On October 1, 2025, a fresh controversy erupted at the intersection of faith and politics in the United States, drawing in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native and the first American pontiff, weighed in for the first time on an abortion dispute that has been roiling the U.S. Catholic Church, sparking debate about what it truly means to be "pro-life." His comments came as Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich planned to honor Illinois Senator Dick Durbin with a lifetime achievement award for his advocacy on behalf of immigrants—a move that quickly drew sharp objections from conservative bishops due to Durbin's well-known support for abortion rights.
The pope’s remarks, delivered during a press conference late Tuesday and reported by several outlets including the Associated Press and EPA-Yonhap, cut to the heart of the matter. "Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life," Leo stated. "Someone who says that ‘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." His words echoed a common refrain in Catholic social teaching, which has long insisted that respect for life extends beyond the issue of abortion and encompasses opposition to capital punishment and support for humane treatment of migrants.
The controversy was set in motion when Cardinal Cupich, himself a close adviser to Pope Francis, announced plans to honor Senator Durbin for his decades-long efforts to support immigrant communities. Durbin, a powerful Democratic senator, has represented Illinois for over forty years and is known for his advocacy on immigration reform. But his support for abortion rights has made him a lightning rod within the Church, especially among more conservative bishops. Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who has barred Durbin from receiving Communion in his home diocese since 2004, was among those who objected most strongly to Cupich’s decision.
The planned award ceremony, scheduled for November 3, 2025, was meant to be a moment of recognition for Durbin’s work. Instead, it became a flashpoint for an ongoing debate within the American Catholic community—one that reflects broader political polarization in the country. Hours before Cupich announced that Durbin would decline the award, Pope Leo XIV called for mutual respect and a willingness to engage with the full spectrum of ethical issues facing the Church. As he told EWTN News, "I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics to say we need to you know really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward in this church. Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear."
The U.S. Catholic Church’s official teachings are unambiguous on several points: abortion is forbidden, the death penalty is "inadmissible" under all circumstances (a position Pope Francis formalized in 2018), and the humane treatment of migrants is a Biblical imperative. The Vatican and U.S. bishops have repeatedly cited the command to "welcome the stranger" as central to the faith. Yet, as the dispute over Durbin’s award demonstrated, the application of these teachings in the public square is often anything but simple.
The White House, too, found itself drawn into the fray. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding to concerns raised by Pope Leo about the treatment of immigrants under President Donald Trump’s administration, insisted that the administration was "trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible." She rejected the notion that there was "inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration," a claim that has been hotly contested by advocacy groups and some Catholic leaders, especially amid a surge of immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
The tension between Church teaching and political reality has been a recurring theme in recent years. Some U.S. bishops have called for denying Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, a stance that has ensnared high-profile figures like President Joe Biden and, of course, Senator Durbin. Biden, for his part, met with Pope Francis on several occasions and reported in 2021 that the pope encouraged him to continue receiving Communion—a gesture that underscored the Vatican’s preference for dialogue over confrontation.
Cardinal Cupich, in his statement announcing that Durbin would decline the award, lamented the deep polarization that has left many American Catholics feeling "politically homeless." As he wrote, "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 defended the decision to honor Durbin for his pro-immigration stance and argued that the award ceremony could have been an opportunity to engage the senator and other political leaders on the Church’s views regarding abortion and other issues.
Bishop Paprocki, for his part, thanked Durbin for declining the award and urged Catholics to pray for respect for human dignity at all stages of life. "I ask that all Catholics continue to pray for our church, our country, and for the human dignity of all people to be respected in all stages of life including the unborn and immigrants," he wrote in a Facebook post, as reported by the Associated Press.
The episode highlights the complex, often fraught relationship between the Catholic Church and American politics. Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party, as Cupich noted, fully encapsulates the breadth of Catholic teaching. For many U.S. Catholics, this has meant navigating a political landscape in which their moral convictions do not fit neatly into partisan boxes. The dispute over Durbin’s award—and Pope Leo XIV’s intervention—brought these tensions into sharp relief, raising thorny questions about what it means to be "pro-life" in a country as divided as the United States.
As the Church looks ahead, the challenge remains: to uphold its teachings on the dignity of every human life, from the unborn to the immigrant, and to foster a spirit of mutual respect and honest engagement across political and ideological divides. The events of October 1, 2025, served as a vivid reminder that these debates are far from settled—and that the search for common ground, both within the Church and in the broader society, is as urgent as ever.
