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CHICAGO, Illinois, January 7, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, posted a strongly worded statement in response to the recent protests seen at the Capitol, calling them a “national disgrace.” However, when Black Lives Matter protests throughout the nation turned violent last year, Cupich had remained silent.
Cupich’s long message on Twitter dealt with protestors entering the Capitol building yesterday, while the election certification was ongoing. The cardinal wrote that the events “should shock the conscience of any patriotic American and any faithful Catholic,” adding that the “eyes of the world look on in horror.”
He added that over “many months we have witnessed the deliberate erosion of the norms of our system of government,” and highlighted the “sacred right” of “peaceful protest.”
“Violence” is the “opposite” of “social progress,” Cupich continued, saying that “politics is the peaceful resolution of conflicting points of view.”
What has been unfolding at the Capitol today should shock the conscience of any patriotic American and any faithful Catholic. The eyes of the world look on in horror as we suffer this national disgrace.
— Cardinal Cupich (@CardinalBCupich) January 7, 2021
The cardinal also asked for prayers for the woman who was shot during yesterday’s events, events which he termed “rioting.”
However, despite his string of tweets condemning the protestors entering the Capitol, the cardinal was markedly silent during the nation-wide Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots, which caused widespread destruction and physical harm. At the time, Cupich issued a statement on the death of George Floyd, which served as the catalyst for the BLM riots, in which he briefly declared himself to be “horrified” at the violence in Chicago in the aftermath of the killing, but added that he was not surprised.
“I do not know what it means to be ‘other’. But I know there is a way to fix it,” the cardinal declared, before effectively dismissing all discussion about the morality of the violent riots: “And the fix begins when we stop talking about the proportionality of ‘their’ response and start talking about the proportionality of ‘ours’.”
“We do not need a study of the causes and effects,” Cupich claimed.
A few days later, Cupich gave an address at a meeting organised by Illinois state governor Pritzker, in which he called for peace, not from the rioters, but towards them: “we need peaceful action to stop the hatred that has ended the lives of countless black Americans.”
He equated racism to COVID-19 and commented that “[r]acism is the red thread that runs through the binding that holds America back from reaching its promise: equality and justice for all.”
In fact, the cardinal also employed the now famous term “peaceful protesters” when describing the violent riots, asking that the “aims” of the rioters be not ignored: “No one should allow themselves to dismiss the aims of peaceful protesters because some among them exploited the anger by engaging in criminal acts. Nor should we dismiss the legitimate work of first responders and law enforcement, despite the dangerous overreactions of some against protesters and journalists reporting on these demonstrations.”
The “peaceful” protests which Cupich referred to saw over 700 police and law enforcement officers injured by mid-June alone, and by late September over 300 rioters had been charged for offenses “under the guise of peaceful demonstrations.” Antifa rioters violently made a stronghold in Portland, Oregon, burning and causing destruction to the city, while the Associated Press issued guidance that riots should no longer be called that, but termed unrest instead.
Writing for LifeSiteNews back in August, Mary Ann Kreitzer described how “Chicago, once under the thumb of gangsters like Al Capone, has new mob bosses, Marxist overlords with their mob strategy.”
Commenting on the BLM riots, Kreitzer noted, “While they scream about love, they assault those with whom they disagree and destroy property indiscriminately, actions they would likely avoid as individuals.”
Despite all of this, Cardinal Cupich sent out tweets seeming to favor the rioters, with only one message that seemed to express disapproval of violence — that being a retweet of one of Pope Francis’s tweets.
In fact, in October, Cupich repeated his earlier comments by writing in the Chicago Tribune that “[i]t has been a summer of anguish for Black Americans.” He decried the “systemic racism” in society, even claiming that Catholics “cannot turn away from the church’s own history” in the matter.
Cupich’s article highlighted the shootings of two black Americans by police, yet he did not address the wider issue of violent crime, which saw 492 criminal homicides in 2019. (Most recent figures available.)
It is unclear why Cupich rebuked one set of protestors, yet almost lauded another.
The Lepanto Institute presented research which showed that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), through their Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), were actually funding four organizations that supported riots and whose goals include not only defunding police, but even killing them.