Patheos blog
February 3, 2019
This weekend, in lieu of a homily, we listened to a recording by Cardinal Cupich telling us how very much he cared about victims of sexual abuse and how very saddened he was at all the bad things that had happened and how very hard he was going to work to fix everything. (I cannot find a link to a transcript.) It was a very “message: I care” sort of speech, given in that soothing, man-of-God manner of speaking that may or may not be his natural tone of voice vs. something deliberately adopted, and the ostensible impetus for it was to update Chicago Catholics on the upcoming worldwide meeting of bishops on the topic during which Cupich has a major leadership role.
But it clearly wasn’t. There were no specifics, no updates, just the same statements we’ve heard from him plenty of times before.
In other news, the Annual Catholic Appeal is almost here. The archdiocese has already sent out donation requests to everyone on their mailing list. Two weekends from now, we’ll be hearing our pastors preach about how we should donate, and three weekends from now, we’ll listen to Cupich’s recorded voice, followed by a request to fill out pledge cards in the pew.
Cupich must take us for fools if he thinks we won’t connect the dots. They’re worried that Catholics unhappy with what he’s up to will choose not to donate — and, so far as I understand, the way the Archdiocese of Chicago runs things, the Appeal is genuinely voluntary, as parishes are held harmless if they don’t reach their goal, and are just incentivized to promote the appeal because money in excess of the goal is refunded to the parish.
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