Pope wades into U.S. dispute over term ‘pro-life’

Leo XIV sees a conflict in opposing abortion, supporting the death penalty.

- By NICOLE WINFIELD

Pope Leo XIV has intervened for the first time in an abortion dispute roiling the U.S. Catholic Church by raising the seeming contradiction over what it really means to be “pro-life.”

Leo, a Chicago native, was asked late Tuesday about plans by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich to give a lifetime achievement award to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin for his work helping immigrants. The plans drew objection from some conservative U.S. bishops given the powerful Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights.

Leo called first of all for respect forboth sides, but he also pointed out the seeming contradiction in such debates.

“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion’ but says ‘I am in favor of the death pen-

alty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo said. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Leo spoke hours before Cupich announced that Durbin had declined the award.

Church teaching forbids abortion but it also opposes capital punishment as “inadmissible” under all circumstances. U.S. bishops and the Vatican have strongly called for humane treatment of migrants, citing the biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”

Pope says mutual respect is needed