Cupich’s Vatican Promotion Provokes Outcry: Favouritism, McCarrick Links, and the Rise of Ideological Episcopacy

VATICAN CITY — The appointment of Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, to the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State has reignited long-standing concern about the direction of papal governance under Pope Leo XIV. For many within the Church, it marks the institutional triumph of a factional episcopate — one in which advancement follows ideology rather than integrity, and where progressive activism is rewarded even amid pastoral decline.

A Prestigious but Symbolic Role
The Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State holds legislative and administrative oversight of the Vatican’s civil governance, from infrastructure and finance to security and the museums.¹ Presided over by Sister Raffaella Petrini as President of the Governorate, the Commission’s members now include Cardinals Farrell, Gugerotti, Roche, You Heung-sik, Reina, and Cupich.² While the post carries no doctrinal mandate, it signifies papal favour and access to the inner workings of the Holy See.

The appointment of Cupich — long criticised for his political partisanship, liturgical hostility, and controversial network ties — has therefore been interpreted less as administrative necessity than as an unmistakable ideological endorsement.

Favour Towards Progressives
Throughout his career, Cupich has been noted for promoting clergy and causes aligned with the progressive currents of post-conciliar Catholicism. His tenure in Chicago has been marked by conspicuous tolerance toward heterodox initiatives and public dissent, even as traditional or orthodox expressions of faith have been curtailed.

Selective Discipline: While traditional priests faced removal, restriction, or forced relocation under his policies, outspoken progressives such as Fr Michael Pfleger, known for his political activism, were repeatedly reinstated after suspension despite multiple controversies.³
Platforming Dissent: Under Cupich, the Archdiocese of Chicago has hosted speakers and conferences featuring theologians who question magisterial teaching on sexuality, ordination, and ecclesial authority.⁴ The 2023 Building Bridges North–South gathering included several figures previously censured for promoting same-sex blessings and “inclusive” language in liturgy, with the Cardinal offering opening remarks of welcome.
Support for Political Activism: Cupich has encouraged clergy participation in secular protests and partnerships with activist organisations associated with abortion rights or gender ideology under the banner of “social justice,” while warning pro-life apostolates against “political reductionism.”⁵
Deference to Progressive Bishops: He has publicly defended figures such as Cardinal Robert McElroy and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who advocate for Communion to be open to politicians supporting abortion rights, calling their approach “the path of synodal accompaniment.”⁶
Public Alignment with the Left: Cupich’s invocation at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and his praise for the Biden administration’s immigration policies were interpreted as partisan acts.⁷ Even as Catholic schools in his diocese closed, he urged greater “collaboration” with progressive civil movements on climate and diversity agendas.

These patterns have led critics to describe Cupich’s episcopate as a mirror of political progressivism, prioritising social alignment with secular liberal causes over catechetical renewal or doctrinal clarity.

McCarrick’s Shadow and Viganò’s Claims
Cupich’s rise is also inseparable from the patronage networks of the now-defrocked Theodore McCarrick. According to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s 2018 testimony, McCarrick personally advanced Cupich’s name for the Chicago appointment, describing him as “of like mind” with the reformist agenda then being consolidated in Rome.⁸ Cupich has denied any improper association, yet his dismissive reaction to the scandal — saying the Pope “has a bigger agenda” than such “rabbit holes” — left a lasting impression of evasiveness.⁹

His proximity to that circle has been interpreted as part of a wider problem: episcopal promotions based on ideological reliability rather than integrity. The elevation of a McCarrick-aligned prelate to a Vatican governance post therefore appears to many as a deliberate act of rehabilitation by a papacy struggling to distance itself from past failures of oversight.

The Chicago Record: Conflict and Decline
Since 2014, Cupich’s administration has been marked by contraction, confrontation, and loss of credibility. Mass attendance has fallen sharply, vocations continue to decline, and hundreds of parishes have been merged or shuttered under his Renew My Church plan.¹⁰ His approach to discipline has alternated between leniency and severity, depending on ideological alignment.

His restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass were among the harshest in the world, forbidding its use on holy days and confining its celebration to marginal chapels.¹¹ The Canons Regular of St John Cantius, long a model of liturgical renewal, were decimated after the unjust removal of their founder Fr C. Frank Phillips, who was later exonerated but never reinstated.¹² Likewise, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest saw public Masses at its Chicago shrine suspended in 2022 after the priests refused to comply with arbitrary conditions imposed under Traditionis Custodes.¹³

Moral and Political Confusion
Cupich’s most recent scandal — attempting to honour pro-abortion Senator Richard Durbin with a Catholic humanitarian award — again exposed his defective moral judgment.¹⁴ When the move drew rebuke from other bishops, Cupich insisted that the Church’s witness on life “cannot be reduced to one issue,” effectively echoing the Bernardinian “seamless tunic” model that has long been criticised for blurring intrinsic moral distinctions.¹⁵

Such rhetoric, critics say, reflects not Catholic universality but the secular progressivism that dominates elite political discourse — an approach that seeks accommodation with prevailing ideologies rather than prophetic resistance to them.

A Signal Appointment
By raising Cupich to a Vatican office of legislative and administrative authority, Pope Leo XIV appears to reward precisely the traits that have brought the Church in America to its present crisis: partisan activism, doctrinal ambiguity, and hostility toward the faithful most loyal to her tradition. It sends a signal that episcopal advancement now depends not on fidelity but on alignment.

Far from representing renewal, the appointment of Cardinal Cupich embodies the very pathology it pretends to cure — a governance that privileges ideology over integrity, and power over peace.

¹ Fundamental Law of Vatican City State (2000), Art. 7.
² Holy See Press Office, Resignations and Appointments, 15 Oct 2025.
³ Chicago Sun-Times, 8 Jan 2021.
⁴ National Catholic Reporter, coverage of “Building Bridges North–South,” 2023.
⁵ Crux, “Cupich calls for broader moral agenda beyond abortion,” 2019.
⁶ America Magazine, “Cupich defends McElroy’s synodal inclusion,” Feb 2023.
⁷ National Catholic Register, 21 Aug 2024.
⁸ Carlo Maria Viganò, Testimony, 25 Aug 2018.
⁹ NBC Chicago Interview, 28 Aug 2018.
¹⁰ Archdiocese of Chicago Statistical Report, 2024.
¹¹ Archdiocese of Chicago, Implementation of Traditionis Custodes, Dec 2021.
¹² Congregation for the Clergy Decree, 6 Sept 2018.
¹³ Catholic News Agency, “Public Masses suspended at Chicago’s Shrine of Christ the King,” 4 Aug 2022.
¹⁴ Diocese of Springfield Press Office, 26 Sept 2025.
¹⁵ Joseph Bernardin, A Consistent Ethic of Life (Loyola Press, 1988).