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, 2025Once 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.
"And the good Cardinal (Chaput) Cupich simply adds one more page to the question of 'why did we become Catholic ..."
ReplyDelete"He brings up the terminally ill, though no clue why" -- probably because Illinois recently legalized assisted suicide
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that. Doesn't surprise me, but that might be what caused that to be mentioned. It would make sense.
DeleteIt isn't just Cupich. The modern Church offers no compelling reason why anyone should become a Christian at all (never mind a Roman Catholic), and not, say, a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Muslim. It's not a matter of a few bad apples; the Church as an institution is looking more and more like a dodo bird with every passing year. ---- G. Poulin
ReplyDeleteWith each year it looks more and more like the Church is wanting to follow those Mainline Protestant churches that long ago abandoned the Faith in any meaningful way. For all the laughing we do at some far left Protestant church with transgender Buddhists holding an abortion rights seminar at the altar, it didn't start there. It started generations ago when many of those same denominations began accepting the critical deconstructing of the Scriptures, then the history, then the teachings of the Faith. That had happened long before the first denominations broke with tradition and began doing things like sanction artificial contraception or the like. I see the Church today, and some of what has been said and written, and it looks the same, just a century or so off.
DeleteDave, do you follow Meghan Basham's work? She has written extensively about the intentional infiltration of Protestant leadership and churches. They've been targeted too, just like Bella Dodd wrote about the communists and the Catholic church.
DeleteHere's a talk / interview with Meghan.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/Zg-jJ2C8tOc?si=UmaVI8bgQQrhsd_W
I know. There is a lot of talk about the Catholic church leading itself out of existence, going the way of, as David said, Mainline Protestant churches etc...but let us not forget that, from Christ, He promised guidance by the Holy Spirit and her defense against the powers of hell. Yes, the Church is being pummeled and radicalized by outside, but mostly inside forces, our Church will not be destroyed or ended by anyone except Christ. Yes we are having hard times...just like her founder had while on Earth. But it ain't goin' no where!
DeleteBernadette, nope, I don't. I'll look into it, Nate having provided a link.
DeleteBob, I'm not so worried about the long term survival of the Church. As you say, it's in good overall hands. But I do concern myself about those being lost or walking away because it just doesn't appear there is a pressing need not to do so. That's what I concern myself with. Of course God isn't blind to what is happening, and we can always trust in His mercy and grace. Nonetheless, the Church is at its best when people are being saved because of it, not despite it.
Delete"Nonetheless, the Church is at its best when people are being saved because of it, not despite it." That's very true David and it would be wonderful for our Church to stick to her mission to go and teach all nations about our Lord, evangelize and plant the seeds of conversion, but we cannot be blind in realizing that despite the storms people DO look to those who are faithful to the Church and are moved by the fact that, like God, we are faithful. To paraphrase, martyrs are the incentive of growth in the Church. I always keep in mind what Christ said when I see people walking away from the Church, for whatever reason they use as an excuse, "When the son of man returns, will he find any faith left on the Earth?". Perseverance in our faith, despite all, is key. What we see happening in our Church is the distressing no doubt. I just read an article by a gentleman who frequently writes in certain Catholic publications that there is upward of 80% of our bishops here and at least in Germany are homosexuals, and that is not counting priests. Tell me that isn't enough to drive someone away from the faith. Yes, what we see happening is distressing but we should be joyful in acknowledging what we do NOT see God doing in our Church and lives.
DeleteWe can wish and pray for a Church that does everything right and remains faithful in her mission, but with the tares and wheat growing together? Eh, not so easy. The Church will always stray just as it did at it's foundation. We just think we should know better in our age.
Cupich is past his "sell by" date. It was a complete trial that he replaced the saintly Cardinal George and, apparently, was not even on the official short list so he was clearly a Francis placed bomb placed in a high-powered episcopate...probably because the late pope seemed to hate Americans. Ironic now that I'm thinking of it that the new pope came from the same city. (That all sounds rather cynical and harsh, but please read it in a conversational tone :) )
ReplyDeleteI'd say Pope Francis was willing to accept the worst possible spin on the US as often as possible. I remember before he visited that he floated the old canard about how the Allies could have just bombed a few rail lines and then viola! The Holocaust would have been stopped. Which is the historian's equivalent of faked moon landings. But time and again it wasn't hard to see where he leaned in the political spectrum. Unfortunately in doing so, he never seemed overly invested in explaining just why Catholicism is any more important than anything else, at least as long as we had our political minds right.
DeleteJesus may have promised the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but he never promised that churchmen would choose to be guided by it. And in Matthew 16:18, it is the church that is on offense and it is hell that is on defense; it's a promise that the gates of death will be breached. Catholics should stop using these alleged promises of indefectibility to make themselves feel better. If the current course is not corrected, then the church will certainly disappear. --- G. Poulin
ReplyDelete"then the church will certainly disappear. --- G. Poulin"
DeleteAbsolutely not. If the Church disappears it will be by God's doing not man. Why do you think that the Church has withstood the test of time despite being populated by corrupt sinful men as hierarchy? It is preCISEly to prove that it is God who sustains the Church and not man.I do feel better knowing the Church is indefectable, knowing that what I am taught by the Church for the last 2000 years is true. "He who listens to you, listens to me and he who rejects you rejects me and the father who sent me." This is who speaks through the Church no matter what man has tried to do to it. It is no secret that Christ was not a fan of the Scribes and Pharasees. White sepulchres, rotted on the inside, hypocrites, obstacles to those trying to get to heaven. Yet despite all the corruption and sinfulness of the religious leaders of the time Christ told the people "They! They sit on the seat of Moses, the seat of judgement. They are the teachers of the law. Listen to them and do what they tell you but don't do what they do.
If he was walking the Earth today, he would say the same about the seat of Peter. They are the teachers of the faith. Listen to them and obey them but do not do as they do. No, there is not a chance in hell that this Church disappears unless Christ, her found wants her to. If they do not give us a reason why to be Catholic, it is because they have been blinded by their own corruption. I'll give you a reason to be Catholic. It is because it is the one true Church of Jesus. That's the only reason you need. Our religious leaders may not give people reason, then it falls on us to do so.