The Cupich-Durbin Affair: Papal Interviews need to End

Cardinal Cupich -- the undeserving prelate unfortunately placed by Francis at the helm of one of America's greatest dioceses (and birthplace of the current Roman Pontiff), Chicago -- in his customary divisive and brusque style, tried to give a Catholic award to one of the most pro-abortion voices in the United States Congress, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois. At least 10 bishops opposed this move.

Yesterday, a reporter put Leo XIV on the spot regarding this. The question was poorly phrased and the answer was serene, but as confusing as can be:

Francis's Efforts to Remake the Church in His Image Are Doomed to Failure

 

The appointment of Tucho Fernandez as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, in connection with the Synod on Synodality, augurs big changes in the Catholic Church. Soon-to-be Cardinal Fernandez, along with Cardinals McElroy and Cupich, hope to succeed in their project of undoing St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI's moral theology from the ground up, abolishing the notion of intrinsic evil and thereby opening the door for the Church to provide communion (and perhaps even blessings) indifferently to all. At the same time, Cardinal Roche works diligently to permanently abolish the Traditional Latin Mass, the great vehicle for transmitting Catholic faith throughout the ages. This comes in connection with high-profile new episcopal appointments in Toronto, Brussels, and Madrid-- modern bishops, men who subscribe to Francis's radical vision for the Church. The present moment is, in the ungainly phrase of one journalist, "an ecclesial earthquake." The changes, we are told, are irreversible and permanent. It will be Francis's Church, Francis's magisterium, from here on out.

An Unwanted “Gift” from Cardinal Cupich

The blog PrayTell has recently published an article from Blase Cardinal Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, in which His Eminence makes some rather strange and bizarre claims in order to justify what he sees as the "The Gift of Traditionis Custodes". Firstly, the Cardinal makes the following rather odd analogy:

It seems we'll never know what happened at St. John Cantius, Chicago

Saint John Cantius in Chicago, the church brought back to life by Fr. C. Frank Phillips and his Canons Regular, was a famous example, known around the world, of how beauty in the liturgy (and the Traditional Mass, which is celebrated with great reverence alongside a beautified Novus Ordo in that church) could function as a catalyst for the restoration of the faith of the people.

Sadly, a few months ago, the Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Cupich, removed Fr. Phillips from his post, after learning of "credible allegations of improper conduct involving adult men." (Chicago Tribune)

After months of speculation, the Congregation of the Resurrection (C.R.), the order to which the founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, Fr. Frank Phillips, belonged, issued a final statement on his situation:

Something happened. What happened? The Congregation of the Ressurrection and the Archdiocese of Chicago have an obligation to make public those parts of their conclusions that can be made public (that is, with names or other information that could identify specific persons blacked out). Otherwise, the removal of Fr. Phillips will be seen as a persecution motivated not by his "improper conduct" (what was it?), but actually by his good work at St. John Cantius. The people have a rightful expectation to know what actually happened.

(Letter image source: Twitter account of Fr. Cusick)

Archbishop Naumann beats Cardinal Cupich

Surprising liberals and the social justice wing of the American Church at today's U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops general assembly, Archbishop Joseph Naumann beat Cardinal Blase Cupich in an election for the chairmanship of the committee on pro-life activities.

Cupich: In AL Francis exercises the "divinely granted Petrine power of loosening and binding"

Cardinal Cupich has written the forward to a new English translation of Cardinal Coccopalmerio's booklet "A Commentary on Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia", previously published here on Rorate in full in April. 

In his endorsement of Coccopalmerio's book-long defense of adultery for the divorced and civilly remarried, Cupich cites an article by Rocco Buttiglione calling Amoris Laetitia a "development of doctrine and what it means for Popes to exercise their divinely granted Petrine power of loosening and binding in different ways and in different historical circumstances." 

Cupich suggests Francis' new teaching on sex and the sacraments marks "new opportunities to retrieve certain truths that have become dormant," namely about the Church's teaching on conscience and mitigating circumstances, such that "when it comes to dealing with certain so-called irregular situations, what is required is a pastoral approach that takes into consideration both the general and the individual aspects of a person's life."

Sarah and Cupich: Going in different directions

While Cardinal Sarah is advocating that the Latin Rite return, as a whole (that is, including the New Mass of Paul VI), to worshiping ad orientem liturgicum, Archbishop Cupich of Chicago seems intent on reinforcing the status quo favoring ad populum -- even extending it (at least momentarily) back to sanctuaries from where it had already been banished.

Double-standards at work in the selection of Synod members? The curious cases of Cardinal Tong Hon and Archbishop Cordileone

I. Did the Vatican lie in excluding Cardinal Tong Hon?

The final list of the members of the 2015 Synod of Bishops includes a good number of prelates past the "retirement age" of 75, including a handful of octogenarian Cardinals: Tettamanzi (81), Kasper (82), Danneels (82), Sgreccia (87), and Sodano (88 in November of this year). Many others are between the ages of 75 and 80, such as Cardinal Damasceno Assis (one of the four President-Delegates of the Synod, who is 77), the Curial dicastery heads Cardinals Coccopalmerio (77), Amato (77), Veglio (77), and many others. Without falling into blind faith in the "biological solution" against liberalism -- there are, after all, a good number of liberal theologians and prelates in their 40's, 50's and early 60's -- it should be noted that the "Kasperite camp" has as its most prominent leaders and promoters, Cardinals in their late 70's and 80's, including a majority of the prelates mentioned above. (Sgreccia and Amato are staunch conservatives on moral issues, though, as is the 77-year-old Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna.)

Why, then, was Cardinal John Tong Hon, the 76-year-old Archbishop of Hong Kong, one of three President-delegates of the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization, and papally-appointed delegate to the 2014 Synod, told by the Vatican that he could not attend this year's Synod because he is too old? The Asian Catholic news agency UCANews broke the news on August 31:

Breaking News; Kasper, Danneels, Schonborn, Cupich, Wuerl and Maradiaga appointed by Pope Francis to 2015 Synod

The finalized, complete list of participants in the Synod of Bishops in 2015 was published in today's Vatican Bollettino: XIV General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 4 to 25 2015) - List of Participants, 15/09/2015.

In addition to the Synod officers (who are all hold-overs from last year's "Extraordinary Synod"), delegates elected by the Bishops' Conferences and the Union of Superior Generals and confirmed by the Pope as Synod members months ago, and ex officio participants (the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Prefects or Presidents of Curial dicasteries), the final list contains the names of prelates appointed by the Pope (as is his prerogative) as members of the Synod. This is the first time that the list of direct papal appointees to the Synod of 2015 has been officially published, although rumors have been circulating for weeks about the impending appointment of Archbishop Cupich.

(Members of the "Council of Cardinals" are not ex officio members of the Synod, and of its nine members two have not been made members of the Synod either by election or papal appointment - Cardinal O'Malley of Boston, USA and Cardinal Errazuriz Ossa of Chile.)

Among those attending the Synod due solely to papal appointment are the following liberals or "moderates": Cardinals Godfried Danneels, Walter Kasper, Christoph Schonborn OP, Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga SDB, John Dew (a vocal supporter of communion for the "divorced and remarried" long before the current Pontificate), Donald Wuerl, Dionigi Tettamanzi (former Archbishop of Milan who last year emerged as a supporter of Kasper's proposal) and Daniel Sturla SDB (more about him here); Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and one of the Pope's closest advisers and ghostwriters; Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago (USA), and Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto (Dean of the Roman Rota and head of the Pope's commission for annulment reform).

They add to the liberal-leaning representatives elected by their respective bishops' conferences to be Synod members and already confirmed by Pope Francis (as we reported in June): Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp (Belgium), Bishop Jean-Paul Vesco OP of Oran (Algeria), "Shadow Synod" participants Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey of Sion (Switzerland), Archbishop Georges Pontier and Bishop Jean-Luc Brunin of France; the three German delegates and "Shadow Synod" participants Cardinal Marx, Archbishop Koch and Bishop Bode; Cardinal Mario Poli of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin (Ireland), and Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster (England & Wales). 

Notable as well among the attendees are Rev. Fr. François-Xavier Dumortier SJ (Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, which played host to the "Shadow Synods" of May and September) and Rev. Fr. Antonio Spadaro SJ, Director of the La Civilta Cattolica and a leading proponent of the new pastoral direction of the current Pontificate. Fr. Dumortier is the only Rector of a Pontifical University among the delegates. 

Among the more conservative-leaning papal appointees (at least when it comes to the Kasper proposal) are Cardinals Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Timothy Dolan of New York, Gualtiero Bassetti (Archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve), and Elio Sgreccia, president emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life and one of the most prominent members of the Wojtylian old guard in the fight against the "culture of death". Cardinals Philippe Ouédraogo (Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso) and Alberto Suárez Inda (Archbishop of Morelia, Mexico) are also reckoned among the conservatives.

As expected, Cardinal Burke is not a Synod Father this time around. 

Blase, the Indecent: Being Unemployed not the same as being Killed, Chopped Up, and Sold

Pieter Aertsen
A meat stall with the Holy Family giving alms, 1551 

When a Bishop goes to the depths of nonsensical depravity in order to create a moral equivalency between the murder, mutilation, and selling of parts of innocent human beings (as the victims of the grotesque marketplace set up by Planned Parenthood and revealed little by little by the most horrendous series of videos in recent memory) and a plethora of other smaller social concerns, then he has placed himself beyond the boundaries of decency.

Blase Cupich, Francis-appointed Archbishop of Chicago, has become Blase the Indecent with his latest intervention in the public square trying not only to preserve but to even extend the rotten theory of the "seamless garment" favored by his predecessor Cardinal Bernardin.

Phil Lawler, a conservative commentator who is not (well...at least yet...) a traditionalist, said the pertinent words:

RORATE EDITORIAL: It's time for Catholic prelates to speak as true Catholics

Rosso Fiorentino
The Marriage of the Virgin
Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

Since the promulgation of Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on the definition of State-defined marriage, a growing number of U.S. Catholic prelates have been issuing their own statements about this abominable decision by five justices of the Court (two of whom are baptized Catholics, including the majority opinion's author himself). Some forthrightly condemned the decision's injustice and immorality. Others restated Catholic doctrine clearly, but without the forcefulness clearly warranted by the situation. Others offered decidedly lukewarm, limp-wristed statements that repeated a minimum of orthodox doctrine in as inoffensive and unconvincing a manner as possible, while tacitly accepting elements of the new secular orthodoxy and undermining what resistance towards it is left among Catholics.

The most symbolic statement was that of the new Archbishop of Chicago, Blase J. Cupich, as lukewarm and limp-wristed as can be imagined. Let no one be fooled: behind the façade of equanimity, this statement represents capitulation, pure and simple: 

Kasperite Indoctrination for the Archdiocese of Chicago?Cupich on the 2014 Synod: "the media reported what actually took place"

Yesterday, an extreme "progressive" American publication released what is partly a long interview, partly a cheering mutual-praising and self-serving powwow, with Archbishop Blase Cupich, without doubt Pope Francis' most important appointment (so far) to the United States' episcopate. After reading this, there is only one thing we can say to our friends in Chicago: we will keep you in our prayers.

Archbishop Cupich during the first Sunday Mass after his installation. 

Four of the most important passages in the interview ("BC" is "Cupich"). Emphases are Rorate's:

Guest Op-Ed: Cupich should embrace Catholic heritage, forgo false humility

By Anatole Upart

University of Chicago Art History Doctoral student

Special for Rorate Caeli

When a leader of a polity assumes the office, the power of the office often comes in a specific architectural form: a residence, headquarters or a palace. Whether that leader personally dislikes old palaces is not important. What is important is that he or she would transition into the role, previously occupied by someone else.

The last thing the new president, king, pope can do is to refuse the symbolic trappings of the office and impose his own personal preferences. That is why Chicago's new Catholic archbishop, Blase Cupich, should move into the official residence, not into the rectory of the Holy Name Cathedral as he recently indicated. It signals the beginning of his new job in the same way the relocation to the White House starts the presidency and the move into Vatican Apartments mark the Papacy.

Special Guest-Post: "Behind the Scenes: How Francis Personally Picked Cupich for Chicago" by Don Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this third guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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A Highly Troubling Sign: How Cupich was Chosen for Chicago

a guest-post by Fr. Pio Pace

It is very necessary to understand the full measure of the nomination of the extreme liberal bishop Blase Cupich to the see of Chicago, replacing Cardinal Francis George.

Cupich's promotion to this particularly important position, that usually entails the elevation to the cardinalatial red, was a personal decision of Pope Francis himself. More precisely, the Pope imposed his candidate on Cardinal Ouellet and the Congregation for Bishops, under the desperate suggestion of the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò. We know well that those men who are particularly authoritarian, such as Francis, also are, in many cases, easily manipulated by those who learn how to read them. Moreover, it is enough to waggle before the eyes of the Pope the scarecrow called Cardinal Burke to lead him in one direction or another, because he has kept against the Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura an extremely strong rancor after the 2013 conclave, in which the American Cardinal was one of those who tried to thwart his path to the pontificate.

The Franciscan RevolutionThe winds of change blow across the US ChurchTime to stop denying the obvious.

As reported by the Associated Press and a growing number of secular media outlets, the appointment of the Bishop of Spokane, Blase Cupich, 65, as the next Archbishop of Chicago is set to be formally announced by Rome. 

It is worth noting that the "National Catholic Reporter" is celebrating the appointment of this "good model for how bishops should conduct themselves in the public square" with an article (to which we will not link here) based on the very real actions and tone that he set as Bishop of Spokane -- on the issues of homosexual "marriage", on evangelization, on Obamacare (the system as implemented, with all its anti-faith inclusions), on "lay ministry" and, most importantly, on the upcoming Synod of Bishops.