Amid mounting pushback, Sen. Dick Durbin, a pro-abortion Democrat from Illinois, declined a lifetime achievement award on Tuesday he was scheduled to receive from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, had planned to present Durbin with the honor at the “Keep Hope Alive” Benefit on Nov. 3. The announcement drew widespread criticism due to Durbin’s history of abortion advocacy despite identifying as Catholic.
“Senator Durbin today informed me that he has decided not to receive an award at our Keep Hope Alive celebration,” Cupich wrote in a Sept. 30 announcement of the senator’s decision.
“While I am saddened by this news, I respect his decision. But I want to make clear that the decision to present him an award was specifically in recognition of his singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants, which is so needed in our day,” Cupich added.
The Illinois Democrat, who plans to retire at the end of his term in 2026, voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which prohibited late-term abortion procedures, and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would have mandated care for babies who survive failed abortions.
The decision to award Durbin the lifetime achievement award faced strong pushback from several American bishops, including Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Durbin’s home diocese.
“Given Senator Durbin’s long and consistent record of supporting legal abortion — including opposing legislation to protect children who survive failed abortions — this decision risks causing grave scandal, confusing the faithful about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life,” Paprocki said in a statement to The Pillar on Sept. 19.
“Honoring a public figure who has actively worked to expand and entrench the right to end innocent human life in the womb undermines the very concept of human dignity and solidarity that the award purports to uphold,” the bishop said.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who barred self-professed Catholic Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion in 2022 due to her stance on abortion, similarly urged Cupich to reconsider his decision.
“It’s an absurd notion to even think of giving a Catholic honor to Dick Durbin, who spent his career in Washington promoting the most extreme abortion agenda possible,” Steve Cortes, senior political advisor to CatholicVote, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Dick Durbin doesn’t just insist that abortion is legal, he wants it celebrated, shouted from the rooftops, and paid for by taxpayers, to boot.”
“When Durbin wasn’t pushing abortion in the Senate, he was busy opposing traditional marriage and creating an open borders crisis that led to a massive wave of totally preventable child trafficking. Dick Durbin is the kind of politician who should be disciplined by Church leaders, not honored,” Cortes added.
Meanwhile, Cupich used his statement to defend at length his decision to honor the pro-abortion senator.
“Some would say that the Church should never honor a political leader if he pursues policies diametrically opposed to critical elements of Catholic social teaching. But the tragic reality in our nation today is that there are essentially no Catholic public officials who consistently pursue the essential elements of Catholic social teaching because our party system will not permit them to do so,” Cupich said.
“Total condemnation is not the way forward, for it shuts down discussion. But praise and encouragement can open it up, by asking their recipients to consider how to extend their good work to other areas and issues,” he added.
On Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV appeared to defend Cupich’s plan to give Durbin the award
“I think it’s important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, in 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” the pope told reporters, according to the Catholic News Agency.
“I understand the difficulty and the tensions. But I think as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to the teachings of the church,” the pope added. “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. 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.”
Durbin’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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