Chicago’s Cardinal Blasé Cupich is apologizing for remarks he made earlier this year about the sex abuse crisis facing the Catholic Church in the wake of new allegations made by the former Papal Ambassador to the United States.
In an interview with NBC 5 in August, Cardinal Cupich said that the Church had a “bigger agenda,” and that it would be a mistake for Pope Francis to “get into each and every one of” the sex abuse cases the Church is facing, and he apologized for that comment in a Chicago Tribune op-ed.
“It was a mistake for me to even mention that the Church has a bigger agenda than responding to the charges in the letter by former Papal Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano,” he said.
“What I should have said, because it has been my conviction throughout my ministry, is that nothing is more important for the Church than protecting young people,” he continued. “I apologize for the offense caused by my comments. It pains me deeply to think that my poor choice of words may have added to the suffering of victim-survivors.”
Shortly after video-taping an interview, His Eminence accused the reporters and editors of the NBC Chicago affiliate of editing his remarks in a way which actually contradicted what he claims he said.
In response, the station published a transcript of the Cardinal’s remarks. Here is what Cardinal Cupich’s actually said in the NBC 5 interview in August:
“But for the Holy Father, I think to get into each and every one of those aspects, in some way is inappropriate and secondly, the Pope has a bigger agenda. He’s gotta get on with other things of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the Church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.”
Cardinal Cupich and the Church have been under scrutiny since Archbishop Vigano testified that Pope Francis had removed restrictions on the disgraced McCarrick that had been imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals earlier this year amid allegations of sexual abuse of minors, seminarians, and Priests.
Archbishop Vigano also testified that Cardinal Cupich’s appointment to the Archdiocese of Chicago was entirely engineered by McCarrick, since Cupich’s name was not on the list of candidates which Archbishop forwarded to Rome for consideration.
Cardinal Cupich has said that McCarrick’s lobbying had little to do with his appointment, saying in a statement that he had been appointed to different positions by three different popes and that “people knew me in Rome.”
Cardinal Cupich’s antics, from feigned outrage to apology, brings dishonor not only to himself, but to the Body of Christ itself.
It’s time for His Eminence just to be seated and be still.
He himself and the Church would be well served in this.
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