UPDATE: Cardinal Cupich invocation at DNC stirs disappointment among pro-life activists

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2024 / 11:21 am

In an invocation delivered on the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich lamented the “ongoing injustices in our national life” while calling for national unity. Pro-life groups expressed disappointment at the prayer's lack of specific reference to the tragedy of abortion.

Praying before a packed house at the United Center in Chicago on Monday night, Cupich noted Americans are regularly called to “reweave the fabric of America,” stating that the country is “a nation composed of every people and culture, united not by ties of blood but by profound aspirations of life, freedom, justice, and unbound hope.” 

“In every generation, we are called to renew these aspirations,” the prelate continued. “We do so when we live out the virtues that dwell in our hearts, but also when we confront our failures to root out ongoing injustices in our national life, especially those created by moral blindness and fear of the other.”

The archbishop asked God to “quicken in us a resolve to protect your handiwork.”

“May our nation become more fully a builder of peace in our wounded world with the courage to imagine and pursue a loving future together,” the archbishop prayed. “And may we as individual Americans become more fully the instruments of God’s peace.”

Cupich also called for world peace, especially “for the people suffering the senselessness of war,” and evoked Pope Francis by encouraging the audience to “dream dreams and see visions of what by [God’s] grace the world can become.”

In reaction to the cardinal's prayer, Illinois Right to Life released a statement in which they noted that the prelate's participation took place while Planned Parenthood was providing free abortions and vasectomies "just outside [the] doors" of the convention.

Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander said it was "incredibly disheartening to see a local church leader who once aligned himself with our cause participate in such a deeply anti-life, anti-family event as the DNC."

"Cardinal Cupich missed a clear opportunity last night to condemn their vile, murderous policies and, in effect, betrayed the vibrant pro-life community that he once aligned himself with in our state,” she said.

In a post at Catholic Culture, veteran Catholic journalist Phil Lawler seconded Zander, lamenting that "[N]owhere in his invocation did Cardinal Cupich offer the slightest challenge to the perverse ideology that ruled the Democratic convention." "Quite the contrary; the few passages in his prayer that might have been interpreted as references to current political issues sounded more like encouragement for the Democrats."

Cupich’s prayer contrasts with that of Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who gave the invocation at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month. 

“Lord, we thank you for our nation. Our Founding Fathers held these truths self-evident: that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, including Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," Listen prayed.

"For 248 years, we have sustained this vision: to guard the dignity of every life from conception to natural death; to protect their liberty, especially to speak freely and to worship You, and to support their pursuit of happiness in this life and the next,” the archbishop added.

Here is the full text of Cupich’s invocation: 

We praise you, O God of all creation. Quicken in us a resolve to protect your handiwork. You are the source of every blessing that graces our lives and our nation.

We pray that you help us to truly understand and answer the sacred call of citizenship. We are a nation composed of every people and culture, united not by ties of blood but by the profound aspirations of life, freedom, justice, and unbound hope. These aspirations are why our forebears saw America as a beacon of hope. And, with your steady guidance, Lord, may we remain so today.

In every generation, we are called to renew these aspirations, to reweave the fabric of America. We do so when we live out the virtues that dwell in our hearts but also when we confront our failures to root out ongoing injustices in our national life, especially those created by moral blindness and fear of the other.

We pray for peace, especially for people suffering the senselessness of war. But as we pray, we must also act, for building up the common good takes work. It takes love.

And so we pray: May our nation become more fully a builder of peace in our wounded world with the courage to imagine and pursue a loving future together. And may we as individual Americans become more fully the instruments of God’s peace.

Guide us, Lord, in taking up our responsibility to forge this new chapter of our nation’s history. Let it be rooted in the recognition that for us, as for every generation, unity triumphing over division is what advances human dignity and liberty.

Let it be propelled by the women and men elected to serve in public life, who know that service is the mark of true leadership.

And let this new chapter of our nation’s history be filled with overwhelming hope, a hope that refuses to narrow our national vision, but rather, as Pope Francis has said, “to dream dreams and see visions” of what by your grace our world can become.

We ask all of this, trusting in your ever-provident care for us. Amen.

This story was updated on Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 8:45 a.m., with reactions to Cardinal Cupich's remarks.

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