Pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin to receive award from Chicago archdiocese

Update 9/23/2025: After it was announced that Cardinal Blase Cupich will present abortion supporter Senator Dick Durbin with a lifetime achievement award, two Catholic bishops called on Cupich to reconsider.

LifeNews reported that Durbin is set to receive the award on November 3; however, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, Cupich's home diocese, issued a statement calling for the award to be rescinded.

“I was shocked to learn that the Archdiocese of Chicago plans to honor Senator Richard Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award through its Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity Immigration,” Paprocki said. “Given Senator Durbin’s long and consistent record of supporting legal abortion — including opposing legislation to protect children who survive failed abortions — this decision risks causing grave scandal, confusing the faithful about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life. Honoring a public figure who has actively worked to expand and entrench the right to end innocent human life in the womb undermines the very concept of human dignity and solidarity that the award purports to uphold.”

Paprocki noted that Durbin has been prohibited from receiving the Holy Eucharist since 2004 because of his public support for abortion.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco wrote on X that he agrees with Paprocki.

"I stand in solidarity with Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, in urging Cardinal Cupich to reconsider giving Senator Durbin a Lifetime Achievement Award through the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity given his long record of supporting legal abortion," said Cordileone.

He continued,  “Bishop Paprocki, who is Senator Dick Durbin’s bishop, has expressed shock that the Archdiocese plans to honor Senator Durbin who, although a self-professed Catholic, supports access to abortion so radically that he has even opposed legislation to protect babies born after an attempted abortion. Bishop Paprocki is correct that both clarity and unity are at risk. I hope this will be a clarion call to all members of the Body of Christ to speak out to make clear the grave evil that is the taking of innocent human life.”

9/19/2025: On behalf of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity, Cardinal Blase Cupich has announced that he will present staunch abortion supporter Senator Dick Durbin with a lifetime achievement award.

Key Takeaways:

• Durbin originally supported some restrictions on abortion when he first was elected to the Senate in 1997.

• By his next term, he had begun supporting abortion.

• He has become one of the most pro-abortion senators in Congress.

• Despite his strident abortion advocacy, the Archdiocese of Chicago plans to present him with a lifetime achievement award.

The Details:

The Archdiocese of Chicago announced an upcoming benefit during which Senator Dick Durbin will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his support for immigrants. Not mentioned, however, is the fact that Durbin is extremely supportive of abortion, which is a violation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Durbin was barred from receiving Holy Communion by his own bishop in 2004 — a decision upheld as recently as 2018.

Illinois Right to Life president, Mary Kate Zander, reacted to the award in a press release:

"The Church emphasizes that human beings are integrated persons and that we cannot live in spiritual harmony if we are denying even one aspect of the truth of the faith. Presenting Dick Durbin with an award – and from the Office of Human Dignity, no less – is an explicitly inconsistent and un-Catholic choice by Cardinal Cupich.

Not only does it cause scandal among the faithful by creating confusion, it also puts the Senator’s soul at risk by failing to hold him accountable for his refusal to oppose abortion in the U.S. Senate."

Durbin has voted against banning the violent D&X ('partial-birth') abortion procedure, against protecting pain-capable preborn children from abortion, and against requiring abortion survivors to be given life-saving care. He also has repeated falsehoods about late-term abortions in an effort to protect them, and advocates for taxpayer-funded abortion. In 2022, he released a statement condemning the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade.

What Does the Bible Say About Abortion?

Why It Matters:

Though Durbin is Catholic, he has broken with the Church and its teachings on abortion. The Catholic Church is, and always has been, pro-life, believing in an intrinsic right to life from fertilization through natural death.

According to the Catechism,

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.

There are numerous instances in the Bible advocating for the protection of human life and acknowledging the humanity of preborn children. The Didache, the Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles, is one of the earliest known Christian documents; it, too, states, "You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill a child once born.”

It is also a scientific fact that preborn children are human beings, which is why their inherent right to life should be protected.

The Bottom Line:

It is deeply wrong for a Catholic archdiocese to give a lifetime achievement award to someone who so regularly acts in opposition to the teachings of the Church, failing to protect the most innocent humans of all.