An Illinois bishop said Friday that he is “shocked” by plans in the Archdiocese of Chicago to honor Senator Dick Durbin, a longtime supporter of legal protection for abortion.

Durbin, who is prohibited from receiving the Eucharist in his home Diocese of Springfield, will be feted in November with a lifetime achievement award by the Archdiocese of Chicago’s office of human dignity and solidarity.

U.S. Senator Richard Durbin. Public domain.

While the award will be presented at a benefit presided over by Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, Durbin’s own diocesan bishop — Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield — called the decision scandalous.

“I was shocked to learn that the Archdiocese of Chicago plans to honor Senator Richard Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award,” Paprocki said in a Sept. 19 statement given in response to questions from The Pillar.

“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,” Paprocki added.

“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,” the bishop said.

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Durbin’s lifetime achievement award — to be conferred “for his work with immigrants,” according to the Chicago archdiocese, will be given at a Nov. 3 Chicago fundraiser presided over by Cupich, with proceeds supporting both the Chicago archdiocese and a national network of migration ministry efforts.

But for his part, Paprocki expressed concern that an award to Durbin would violate Chicago’s own archdiocesan policy, which prohibits “awards or honors” to “individuals or organizations whose public position is in opposition to the fundamental moral principles of the Catholic Church.”

To explain its policy, the archdiocesan policy manual notes that “Many organizations and presenters that do ‘good work’ in some areas are misguided in others, particularly in the areas of human life and sexuality. In the past some honorees, speakers or organizations presenting at gatherings for Catholic organizations have publicly advocated viewpoints that are in opposition to the faith, causing confusion and division within the Church.”

“Even if these individuals or organizations do not address these specific topics of dissent at the facility or event, their appearance is a source of scandal and confusion.”

Paprocki also noted a June 2004 statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says that “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

“The U.S. bishops have clearly taught that support for abortion disqualifies individuals from receiving honors from Catholic institutions,” Paprocki said Sept. 19.

In light of that, Paprocki said, the planned award for Durbin “sows confusion about the seriousness of abortion and the integrity of Catholic witness in public life. I urge Cardinal Cupich to reconsider this action for the sake of clarity, unity, and fidelity to the Gospel of Life,” he added.

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In addition to his statement, Paprocki confirmed to The Pillar on Friday that “Senator Durbin remains subject to the prohibition of canon 915 in the Springfield diocese.”

“He [has been] barred from receiving Holy Communion here in his home diocese since 2004,” Paprocki noted, explaining that the decision began with Durbin’s parish pastor, then-Msgr. Kevin Vann, was upheld first by former Springfield Bishop George Lucas, and “later affirmed by me due to Senator Durbin’s extensive and persistent record of voting for abortion rights.”

“Although he has a place to stay in Chicago (like many Illinois politicians), he maintains his domicile here in Springfield.”

Durbin, 80, has been a U.S. Senator since 1997 and was before that a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

While he initially supported restrictions on abortion, he became in the U.S. Senate a supporter of Medicaid funding for abortion, and has opposed the prospect of legal restrictions on the practice.

In 2007, the senator said that he personally opposes abortion, but believes decisions about the practice must be made by a woman and her doctor.

Paprocki, chair of the USCCB’s canonical affairs committee, has commented previously on Durbin’s status in the Springfield diocese.

In a 2021 essay, the bishop wrote that “because his voting record in support of abortion over many years constitutes ‘obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin,’ the determination continues that Sen. Durbin is not to be admitted to Holy Communion until he repents of this sin. This provision is intended not to punish, but to bring about a change of heart.”

“Sen. Durbin was pro-life when he started out in politics in central Illinois. The denial of Holy Communion is a medicinal remedy that seeks to foster a change of heart and encourage him to repent and return to being pro-life,” Paprocki continued.

Paprocki’s essay on that subject came amid fractious debate among U.S. bishops on the prospect of a document that might have addressed, among other things, the question of whether Catholic politicians who support abortion and other policies at odds with Catholic doctrine should receive the Eucharist.

In May 2021, Cupich led an unsuccessful effort to postpone discussion of that prospective document — which was eventually published in November 2021 — because the bishops’ conference was then meeting virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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In 2019, Paprocki issued a decree which prohibited two other Illinois Catholics — Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton — from receiving the Eucharist in the Springfield diocese.

The bishop told The Pillar that decree came after years of conversation, and was made with the hope it would occasion a deepened commitment to the Catholic faith.

“The hope is that a person will in fact want to go to Holy Communion. And then once they cease from being obstinately persistent in manifest grave sin, they must be readmitted. And so that certainly is the hope — that they would have that change of heart.”

“In my own conscience, I feel that if I did not properly enforce canon 915, I would be at least negligent, if not complicit, with those Catholic politicians who are promoting abortion,” Paprocki said.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has not yet responded to a request for comment on the planned award to Sen. Durbin.