GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has joined Bishop Thomas Paprocki and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in decrying Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to honor the radically pro-abortion, pro-LGBT Senator Dick Durbin.
Stressing that Durbin supports the legal killing of human beings, Ricken called out Cupich’s plan as “untenable.”
“Works of justice & protecting life are not mutually exclusive but must be inclusive,” wrote the bishop on X. “Abortion violates ‘Thou shalt not kill’ (Ex 20:13). I join @BishopPaprocki & @ArchCordileone in urging @CardinalBCupich to retract this award.”
The Archdiocese of Chicago’s plan to give @SenatorDurbin a Catholic “Lifetime Achievement Award” is untenable. Works of justice & protecting life are not mutually exclusive but must be inclusive. Abortion violates “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13). I join @BishopPaprocki &…
— Bishop David Ricken (@BpDavidRicken) September 24, 2025
Cupich plans to present Durbin, who has supported partial-birth abortion, with a lifetime achievement award “for support of immigrants” at the upcoming “Keep Hope Alive” benefit on November 3.
A longtime Democrat, 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.
Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 1997, he 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.
He also supported legislation aimed at codifying and expanding Roe v. Wade – the “Women’s Health Protection Act” – despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that it was unconstitutional.
In 2004, Durbin – a self-proclaimed Catholic – was prohibited from receiving Holy Communion in his home diocese of Springfield, Illinois, as a result of his pro-abortion senatorial votes.
Bishop Paprocki, the current bishop of Springfield, recently told The Pillar that 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.”
He highlighted the irony of giving an award that “purports to uphold” “human dignity” to a public figure who has actively furthered the “right” to kill “innocent human life in the womb.”
“The U.S. bishops have clearly taught that support for abortion disqualifies individuals from receiving honors from Catholic institutions,” he added. Indeed, it violates the very laws of Cupich’s archdiocese, as the Lepanto Institute has pointed out on X.
Cdl. Cupich ignores the laws of his own archdiocese. Is anyone surprised? pic.twitter.com/epQVrxxwaZ
— Lepanto Institute (@LepantoInst) September 23, 2025
Archbishop Cordileone joined Paprocki in denouncing Cupich’s decision, declaring on X, “I hope this will be a clarion call to all members of the Body of Christ to speak out to make clear the grave evil that is the taking of innocent human life.”
After these critiques, Cupich doubled down on his decision, stating that “Catholic teaching on life and dignity cannot be reduced to a single issue, even an issue as important as abortion.” He cited “contributions” from Durbin “to advance Catholic social teaching in the areas of immigration, the care of the poor, Laudato Si’, and world peace.”
As Ricken had pointed out, alleged works of justice and protecting life “must be inclusive.” That is, they cannot be separated from each other, and most especially, one cannot claim to desire to help human beings while endorsing their brutal dismemberment in the womb.
Paprocki on Tuesday slammed Cupich in an op-ed published by First Things, writing that Durbin supports the “obscene violence” of abortion and calling his award by Cupich “darkly ironic.”
“Thus, it is absurd that Sen. Durbin should be given an award from the office of ‘human dignity and solidarity’ when Durbin has spent his time in office denying the human dignity of the unborn and undermining solidarity with the weakest and most vulnerable among us,” he continued.
“The planned honor is titled a ‘lifetime achievement award’ and the event where Durbin is to receive it is called the ‘Keep Hope Alive’ benefit. This is darkly ironic because the slaughter of the innocents in utero is nihilistic and always without hope, and the policies Durbin has supported have denied a lifetime to countless unborn children,” Paprocki wrote.
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Bishop Joseph Strickland have also denounced Cupich’s plan to award the radically pro-abortion Durbin.
