Neo-Cardinal Cupich: "My Interpretation of Amoris Laetitia is That of Pope Francis"

(Washington) The Cardinal in Spe, Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, stated in an interview that his interpretation of the controversial post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia "is the same from Pope Francis."

From a progressive outsider to the influential church prince

Monsignor Cupich was not only the Bishop of the tiny Diocese of Spokane in the state of Washington in 2014, but also the progressive outsider in the American Episcopal Conference. Nevertheless, or just as observers say, Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Chicago, one of the most important diocese in the world. Since then, the Argentine pope has been calling on  Cupich to bring the US episcopate on a Bergoglio course, or at least become a troublesome thorn in the flesh of a recently quite compact episcopate.

Since the American bishops did not pick Cupich perhaps because of his liberal line, for the bishop's synod on the family, Pope Francis personally appointed him.

Last Sunday, the Catholic church leader announced that he would honor Cupard on 19th November with the Cardinal dignity. Two diocesan bishops of the United States were given the purple. Among them, there is no "conservative", no less embarrassing to the papal entourage than the "traditionalists."

Cupich proved "worthy" of papal trust and distinguished himself in Chicago and Rome as a representative of the "New Mercy". The Catholic online daily Nuova Bussola Quotidiana wrote of "deliramenta of a pope confidante". What is meant by this is the emphasis on "subjective conscience".

The "untouchable" subjective conscience

The "New Mercy", where it comes in contradiction to the delivered Church doctrine, confronts the latter with the "personal conscience".

On October 16, 2015, Archbishop Cupich repeated this old-progressive thesis for journalists to declare his support for the admission of newly married divorced to Communion: "When people arrive at a decision of conscience, it is our task to help them go further and to respect them. The conscience is inviolable and we have to respect it when they make their decision, and I have always done it."

Whoever says A also says B, so the same rule, according to Cupich, also applies to homosexuals. The doyen of leftist journalism in Italy, the Eugenio Scalfari, who hails from a Masonic house,, had put words in Pope Francis' mouth, without the Vatican having denied it, that the subjective conscience is an "inviolable" and "respectable" arbiter.

Vatican Insider published an interview, which the papal court vaticanist Andrea Tornielli held with Cupich on the occasion of his elevation to the cardinal rank. Yesterday, the  English and Spanish version appeared, today also the Italian.

Tornielli: One of the most discussed topics of the past few months was the interpretation of the eighth chapter of Exhoratio Amoris Laetitia regarding the remarried divorced. There were different interpretations: there are those who say that nothing has changed, and those who say that something has changed. What is your position on this?

Archbishop Cupich: My position is the same as that of Pope Francis, who has indicated that the proper interpretation of “Amoris Laetitia” was given by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and then again by the bishops of Argentina, for which the Pope noted “no further interpretation is needed.” So if people want to know what I think, they should refer to those sources. I also draw attention to the fine article written by Professor Rocco Buttiglione in L’Osservatore Romano on July 19 of this year, which I reprinted in our archdiocesan newspaper. Professor Buttiglione makes a convincing case for the continuity of the teaching of Pope Francis on these matters with his predecessors and with The Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican Insider (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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