Abp. Blase Cupich Pushes Radical Agenda at Synod

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ROME, October 16, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) - Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago is pushing a radical agenda at the Synod on the Family, hinting at the possibility of opening up Holy Communion to those in active homosexual relationships.

At today's briefing in the Holy See Press Office, Cupich remarked that he often visits the "marginalized" in Chicago, including "the divorced and remarried" and "gays and lesbian individuals, also couples."

He continued

When people come to a decision in good conscience, then our job with the Church is to help them move forward and to respect that. The conscience is inviolable, and we have to respect that when they make decisions, and I've always done that.

When asked by a reporter whether the archbishop would be open to allowing active homosexuals to be part of the sacramental life of the Church, Cupich responded, "I think that gay people are human beings, too, and they have a conscience. And my role as a pastor is to help them discern what the will of God is ... ."

The term "conscience" was a term that came to prominence in the 1960s and beyond and was used often by liberal theologians to justify dissent from Church teaching. In addition to its misuse by those citing the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae on the issue of religious freedom, "conscience" was also used to rationalize use of contraception, contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church in Humanae Vitae.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, for instance, appealed to "conscience" in their 1968 Winnipeg Statement, their official declaration of dissent from Humanae Vitae. Paragraph 26 of the Statement said of married couples who choose to use contraception that "whoever honestly chooses that course which seems right to him does so in good conscience."

The same appeal to conscience would be echoed, officially and unofficially, by bishops' conferences around the world, leading to millions of souls being told by their parish priests and confessors that contraception, although officially disallowed by the Church, could be used as long as the couples came to the decision "in good conscience," when in fact such use constitutes objective mortal sin.

Archbishop Cupich has a history of willingness to offer the Eucharist to those not in communion with the Church. In November 2014, when asked point blank on CBS' Face the Nation whether he would give Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians, Cupich answered, "I would not use the Eucharist or, as you say it, the Communion rail as a place to have those discussions or a way in which people would be ... excluded from the life of the Church" — this in spite of the fact that his position contradicts canon 915 of the Catholic Code of Canon Law, which states that those "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

And in a televised funeral Mass in April over which Abp. Cupich presided, the Protestant governor of Illinois, in violation of the norms of the Church, was given Holy Communion — a sacrilege. When ChurchMilitant.com reached out to the archdiocese to ask whether it had contacted the governor's office ahead of time to advise that non-Catholics should not approach to receive Holy Communion, the archdiocese responded by saying that "when any person presents himself or herself for Holy Communion, the Minister of Communion presumes that the person can receive Communion."

Archbishop Cupich was originally slated to participate in a leftist event this month, but pulled out over a "scheduling conflict," as he is in Rome for the Synod. The event, called "New Faces, New Voices, New Ways of Being Church," will take place October 24 at Dominican University, and includes a line-up of dissenting Catholics who support gay "marriage" and women's ordination, among other causes. All of the speakers write for the National Catholic Reporter, a well-known dissident journal that routinely promotes the homosexual lifestyle and gay "marriage," entirely contrary to Catholic teaching. The fact that Abp. Cupich agreed to lend his blessing to the dissident event reveals an attitude consistent with his remarks at today's Synod presser — an attitude radically at odds with the authentic Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

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