Blase J. Cupich
Blase Joseph Cupich was born on March 19, 1949, in Omaha, Nebraska, and was ordained a priest of that archdiocese in 1975. Named Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, in July 1998 and ordained that September, he was translated to Spokane, Washington, in 2010. Pope Francis, in his first major American appointment, named him Archbishop of Chicago on September 20, 2014, and created him a cardinal on November 19, 2016, with the titular church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola.
Cupich became one of Pope Francis's foremost allies in the American hierarchy - a member of the Dicasteries for Bishops and for Divine Worship, a leading defender of Amoris Laetitia and its approach to Communion for the divorced and remarried, and a principal organizer of the Vatican's 2019 summit on the protection of minors. His 2018 dismissal of the Vigano allegations as a 'rabbit hole' the pope should not go down drew sharp criticism from those who wanted the McCarrick affair pursued.
On the liturgy he is among the most forceful executors of restriction in the country. His archdiocesan policy of December 27, 2021, effective the following January, removed the 1962 Missal from Chicago's parish churches, forbade it on the first Sunday of every month and on Christmas, in the Triduum, at Easter and at Pentecost, ordered its readings proclaimed from the reformed lectionary, and required priests authorized for the old rite to celebrate the reformed Mass on first Sundays.
- 2021-12-27Promulgated the archdiocesan policy implementing Traditionis Custodes (effective 25 January 2022): the 1962 Missal was removed from parish churches to designated locations; forbidden on the first Sunday of every month and on Christmas, in the Sacred Triduum, at Easter and at Pentecost; its readings were to be proclaimed in the vernacular from the reformed lectionary; and priests authorized for the old rite were required to celebrate the reformed Mass on the first Sundays. ↗
If Traditionis Custodes has a most zealous executor in the United States, it is the Archbishop of Chicago. Cardinal Cupich's December 2021 norms did not merely regulate the ancient Mass; they hemmed it in on every side. The old rite was forbidden on the first Sunday of every month, on Christmas, on the Sacred Triduum, on Easter, and on Pentecost — the very summits of the Christian year. Its Scripture was ordered read not from the 1962 books but in the modern vernacular translation. It was driven from ordinary parish churches. And every priest who wished to offer it had to apply in writing and pledge obedience to the new restrictions.
He has not hidden the conviction behind the rules. He calls the reformed liturgy the 'unique expression' of the Roman Rite, warns of a 'parallel church,' and tells the faithful that without the new Mass the Christian life is 'impoverished' — language that frames the inheritance of fifteen centuries not as a treasure to be guarded but as a danger to be contained.
We grant that he acts in obedience to the reigning pontiff, and within the authority of his office; he is no rebel. But the question this page asks is narrower and plainer: has he been a friend to the Mass of Ages and to the souls who love it? By his own decrees and his own words, the answer is no. He has made Chicago one of the hardest places in America to kneel at the old altar.