Durbin declines Chicago Archdiocese immigration award following backlash over pro-abortion stance

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin has declined an immigration award from the Archdiocese of Chicago following backlash over his pro-abortion stance.

Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich said Tuesday that Durbin told him that he “decided not to receive [the] award” at the archdiocesan Keep Hope Alive celebration on Nov. 5, Catholic News Agency reported. 

Durbin was to receive a “Lifetime Achievement Award for support to immigrants."

Bishops in the U.S. had criticized giving the award to Durbin because of his pro-abortion politics.

Pope Leo XIV responded to a question from EWTN News about the matter on Tuesday, saying it was “important to look at the overall work that a senator has done [during] 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

“I understand the difficulty and the tensions,” the pope said. “But I think as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to the teachings of the Church.”

Springfield, Ill., Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who oversees Durbin’s home diocese, said the senator was “unfit to receive any Catholic honor.”

Cupich said the decision to grant Durbin the award “was specifically in recognition of his singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants, which is so needed in our day.”

He added that divisions within the Catholic Church have “dangerously deepen[ed]” over the years.

“The tragedy of our current situation in the United States is that Catholics find themselves politically homeless,” Cupich said. “The policies of neither political party perfectly encapsulate the breadth of Catholic teaching.”

He argued against “total condemnation” of Catholic politicians who do not adhere to the “essential elements” of Catholic social teaching. He said that such broad criticism “shuts down discussion.”