(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic watchdog site Complicit Clergy launched an urgent campaign encouraging American Catholics to contact the overwhelming majority of bishops who have not spoken out against Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to award pro-abortion Democratic Senator Richard Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The campaign, launched on Sunday, commends the 10 bishops who have already denounced Cupich’s plans and provides contact information for the remaining ordinaries. Cupich plans to honor the staunchly pro-abortion Durbin, who identifies as Catholic but has supported partial-birth abortion, with a Lifetime Achievement Award “for support of immigrants” at the upcoming “Keep Hope Alive” benefit on November 3.
“While it is commendable that these bishops have spoken-out, perhaps the real scandal is the fact that the vast majority of 440 bishops in the United States have remained silent,” Complicit Clergy wrote in its campaign launch article.
“We urge lay Catholics to contact their bishops and urge them to include their voices in calling for Cardinal Cupich to withdraw his planned lifetime achievement award for Dick Durbin.”
TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Bishop ‘Silence Is Complicity’ In Cardinal Cupich’s Durbin Scandalhttps://t.co/5s7imq5VzY
— Complicit Clergy (@complicitclergy) September 28, 2025
Durbin’s voting record has earned 0 percent pro-life scores and 100 percent pro-abortion scores from the National Right to Life Committee, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood during the vast majority of his time in the Senate.
READ: Cardinal Cupich deserves to be rebuked for honoring pro-abortion Sen. Durbin
Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 1997, he has supported every possible brutal method of abortion and 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.
He also supported legislation aimed at codifying and expanding Roe v. Wade – the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act” – despite the Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional.
Back in 2004, as a result of his pro-abortion senatorial votes, Durbin was prohibited from receiving Holy Communion in his home diocese of Springfield, Illinois.
Several prominent bishops have strongly condemned Cupich’s decision. Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the bishop of Springfield and Durbin’s bishop, told The Pillar he was “shocked” by Cupich’s plans to honor Durbin and said the decision “risks causing grave scandal, confusing the faithful about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life.”
READ: Archbishop Cordileone, Bishop Paprocki oppose Cupich’s plan to honor radical pro-abortion Democrat
“Honoring a public figure who has actively worked to expand and entrench the [so-called] right to end innocent human life in the womb undermines the very concept of human dignity and solidarity that the award purports to uphold,” Paprocki said.
“I stand in solidarity with Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, in urging Cardinal Cupich to reconsider giving Senator Durbin a Lifetime Achievement Award through the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity given his long record of supporting legal abortion,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco wrote on X.
I stand in solidarity with Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, in urging Cardinal Cupich to reconsider giving Senator Durbin a Lifetime Achievement Award through the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity given his long record of supporting… https://t.co/T9X5R7ai2T
— Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone (@ArchCordileone) September 21, 2025
Bishop Joseph Strickland, bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, Bishop James Wall of Gallup, New Mexico, Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, Bishop Carl Kemme of Wichita, Kansas, Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City, Missouri, and Archbishop Joseph Naumann, bishop emeritus of Kansas City, Kansas, have also joined the pushback against Cupich’s plan to award the radically pro-abortion senator.
READ: Wisconsin bishop calls on Cupich to retract award for pro-abortion senator
In response to some of the backlash from his brother bishops last week, Cupich doubled down on his decision and dismissed their concerns that he risks “grave scandal,” claiming that Catholic teaching on life and dignity “cannot be reduced to a single issue, even an issue as important as abortion.”
However, as noted by Bishop Paprocki while speaking to The Pillar, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has previously said that “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors, or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”
