On October 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV, the first American to hold the papacy, stepped squarely into the heart of a contentious debate simmering within the U.S. Catholic Church. The controversy? A plan by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich to honor Illinois Senator Dick Durbin—a Democrat and practicing Catholic—with a lifetime achievement award for his decades-long work on immigration reform. The twist: Durbin’s unwavering support for abortion rights, a stance at odds with official Catholic teaching, had already made him a lightning rod for criticism among conservative bishops.
The dispute, chronicled by outlets including the Associated Press, National Catholic Reporter, and others, quickly became about much more than a single award. It exposed deep fissures within the American Catholic community over what it truly means to be “pro-life,” and how the Church’s moral teachings should play out in the messy world of politics. Pope Leo XIV’s intervention—delivered in his now-customary doorstep remarks outside the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo—didn’t settle the matter. But it did reframe the conversation, urging Catholics to look beyond single-issue politics and embrace the complex tapestry of Catholic moral teaching.
“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo declared, as reported by AP and echoed across Catholic media. “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.” The Pope’s words, delivered in plain English, underscored a vision of Catholic ethics that extends well beyond the abortion debate, invoking what theologians call the “seamless garment” approach—a holistic pro-life ethic that also opposes capital punishment and demands humane treatment of migrants.
For many American Catholics, the Pope’s remarks hit close to home. The U.S. Church has long struggled with how to navigate public life in a country where neither major political party fully reflects Catholic teaching. Cardinal Cupich, a close adviser to Pope Francis and now to Leo XIV, defended the decision to honor Durbin by pointing to the senator’s “singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants.” Durbin, after all, was a co-author of the DREAM Act—a bill first introduced in 2001 to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Despite repeated debates in Congress, the legislation has never fully passed, but Durbin’s advocacy has made him a champion for many immigrant families.
Yet, for others in the Church hierarchy, Durbin’s abortion stance was a bridge too far. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, who has barred Durbin from receiving communion in his diocese since 2004, led a chorus of at least nine bishops in publicly objecting to the award. Paprocki called Cupich’s plan a “grave scandal” that would “confuse some within the church about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life,” as reported by SAN and National Catholic Reporter. The critics were joined by other senior prelates from across the country, including Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, who urged that the honor be rescinded.
Facing mounting backlash, Durbin ultimately declined the award on September 30, 2025, a decision announced by Cardinal Cupich himself. Cupich lamented the polarization that, in his view, leaves many U.S. Catholics “politically homeless,” since neither the Republican nor the Democratic party fully encapsulates the breadth of Catholic teaching. He defended the original plan to honor Durbin as an opportunity to engage Catholic politicians and press the Church’s views on all life issues, including abortion. “It could be an invitation to Catholics who tirelessly promote the dignity of the unborn, the elderly, and the sick to extend the circle of protection to immigrants facing in this present moment an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their families,” Cupich wrote, according to the Associated Press.
Pope Leo XIV, for his part, was careful not to take sides in the specific dispute. “I’m not terribly familiar with the particular case,” he told journalists, as reported by multiple outlets. But he stressed the importance of considering a politician’s overall record—Durbin’s nearly 40 years in the Senate, for instance—rather than reducing their public witness to a single issue. “I understand the difficulty and the tensions,” Leo said. “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.”
His remarks were grounded in recent Church history. Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, had officially changed Catholic teaching in 2018 to declare the death penalty “inadmissible” in all circumstances, further broadening the Church’s pro-life message. The Vatican and U.S. bishops have also been outspoken in their calls for humane treatment of migrants, citing the Biblical command to “welcome the stranger.” According to AP, the controversy over Durbin’s award unfolded against a backdrop of increased immigration enforcement in the Chicago area under President Donald Trump’s administration, adding urgency to the Church’s advocacy for immigrants.
Leo’s comments also reflected his unique perspective as an American pope. Unlike his predecessors, he has shown a willingness to wade into U.S. political debates, drawing on distinctly American examples in both informal remarks and formal prayers. During the same exchange with journalists, he expressed concern over President Trump’s meeting with military generals and the administration’s decision to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” calling the move “worrying” and emphasizing the need for peace. “Let us hope it is just a way of speaking,” Leo said. “One must always work for peace.”
For U.S. Catholics, Leo’s papacy signals a new era in which the Vatican will not shy away from engaging with the political and ethical challenges facing American society. His insistence on respect, dialogue, and a broad, consistent ethic of life offers a potential roadmap for a Church often divided along partisan lines. “They’re very complex issues,” Leo acknowledged. “I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them, but I ask that first and foremost there be greater respect for one another, and that we search together—first as human beings, and in this case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics—to really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward as church. Church teaching on all of those issues is very clear.”
As the dust settles on the Durbin award controversy, one thing is clear: Pope Leo XIV’s voice will be an increasingly prominent—and challenging—presence in the ongoing debate over faith, politics, and the meaning of being pro-life in America.
