Pope Leo appoints Cupich to Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State

[Stone]

Pope Leo appoints Cupich to Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State
Cardinal Blase Cupich recently faced backlash from other bishops for planning to award pro-abortion, 

pro-LGBT Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin with a ‘lifetime achievement’ award.



Cardinal Blase Cupich entering the 2024 Synod
Michael Haynes

Oct 16, 2025
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday appointed heterodox Cardinal Blase Cupich to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.

In an October 15 bulletin, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo had named Cupich to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State. Such appointments are often considered a reward for loyalty to and alignment with the Holy Father’s vision for the Church.

Cupich, who serves as the archbishop of the pontiff’s hometown of Chicago, has recently made headlines for planning to award pro-abortion Illinois Senator Dick Durbin with a “lifetime achievement” award, has a long history of suppressing the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), and has opposed the pro-life movement.

LifeSite’s editor in chief, John-Henry Westen, noted Cupich’s history of suppressing the TLM and embrace of pro-abortion politicians in an X post.

The Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State is the Vatican’s legislative body responsible for many of the state’s functions and activities, including economics, security and public order, customs and postal services, public health and the environment, and overseeing the Vatican Museums. It’s worth noting that all laws proposed by the commission must ultimately be approved by the sovereign pontiff.

In recent weeks, Cupich had planned to honor the radically pro-abortion and pro-LGBT Democratic Senator Dick Durbin with a “lifetime achievement” award, citing his support for liberal immigration policies, at the Archdiocese of Chicago’s “Keep Hope Alive” benefit in November.

READ: Cardinal Cupich to honor pro-abortion Sen. Durbin with lifetime achievement award

Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 1997, Durbin has supported every possible brutal method of abortion, as well as even post-abortion infanticide, voting against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Durbin’s horrendous voting record has earned 0 percent pro-life scores and 100 percent pro-abortion scores from the National Right to Life Committee.

Several American bishops, including Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Durbin’s bishop, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, denounced Cupich’s decision, noting that awarding the pro-abortion senator risks “grave scandal.”

Cupich responded by doubling down on his decision and dismissing concerns that he risked “grave scandal” by presenting Durbin with the “lifetime achievement” award, claiming that Catholic teaching on life and dignity “cannot be reduced to a single issue, even an issue as important as abortion.”

However, after continued backlash, Cupich announced that Durbin had declined to receive the award. Just hours before the archbishop of Chicago’s announcement, Pope Leo raised eyebrows by appearing to defend the cardinal’s decision to honor the pro-abortion senator when pressed by a reporter.

“I think that it is very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during … 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” the American pontiff stated.

READ: Pope Leo says support for death penalty is ‘not pro-life,’ defends awarding pro-abortion politician

Leo then echoed Cupich’s erroneous equation of abortion to the death penalty and migration policy: “Someone who says I’m against abortion but says I’m in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life,” the pope said. “Someone who says I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Cupich has also been a vocal opponent of the Latin Mass, placing sweeping restrictions on its celebration as well as the celebration of old rite sacraments in the Chicago archdiocese. The cardinal has also repeatedly criticized traditional Catholics, recently denouncing “traditionalism” as the “dead faith of the living.”

READ: Cardinal Cupich decries ‘traditionalism’ as the ‘dead faith of the living’

Liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, in a Facebook post, remarked that the faithful shouldn’t be “freaking out” over Cupich’s appointment, emphasizing that the commission is a minor appointment and suggested that perhaps the pontiff’s intention behind this nomination is to lessen the cardinal’s influence elsewhere.

Pope Leo on Wednesday also appointed Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general for the diocese of Rome, to the commission.

In one of the pontiff’s first major appointments, Leo had named Reina as the grand chancellor of the Pontifical Theological Institute “John Paul II” for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family, replacing the controversial Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. Reina’s appointment was welcomed by pro-life Catholics as his record on pro-life matters is believed to be more orthodox than that of the man he replaced.

Pope Leo also confirmed McCarrick-linked Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Cardinal Arthur Roche, the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who was responsible for many of the Francis Vatican’s restrictions on the TLM; Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect for the Dicastery for the Clergy; and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches in their current roles on the pontifical commission.