Cardinal Cupich and the question of why bother being Catholic

 So here is his reaction to the Australia and Brown University shootings:

Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, on the Shootings in Rhode Island and Australia

December 14, 2025

Español | Polski

Once again, I write to offer solace and hope to people shocked by loss of life in places where our brothers and sisters sought to gather in places of peace and learning, yet were subjected to violence. On an Australian beach, terrorists consumed with hatred rained bullets on a celebration of the first day of Hanukkah, killing 16 and injuring many more. If anyone doubts the ancient sin of antisemitism is alive and strong today, here is proof.

Closer to home, two students preparing for final exams and a joyful holiday were murdered and a dozen injured by a gunman in the latest of a too-long series of college-related shootings.

We pray fervently for those directly affected by these attacks. But we also resolve to act against the circumstances that gave rise to them. In one case, hatred was strong enough to overcome even Australia’s strong firearms regulations. As we make ready to welcome the birth of the Christ Child to Jewish parents, let us recognize our own roots as people blessed with this tradition, speak against hatred and stand with our brothers and sisters as they claim their right to respect, safety and religious liberty.

And may we not be immunized to murder, including the latest United States campus shooting at Brown University. We must recognize that our leaders may say life is precious but act in ways that communicate it is cheap, that our children and the terminally ill are expendable. We cannot roll back mental health services and keep firearms more accessible than health care and then display outrage when the predictable consequences occur. Only if we soften the hearts of those in power can we hope to see a future where parents no longer send children to college with equal parts pride and terror. Only if we safeguard freedom of worship, including for minority faiths will we live up to the principles on which our nation was founded. Until then, we are speaking hollow platitudes about an America that is an ideal, not a reality.

Not surprising in the least.  It says everything we would expect, and carefully avoids saying everything we would expect.  Unlike his reaction to the Charlottesville shooting, in which we were treated to a lengthy essay that included Naziism, white nationalism and the history of racism in our country added to by a pinch of ISIS reference (read it here), he joins the mainstream Left by using the vague 'antisemitism sure is a problem' assessment, never bothering to mention the specifics.  And we all know why. 

But it's what isn't said that's even more telling.  He does mention the coming of Christmas, with the standard progressive emphasis on the group identity of the Christ Child being Jewish.  He brings up the terminally ill, though no clue why, since I'm not aware of that entering into the motive for any of the shooters. Of course he mentions guns, and the obvious assumption that gun control is the single hope for solving the violence we witnessed, which is why it's almost always the only thing we will talk about.  And mental health.  Apparently because the almost exclusive emphasis on mental health and subsequent tens of billions of dollars in funding we've seen over recent decades, even as the problems mental health is supposed to help have gotten worse not better, suggests the solution is more of the same.  

Nonetheless, it's that this could have been released from a politician's office.  It could have come from a mayor, a concerned corporate CEO, a celebrity.  I wouldn't be surprised if some informed and invested pop culture figure had something like this released.  There just isn't any 'there' there.  Certainly not if 'there' means even Christianity in a generic sense, much less a Catholic sense.  Heck, I've taken in more Christianity watching the original Ghostbusters than this. 

If there is any truth at all to the historical Christian Faith, or if there is any need for the Catholic Church to exist, then I'd say this whole release was nothing but a hollow platitude.  It certainly didn't suggest there was any hope beyond accepting progressive activism, narratives and policy solutions.  And it isn't as if this is the only example of such a statement I've seen since we became Catholics. 

Once again, allow me to tap into something one of my sons observed some time ago.  He said we became Catholic almost 20 years ago.  And in that time, we have yet to hear a contemporary pope suggest there was any pressing need for us to do so.  Upon reflection since he mentioned that, I have to say he's right.  And the good Cardinal Cupich simply adds one more page to the question of 'why did we become Catholic in the first place?' that has yet to be answered by those you'd think would provide such an answer.