Cdl. Cupich and Hillary Clinton: Religious Beliefs Have to Change

You are not signed in as a Premium user; you are viewing the free version of this program. Premium users have access to full-length programs with limited commercials and receive a 10% discount in the store! Sign up for only one day for the low cost of $1.99. Click the button below.

See All Plans

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago during a recent speech sounded like Hillary Clinton, saying that Catholics must change their religious beliefs.

After receiving the Cdl. Joseph Bernardin Award Sept. 29, Cdl. Cupich told the Catholic Theological Union that discernment of the current papacy "requires that we be prepared to let go of cherished beliefs and long-held biases."

His words were starkly reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's 2015 speech advancing women's access to abortion wherein she declared, "Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed."

It's telling that Cupich — in being handed the Cdl. Bernardin Award — is seemingly being praised for carrying on Bernardin's legacy of the so-called seamless garment theory heralded by him. The seamless garment was a term coined by a Catholic ethicist in 1971 to equate the intrinsic evil of abortion with capital punishment. Catholic teaching bans abortion but allows capital punishment in certain situations. The seamless garment theory was later equated with the term "consistent ethic of life" by the late Cdl. Joseph Bernardin of Chicago in talks given at two universities in 1983 and 1984.

The U.S. bishops now speak out more on social justice issues of immigration, climate change and capital punishment than on such intrinsic evils as abortion, euthanasia or same-sex marriage. Cardinal Cupich shocked many in 2015 when he equated the evil of the abortion industry's sale of babies' body parts to a broken immigration system and joblessness. As revolting as trafficking in the body parts of aborted children is, however, the cardinal said:

We should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care, who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism, who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want, who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighborhoods or who are executed by the state in the name of justice.

Few Catholics would be as appalled at joblessness as they would at the butchering and sale of innocent babies. The Fifth Commandment in the original Hebrew, moreover, doesn't merely say "Thou shalt not kill" but rather "Thou shalt not murder." This connotes the taking of a human life, and an innocent human life at that.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will vote next month to determine which of two nominees will chair their pro-life committee. They'll either pick Cdl. Cupich or the staunch pro-life advocate Abp. Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas.

Watch the panel break down the confusion coming from U.S. bishops in The Download—Hypocrites and Blind Guides.

Have a news tip? Submit news to our tip line.

We rely on you to support our news reporting. Please donate today.