Cardinal Cupich Meetings With Illinois Catholic Leaders Canceled Amid Durbin Award Controversy…

The meetings of two groups of Illinois Catholic leaders chaired by Cardinal Blase Cupich were postponed indefinitely last week after a lay leader requested that the Chicago cardinal-archbishop’s controversial decision to honor a pro-abortion-rights senator be discussed. John Breen, a board member of the Catholic Conference of Illinois (CCI), asked on Sept. 23 that Cardinal Cupich’s plan to give Sen. Dick Durbin a “lifetime achievement award” at an upcoming archdiocesan fundraiser be added to the agenda of a Sept. 25 board meeting because the honor risked undermining the group’s advocacy work.