Cardinal Blase Cupich is pointing to the real problem of antisemitism to justify his decision to honor Michael Sacks, an enemy of human dignity.
You may know me as the annoying church lady who’s always trying to find common ground. Sometimes, that’s constructive. Other times, I have to surrender.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, is scheduled to give Michael Sacks the Nostra Aetate Award at the Rerum Novarum Awards Dinner on Thursday. The event is a fundraiser for Mundelein Seminary. (That’s a lot of Latin. Nostra Aetate is the Vatican II document on Catholic relations with non-Christian religions. Rerum Novarum is Pope Leo XIII’s labor encyclical.)
The pro-life backlash against Sacks’s being honored has nothing to do with Nostra Aetate and everything to do with his support for abortion. The Sacks Family Foundation — of which Michael Sacks is the president and treasurer — is a generous donor of Planned Parenthood. Sacks is credited with “shoring up Illinois’ abortion access infrastructure” with a $600,000 gift intended “to offset federal cuts to reproductive health funding.” He’s also on the board of directors of the Obama Foundation. Is this the best person for the Archdiocese of Chicago to honor, Your Eminence?
As if that’s not bad enough, Cardinal Cupich abused his position as a public teacher and moral leader by falsely attributing the backlash to antisemitism. This is part of Cupich’s statement:
A permanent part of our Catholic doctrine, Nostra Aetate, among other things, recognizes that Catholicism is uniquely linked at its roots to Judaism. Catholics do not view Judaism as another non-Christian tradition. Similarly, the Church views Jews and especially leaders in their communities, not as ideological adversaries, but as representatives of a faith community bound to God by an irrevocable covenant. Honoring a leader, shaped by his Jewish faith, for the gifts he brings to society through his leadership, generosity and talent, acknowledges this shared divine heritage, distinct from specific contemporary political or doctrinal disputes.
Some have voiced criticism that a Catholic group would honor a person who does not hold to core beliefs of the Catholic Church, primary among them being the divinity of Jesus Christ. In fact, Nostra Aetate offers a clear theological and ethical framework that supports honoring, respecting, and building constructive relationships with non-Christians even when those individuals express theological, moral, or political positions at odds with core Catholic teaching. While Nostra Aetate does not promote theological compromise or endorsement of non-Catholic political views, it establishes foundational principles that justify public respect, dialogue and honoring of others, even when there is disagreement over significant matters. Simply put, honoring individuals who do not share core Catholic teachings recognizes their dignity, leadership role and service to their community without implying an endorsement of every statement or stance they maintain. Such recognition helps to bring about the conditions necessary for principled dialogue to take place, all the while recognizing that dialogue cannot occur if respect is contingent upon complete agreement on church doctrine or political policy.
As a Catholic community in Chicago, we recognize that now more than ever we need to find ways to reinforce the special relationship between the Catholic community and the Jewish people. Refusing to honor or engage with Jews solely because they hold conflicting religious or political positions can risk mimicking historic patterns of antisemitism through exclusion and bigotry, which, frighteningly, is on the rise. Nostra Aetate urges us to be proactive in separating personal and community respect from doctrinal agreement, ensuring that disagreement does not regress into hostility or social ostracization. This we cannot tolerate.
Cardinal Cupich knows full well that pro-lifers would oppose the honoring of Sacks even if Sacks were Catholic. So, he is either ignoring abortion — the human rights issue of our lifetime — or he is insisting that it is merely an ideological matter on which people of goodwill can disagree.
Cupich is hiding behind Nostra Aetate by pretending that the controversy is about the fact that Sacks is Jewish. He is making incontrovertible statements about Nostra Aetate and antisemitism — and then cynically using it to justify awarding an enemy of a fundamental issue of human dignity.
Of course antisemitism is a problem, including for the Catholic Church, and it’s disturbingly common among young people. That was a large part of the motivation behind Nostra Aetate. I would not be remotely surprised if Archdiocesan social media accounts are being hit by vile comments about Jews. But it is clear that this is not the reason that pro-life groups are asking Cupich to rethink the awardee. After all, this is not the first time Cardinal Cupich has shown remarkably poor judgment. Even the pope got involved when Cupich announced his intention to honor Illinois Senator Dick Durbin with a lifetime achievement award last year. The Democratic senator eventually declined the award. Cupich insists on stoking division. And he’s doing it in the days leading up to Election Day — an already heated, polarizing time.
On the ideological front, Chicago lawyer Mary FioRito asks:
How about someone who gave $1 million not to abortion, as Mr. Sacks has, but rather to reinstate the death penalty in Illinois? Or to expand ICE deportations? Or to build a larger border wall? Would an award still be offered because the person was a prominent businessman?
— Mary H. FioRito (@maryfiorito) October 26, 2026
I wish Cupich, as head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, would take Pope Leo’s lead more seriously. Leo is clear on abortion — as was Francis before him. If he wants to make a more effective statement against antisemitism, Cupich should make a prayerful visit to a synagogue and maybe invite someone from Efrat — an Israeli pregnancy care center, which recently opened a branch in Florida — to the chancery for a briefing about how Catholics and Jews can work together to save human lives from the hell of abortion.
I’m particularly annoyed to have to write this today, on the eighth anniversary of the Tree of Life Synagogue attack in Pittsburgh. Condemning antisemitism always proves to be timely.
I’ll end with this, from Evangelium Vitae — a unifying document that brought Evangelicals and Catholics together to defend and nourish life, and which issued a merciful invitation to women who have had abortions to join them:
Service of the Gospel of life is thus an immense and complex task. This service increasingly appears as a valuable and fruitful area for positive cooperation with our brothers and sisters of other Churches and ecclesial communities, in accordance with the practical ecumenism which the Second Vatican Council authoritatively encouraged. It also appears as a providential area for dialogue and joint efforts with the followers of other religions and with all people of good will. No single person or group has a monopoly on the defence and promotion of life. These are everyone’s task and responsibility. On the eve of the Third Millennium, the challenge facing us is an arduous one: only the concerted efforts of all those who believe in the value of life can prevent a setback of unforeseeable consequences for civilization.
More of that, please.