recognize Durbin’s work on immigration and did not signal any softening of church teaching on abortion.
• Multiple U.S. bishops objected to the award, led by Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who noted Durbin has been barred from Communion in his diocese since 2004.
• Hours before the decision became public, Pope Leo XIV urged weighing a public official’s overall record and said support for the death penalty or inhuman treatment of immigrants is not truly pro-life.
• CatholicVote reported more than 40,000 messages to Cupich opposing the honor, and the cardinal later lamented that many U.S. Catholics feel politically homeless within the current party system.