This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BC chapter.
It was recently announced that Blase Cupich will be this year’s commencement speaker. Although you may not know much about Cupich, here are some reasons you should be excited for his visit to Chestnut Hill.
- Cupich is the archbishop of Chicago, and has been since he succeeded Cardinal Francis George on September 20th, 2014. This was a particularly important change, considering Cardinal Francis George’s conservative opinions are much different than Cupich’s more progressive way of thinking.
- Pope Francis appointed Cupich and it was the first major episcopal appointment he made in the United States.
- In this position, Cupich oversees 350 parishes and 2.2 million Catholics.
- Cupich is in touch with many social issues, such as racism in America. Before the 2008 presidential elections, he published a piece discussing how racism played a part in this election and how it is our responsibility to continue to fight against this injustice.
- He also served on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Young Adults for multiple years before becoming the head of the committee in 2008.
- Cupich is celebrated for being open minded and willing to address issues. He is quoted as saying: “We have to be willing to talk about all issues.”
- A main priority for Cupich is to gain the trust of those around him and get to know them. That is why he spoke out very passionately after priests accused of being involved in the sex-abuse scandal were allowed to remain active.
- Although Cupich does stand with the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage, he does condemn homophobic bullying.
- Cupich has a focus on serving poor and marginalized communities, similar to Pope Francis.
- Once during an interview, Cupich was asked if he identified as moderate or progressive, which is a source of debate for many people. He responded: “I would say that I’m me. And I’m going to leave it up to people to if they want to pigeonhole me one way or another. But I think that all of us are considered liberal in some areas and conservative in others, depending on what the issue is.”
Sources:
http://thinkprogress.org/home/2014/09/21/3570151/ope-francis-just-named-…
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-2015/Archbishop-Cupich/
Photo Sources:
http://www.trbimg.com/img-541e34a7/turbine/ct-blase-cupich-profile-met-0…