http://www.suntimes.com/news/washington/31215142-452/no-more-church-quietness-under-cupich.html#.VHOgdTKvW4MNo more church ‘quietness’ under Cupich11/23/14
He’s wasting no time.
Right out of the box, Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich was standing on the right side.
“The work of comprehensive immigration reform is not important because it is on my agenda, but because it is on God’s,” Cupich proclaimed at his inaugural homily at Holy Name Cathedral last Monday night.
As President Barack Obama announced his immigration executive order last week, Cupich urged that Congress act. “It’s been a long time coming; it’s frustrating things are not moving forward,” ABC7 Chicago quoted him as saying.
Another prominent Chicago Roman Catholic has noticed.
“What I’m hearing so far from Archbishop Cupich is that he is not at all shy about speaking to issues,” Rev. Michael Pfleger told me last week.
The renegade priest never holds back. The longtime pastor of St. Sabina Church has rabbled and roused for social justice and change for decades. Pfleger has loudly driven a host of causes: gun control, battling street violence, denouncing racist policies and practices, championing civil rights.The firebrand’s run-ins with retiring Cardinal Francis George nearly got him evicted from his parish.
Pfleger says he has spoken briefly with his new leader and is gratified by the archbishop’s embrace of “God’s agenda.”
Cupich has repeatedly and publicly praised Pfleger’s efforts to work with gang members, the police and activists to help cure the epidemic of violence in our communities.
“He said, yes, he knew what we had done and were doing here,” Pfleger recalled. “And we are going to talk, and he wants to talk and do more of it, and he said he’s talked to the mayor about it.”
It was a new day for Pfleger as we chatted at his South Side rectory, the chill sun glancing off the window.
For too long, he says, his church has indulged in an unacceptable “quietness” about the issues his community cares about, he said.
“The church has become so tunnel vision, and so judgmental, and
. . . almost had a spiritual laryngitis of very important issues of poverty, and violence, and guns . . .”Pope Francis has shifted the moral ground and tapped Cupich to plant new seeds. Cupich is talking about gun violence. Poverty. Inclusion. Tolerance.
“Wow!” Pfleger exclaimed. “I’ve been screaming this for years.” He hopes to meet with Cupich soon to push for new anti-violence initiatives.
As a lifelong Catholic, I have chafed at a church that seemed to care only about abortion, same-sex marriage and condemnation.Cupich has the clout to make transformative change: He leads a flock of 2.2 million Catholics. He can use his gilded bully pulpit to influence the political biggies, from the governor to the mayor to other top players in Springfield, who lined up for his installation.
Most of those who perish from gun violence on the South and West sides are African-American, and not Catholic. Yet, true moral leadership must reach out to those who Pfleger calls the “throwaways” — who suffer from rampant crime, few jobs and scant hope.
After his elevation last year, Pope Francis asked, “Who am I to judge?” His query came in response to the issue of gays in the church, but it set the stage for his church’s future.
The time for judging is over. It’s time to act.
