Rome (AP)-Pope Leo XIV has intervened for the first time in a dispute of abortion that is being made to the Catholic Church of the United States, raising the apparent contradiction on what it really means to be “pro-life.”
Leo, a native of Chicago, was asked Tuesday night about the plans of the Cardinal of Chicago Blase Cupich to award an Achievement Award for Life to the Senator of Illinois, Dick Durbin, for his work helping immigrants. The plans caused objections of some conservative American bishops, given the support of the powerful Democratic senator to the rights of abortion.
Leo first called respect for both parties, but also pointed out the apparent contradiction in such debates.
“Someone who says ‘I am against abortion but says that I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” said Leo. “Someone who says that ‘I am against abortion, but I agree with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,” I don’t know if that is pro-life. “
Leo spoke hours before Cupich announced that Durbin had rejected the prize.
The teaching of the Church prohibits abortion, but also opposes capital punishment. Pope Francis officially changed the teaching of the Church in 2018 to decree that the death penalty is “inadmissible” in all circumstances. American and Vatican bishops have strongly asked the human treatment of migrants, citing the biblical command of “welcoming the stranger.”
Leo said he was not familiar with the details of the Durbin Award, but said it was important to look at the senator’s general history and pointed out the possession of four decades of Durbin. In response to a question in English of the American station Ewtn News, he said that there were many ethical problems that constitute the teaching of the Catholic Church.
“I do not know if someone has the whole truth, but in the first place I would ask that there is greater mutual respect and that we seek together as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as the Catholics to say that we need to really look close to all these ethical problems and find the way forward in this church. The teaching of the Church. The teaching of the Church in each of those church.
Cupich was a nearby advisor to Pope Francis, who strongly confirmed the church that taught opposite abortion, but also criticized the politicization of the debate on the abortion of US bishops. Some bishops asked to deny communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, including former President Joe Biden.
Biden met several times with Francis and told reporters in 2021 that Francis had told him to continue receiving communion. During a visit to Rome that year received the Sacrament during the Mass in a Church in the Diocese of Francisco.
Durbin was forbidden to receive communion in the diocese of his home in Springfield in 2004. The Bishop of Springfield, Thomas Paprocki, has continued the prohibition and was one of the US bishops who strongly opposed Cupich’s decision to honor the senator. Cupich states that Durbin is a member of the Chicago archdiocese, where Durbin also has a home.
In his statement announcing that Durbin would reject the prize, Cupich regretted that polarization in the United States has created a situation in which US Catholics “are politically without home” since neither the Republican Party nor the Democrat completely encapsulates the amplitude of Catholic teaching.
He defended Honor Durbin for his pro -immigration position, and said that the planned awards ceremony of November 3 could have been an occasion to involve him and other political leaders in the hope of pressing the opinion of the Church on other issues, including abortion.
“It could be an invitation to Catholics who tirelessly promote the dignity of the unborn, the elderly and the sick to extend the circle of protection to immigrants who face at this time an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their families,” Cupich wrote.
The dispute occurred when the administration of President Donald Trump maintains a wave of immigration application in the Chicago area.
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(Tagstotranslate) Senator Dick Durbin (T) Blase Cupich (T) Papa Francis (T) Papa Leo
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