Cupich named new Chicago archbishop; seen as ‘moderate’ towards LGBT

By Gerald Farinason
Chicago Phoenix
September 20, 2014

http://chicagophoenix.com/2014/09/20/new-archbishop-of-chicago-announced-blase-joseph-cupich/

The archbishop’s cathedra is installed at Holy Name Cathedral.

The Catholic Bishop of Spokane, Wash. will be installed as the new archbishop of Chicago, the Vatican confirmed at 5 a.m. Saturday morning. Most Rev. Blase Joseph Cupich (pronounced sooh-pitch), 65, will become the 14th ordinary, ninth archbishop of Chicago, and leader of 2.2 million parishioners in the metropolitan area. He will be installed as such on Nov. 19.

The choice is a surprise to most Catholics. He is a bishop, not a metropolitan archbishop. All those indicated as favorites for the job were archbishops. A long shot, Cupich’s name only appeared as a possibility in the last couple days.

Cardinal Francis George, 77, is retiring as he battles cancer—which he expects will take his life. All previous archbishops died in office.

Cupich is the first major U.S. appointment by Pope Francis. The decision was seen by church-watchers as indicative of the direction the pontiff hopes to shepherd America’s Catholics.

According to Religion News Service writer David Gibson, the appointment dashes the hopes of conservatives as Cupich comes from a progressive wing of the church.

Considered a moderate in comparison to other members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Cupich keeps the teachings of the church on social issues but has not pressed against women’s reproductive rights and marriage equality with the amount of vitriol that his colleagues expressed.

Before Washington voters went to the polls to legalize same-sex marriage in 2012, Cupich repeated the church’s teachings against it—he is a traditionalist on the matter. But the way he handled same-sex marriage was different.

In a pastoral letter read in parishes in his diocese, which encompasses half of the state, he condemned measures “to incite hostility towards homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity.”

“It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action,” the bishop said. “Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church’s pastors wherever it occurs.”

The force with which Cupich’s message about LGBT people was given matched the forcefulness with which he writes and preaches on social justice issues.

“Cupich was known for reaching out to a largely unchurched population and for promoting the church’s social justice teachings in a region suffering from the effects of the recession,” Gibson wrote of the bishop’s tenure in Spokane.

In this manner, church-watchers see a closeness to Pope Francis’ tone.

NBC-affiliate WMAQ reported Friday night that sources believe Pope Francis bypassed recommendations of the USCCB, and worked the phones himself to come up with his own choice: Cupich.

Succeeding the more liberal Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in 1997, Cardinal George has enjoyed a strong following among the church’s most conservative members. He has been one of the leading critics in the nation against abortion and same-sex marriage—especially during his term as president of the USCCB.

Cardinal George exerted a lot of effort to stopping civil unions, and then marriage equality in Illinois. He was unsuccessful.

On the issue of the priest sex abuse scandals, victim advocacy groups are not happy with the choice. Despite Cupich working on child protection for years as bishop, those groups say he was not aggressive enough.

Cupich was born in Omaha, Neb. in 1949. He attended University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. From there, he attended school in Rome at the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1975—serving the archdiocese of Omaha. St. John Paul II appointed Cupich as bishop of Rapid City, S.D. in 1998. He left in 2010 when Pope Benedict XVI made him bishop of Spokane.

When Cupich assumes his role in Chicago, among the many ministries that will fall under his jurisdiction is the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach—popularly known as AGLO. Its members worship regularly at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 708 W. Belmont Ave. in Boystown.

Cupich’s title will remain “Most Reverend” as archbishop. He will wear amaranth-colored non-liturgical dress. It is expected that, later in his term, Cupich will be made a cardinal—which comes with the title of “Eminence,” red biretta, zuccechetto and cassock, and the right to elect future popes.