http://thinkprogress.org/home/2014/09/21/3570151/ope-francis-just-named-a-new-archbishop-of-chicago-heres-why-you-should-care/
The Archdiocese of Chicago announced on Saturday that Pope Francis has named Bishop Blase Cupich, a moderate bridge-builder with a history of supporting many progressive-leaning positions, as the next archbishop of Chicago. The Nebraska native will be replacing a highly political — and deeply conservative — bishop, and could potentially usher in a new era of American Catholic leadership that spends less time fighting culture wars and more time echoing the populist leadership of Pope Francis.
The move might not seem like much to a non-Catholic, but the elevation of Cupich represents a significant change in tone for the Catholic church in America. Politically and theologically speaking, the 65-year-old Cupich, who will be leaving behind his position as Bishop of Spokane, is notably different from his predecessor, Cardinal Francis George, on several counts. George, who is currently fighting cancer, has enjoyed prominence among Catholic conservatives for his hard-line stance against abortion and marriage equality, but has often stoked controversy for how he expresses his views: in 2011, George compared organizers of the Chicago Pride Parade to the Ku Klux Klan, and recently wrote that being a Catholic citizen under a pro-gay, pro-choice government is akin to living under Shariah law.
Pope Frankie is on the right track getting right wing influence out of the church all the bigotry in cultural relations and that alone will kill the hate factor, money influence of voters by church you know pretty much everything the right wing stands for all the unGodly stuff. pray for him those who would oppose are not above trying to maintain their status quo bt any means necessary.
Cupich, by contrast, is the very embodiment of a Catholic moderate. When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) publicly opposed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, he expressed skepticism about their confrontational approach, preferring a deeper dialogue with President Obama’s administration about the issue of Catholic institutions providing contraception to employees.
Similarly, when serving as the bishop of Spokane, Washington during the state’s battle over marriage equality, Cupich published a pastoral letter that defended the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage while also condemning anti-gay bullying, saying it was wrong to “incite hostility towards homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity.”
He has also frustrated many pro-life activists by reportedly privately asking priests and seminarians in Spokane not to pray in front of Planned Parenthood abortion clinics, arguing that such actions were unnecessarily provocative, according to Crux.
“Pope Francis sent a clear message to an American hierarchy that has lost its way fighting the culture wars in recent years,” said John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, a progressive advocacy group in Washington, told ThinkProgress. “It signals that pastoral leadership, the search for common ground and a broader pro-life vision must be the new guideposts. The Francis agenda is now anchored in a city that has long been a powerhouse of American Catholicism. This could be a game changer.”
this guy sounds like a clone of Pope Frankie and that ain't a bad thing my friends. i'm Baptist but look forward to what lies ahead for the Catholic religion.
