Cardinal Blase Cupich has warned that public divisions over the Traditional Latin Mass and other internal disputes risk undermining the Catholic Church’s credibility in addressing global challenges.
In an interview with the German Catholic news portal Katholisch.de, the Archbishop of Chicago said debates surrounding the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and other contentious issues should not eclipse the Church’s wider mission, while stressing that visible discord weakens its moral authority in the public square. The interview was published following the Mediterranean Theological Encounters held near Rijeka, Croatia, where Cardinal Cupich participated alongside senior Church leaders.
Asked whether discussions over the so-called “Old Mass” were secondary to the major crises confronting the world, Cardinal Cupich agreed but argued that such disagreements still carried wider consequences. “The forces within the Church that continue to tear apart unity will have consequences for the Church’s voice on these other issues,” Cardinal Cupich said. The Cardinal added: “The Church is not an exclusive club. People will say to us, ‘Why should they pay attention to us when there is so much discord and division in your own house?'”
The Cardinal concluded: “We must not allow these internal conflicts to become so public and so pronounced that they weaken the impact of our voice on these other issues.”
The interview covered synodality, the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, episcopal governance and the Church’s priorities under Pope Leo XIV. On the opposition to synodality, Cardinal Cupich suggested that resistance often stemmed from concern that engaging contemporary questions might distance the Church from its past. “I think there’s a certain fear that if we bring contemporary issues into the dialogue, we’ll cut ourselves off from the past and tradition,” Cardinal Cupich said. “I can understand that.”
His Eminence argued, however, that Catholics should trust “that the Spirit of Christ is at work in the life of the Church” and pointed to the sensus fidelium, saying the faithful “know what the Church teaches” and remain capable of responding faithfully to new challenges. “Jesus will not abandon us,” Cardinal Cupich said. “But there is so much to gain from this dialogue.”
According to Cardinal Cupich, synodality is intended to foster genuine participation by the whole People of God rather than concentrate responsibility within the hierarchy alone.
“It creates a sense of shared responsibility within the Church,” Cardinal Cupich said of the synodal process. “We help people understand that they share responsibility for the life of the Church.
“If everything depends solely on one group of people, on the hierarchy, or on a particular stratum within the Church, then we will miss the opportunity to create genuine shared responsibility in the life of the Church.”
As previously reported by this publication, Cardinal Blase Cupich described synodality as “the Church learning to dance”. Writing in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the Archbishop of Chicago argued that “both dance and synodality require a shift from individual performance to collective harmony”, transforming individuals into “a single, moving body”.
He argued that many Catholics in the United States already demonstrate deep personal commitment through Mass attendance, charitable giving and parish involvement, but said many still leave responsibility for the Church’s future to bishops and priests rather than seeing themselves as active participants in evangelisation and catechesis.
“When we help them understand that they themselves must be involved in planning for the future, that they must be part of the journey to bring the Gospel to the next generation, then it awakens a real sense of urgency in them,” Cardinal Cupich said. “This is something that can change the life of the Church and will have a major impact on its future.”
Cardinal Cupich also addressed the role of lay Catholics in the appointment of bishops, arguing that wider consultation already forms part of the Church’s existing practice. He noted that when a papal nuncio prepares recommendations for a vacant diocese, the Holy See instructs the nuncio to consult not only bishops and priests but also members of the faithful and religious communities.
Asked whether lay people could assume a greater role in the future, Cardinal Cupich said any expansion would need to preserve the spiritual character of the discernment process. “We must be very careful not to reduce this to a political process,” Cardinal Cupich said. At the same time, he pointed to the participation of lay people and religious sisters in the Dicastery for Bishops, where episcopal appointments are discussed before recommendations are presented to Pope Leo XIV.
This echoes comments by Archbishop Filippo Iannone, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, who defended the role of women in identifying episcopal candidates, saying their different approach and sensitivities are a valuable help in choosing future bishops. He added that lay women bring “different sensitivities” to the process of identifying future bishops.
On the Church’s priorities over the coming decade, Cardinal Cupich identified three areas that he believes should remain at the forefront of its mission. The first is continuing the renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council. The second is maintaining a strong commitment to environmental stewardship in the face of an escalating climate crisis. The third is the pursuit of peace at a time of growing international conflict.
“I think the most important thing is to continue the path of renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council,” Cardinal Cupich said. The Church must also remain “a voice” in protecting the environment, Cardinal Cupich added, pointing to global warming, rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms while highlighting the continuing importance of Laudato si’.
Finally, Cardinal Cupich cited Pope Leo XIV’s repeated appeals for peace, saying that “war seems to be back in fashion” and that dialogue must always precede armed conflict. Those comments led to a discussion of the just war tradition, which has attracted renewed attention amid several international conflicts. Cardinal Cupich argued that the doctrine has increasingly been misunderstood and misapplied.
“The misuse of the just war doctrine is particularly problematic,” Cardinal Cupich said. “This doctrine was always intended as a constraint. Today, it’s used like a licence to act.”
For all Cardinal Cupich’s solemn warnings about the corrosive effects of public debate on the Traditional Latin Mass, there is an inconsistency in the record of the Archbishop of Chicago himself. One can, and should, render due respect to a Cardinal, an Archbishop and the ordinary of a major see, but it is difficult to ignore that Cupich has been one of the principal architects of the very divisions he now decries.
His stringent implementation of Traditionis custodes went well beyond the minimum required by Rome, forbidding the Traditional Latin Mass on the first Sunday of every month and on the principal feasts of Christmas, the Triduum, Easter and Pentecost, while demanding written affirmations that the post-conciliar liturgy is the sole legitimate expression of the Roman Rite. Most conspicuously, in the summer of 2022 the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest was compelled to suspend all public Masses and confessions at its Shrine of Christ the King on Chicago’s South Side, its American headquarters and a community that had drawn 400 to 500 faithful each Sunday, after the priests declined to sign conditions they regarded as incompatible with their charism. Such measures have not merely restricted the older form of the Roman Rite; in the judgement of many, they have driven some faithful to the Society of St Pius X.
The pattern is even more striking when set beside other decisions that themselves generated sharp public controversy. In 2025, Cupich prepared to confer a lifetime achievement award upon Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for the politician’s work on immigration, despite Durbin’s long and public record of supporting legal abortion, and despite the fact that Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Durbin’s home diocese, had for years barred the senator from Holy Communion under Canon 915 for obstinate persistence in grave sin. The ensuing outcry from multiple American bishops forced Durbin to decline the honour, yet the episode showed how readily the Cardinal of Chicago was prepared to bestow a high Catholic distinction upon a figure whose moral stance placed him in open conflict with another member of the episcopal college. If visible division truly weakens the Church’s moral authority before a watching world, then the selective application of that principle cannot escape notice.
