By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-11-20 18:36:32 | Updated at 2024-11-21 09:49:00
15 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago celebrated his 10th anniversary as Archbishop November 18.
In a reflection written shortly before his anniversary, Cardinal Cupich wrote that at the beginning of his ministry in Chicago, he referenced an episode in the book of Ezekiel where God brings dry bones back to life once they hear his Word (Ezekiel 37: 1-14.)
“How often, I asked, do we sense dryness in our own lives,” the Cardinal wrote, “in our communities, our relationships, our nation: incivility, violence, poverty, bigotry? Where, we sometimes wonder, is God in all this?”
He responded to his own question: “God is at work in giving people a life of stability, a feeling of being at home and of living in an environment that satisfies the desires God has placed in their hearts.”
Cardinal Cupich wrote that he was grateful for all of the people in the diocese, including both religious and laity, who helped him “to bring good news to the poor, proclaim freedom to those who are held bound and comfort the oppressed.”
He also expressed gratitude for the work that has been accomplished in his time as Archbishop, including building stronger schools and parishes, helping the needy through Catholic Charities, and advocating for peace in the crime-ridden city of Chicago.
“The work of building up the kingdom of God in our local church goes on,” Cardinal Cupich wrote. “Further progress needs to be our priority, but we can look back on this decade knowing that we have pursued ways to meet God in moments in which he has called us to do something new, something good.”
Cardinal Cupich was born in 1949 in Omaha, Nebraska, and was ordained to the priesthood in his home diocese when he was 26. Pope John Paul II later appointed Fr. Cupich as Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1998. His episcopal ordination and installation was held September 21, 1998.
In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as Bishop of Spokane, Washington. Then Pope Francis appointed the Nebraska native as Archbishop of Chicago in 2014 and later elevated him to the status of Cardinal on November 16, 2016.
Cardinal Cupich served as secretary at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C., from 1981 to 1987 and has held various roles with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Pope Francis has also appointed him to several dicasteries throughout his ministry as Cardinal.
Currently, Cardinal Cupich serves on the USCCB Committee on Migration and the Subcommittee for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, and he is a consultant to the USCCB Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs Committee and co-chair of the National Dialogue Initiative with Muslims.
