In a wide-ranging interview with City Club Chicago’s chief executive officer Dan Gibbons on March 23, Cardinal Cupich talked about violence in the city, immigration reform, the environment and the election of Pope Leo XIV.
The interview took place before an audience of civic leaders at Chicago Cut Steakhouse, 300 N. LaSalle St.
Gibbons began by asking Cardinal Cupich what he would say to people searching for God following the tragic deaths the week before of Chicago firefighter Michael Altman on March 16, Loyola Academy alumni James Gracey on March 17, and Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman on March 19.
“We have to wrap our arms around these people. Their grief is our grief,” Cardinal Cupich said. “We’re less because these young people have passed from our midst who had great promise.”
Cardinal Cupich encouraged those in attendance to connect with the families’ raw grief and use that to motivate themselves to take action to improve the city.
If we treat anyone’s murder — no matter their race or background — as just another number, we lose something as a society, he said.
The cardinal spoke to family members of the three people who died in those tragedies. He considers it a honor when people share their grief, fear or worries and ask him for prayers, he said.
“There’s a real privilege in being invited into the intimacy of people’s lives at that level,” Cardinal Cupich said.
Gibbons asked the cardinal how being part of a large family of nine children has shaped his leadership as archbishop of Chicago.
“I think it grounds you and keeps you real because every family is a mess,” the cardinal said, making those at the gathering laugh. “They’re just a mirror of what’s happening in society so often, the struggles that people have, the mistakes they make, but also the joys that are there.”
He and his family get together often, he said. He has 17 nieces and nephews and 30 great-nephews and great-nieces.
Gibbons also asked the cardinal, as leader of the Catholic Church, how he decides which issues facing the city, state, country or world to speak out on.
Cardinal Cupich said he asks himself three questions: “Is it true? Does it need to be said? Do I have to say it?”
The cardinal cited a recent example when he spoke out against a social media post from the White House that appeared to make a video game out of the war with Iran.
“I think it is important for people to stand up and say, ‘This is not right. We shouldn’t do that,’” Cardinal Cupich said.
When asked for his thoughts on the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrants here illegally, Cardinal Cupich said it is important for countries to be able to secure their borders.
“We, however, have a situation of a broken immigration system. And so people who represent us need to tackle that issue and there are ways forward to do that,” Cardinal Cupich said. “Meanwhile, if you’re going to try to round up people in an indiscriminate way, mass deportation, you’re going to invite trouble.”
Instead of making immigration a political football that elected officials toss back and forth, they must reform the immigration system in this country, the cardinal said.
“They should just get the job done,” he said.
People in the civic community must also be aware of environmental issues, the cardinal told the gathering.
“We’re in trouble,” he said, giving examples of global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, deforestation, rising sea levels and fires.
“The next generation is going to turn back and not be very pleased with what we’re doing on this issue because this is only getting worse unless we do something dramatic,” the cardinal said.
Gibbons asked Cardinal Cupich about the value and future of Catholic education.
“A high percentage of the kids in our inner-city schools are not Catholic,” Cardinal Cupich replied. “We don’t do it because they’re Catholic or going to become Catholic. We do it because we’re Catholic and we’re good at it.”
There is an opportunity starting in 2027 with the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit to provide disadvantaged families the means to send their children to good Catholic schools, he said.
“This is the best anti-poverty program we have, because we have found, not only when we offer school choice and they come to our school and do well, but their parents are more engaged than they ever were before in the education of their kids because they have some skin in the game,” he said. “Our hope would be that this state would opt in for this bill.”
The cardinal also said he hopes when the rules come out for the federal program that public schools will be able to share in it.
“I think that people want their tax dollars to go for education. They want to invest in the future of kids,” Cardinal Cupich said.
Gibbons also asked the cardinal if the election of Chicago native Robert Prevost to the papacy has increased Mass attendance or interest in the priesthood.
“The Holy Spirit is stirring in a lot of people,” Cardinal Cupich said. “We’re seeing something happening there. I don’t know if it’s because of the pope but it’s happening worldwide.”
Pope Leo makes the church more accessible because he speaks in a way we understand, being an American himself, the cardinal said.
“I think he captivated the world’s attention when he came out on that balcony,” he said.