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In the fifteenth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago. Cupich opens by sharing how he came to learn about Chicago’s rich history, appreciate its diverse cultures, and engage with parishioners who worship in the Archdiocese’s 216 churches—churches in which Mass is said in 50 different languages each week. Ream then asks the Cardinal about his formation for the priesthood, the experiences that shaped his calling including his education at the University of St. Thomas, the Gregorian University, and Catholic University of America. Cupich shares details concerning his service as a parish priest, as a seminary rector, and as Secretary and Nunciature for the Apostolic Delegation at the Embassy of the Holy See in Washington, DC. Ream asks Cupich about how his service as Bishop of the Diocese of Rapid City and as Bishop of the Diocese of Spokane prepared him for his appointment as Archbishop of Chicago and as a member of the College of Cardinals. The conversation then shifts to a more formal discussion of higher education and what lessons the Society of Jesus’s (Jesuit’s) Mission Priority Examen offers Catholic colleges and universities sponsored by other orders as well as Protestant colleges and universities. Ream and Cupich close their discussion by exploring the role Cupich plays as a Cardinal and Archbishop in the lives of Catholic colleges and universities, how Cupich understands the academic vocation, and the ways the Church and the university can be of greater service to one another.
Todd Ream: Welcome to Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. My name is Todd Ream. I have the privilege of serving as the publisher for Christian Scholar’s Review and as the host for Saturdays at Seven. I also have the privilege of serving on the faculty and the administration at Indiana Wesleyan University.
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Our guest is Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago. Thank you for taking the time to join us and for welcoming me to the Archbishop Quigley Center here in Chicago.
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Good to have you, Todd. I’m pleased that we can do this interview.
Todd Ream: Let’s begin by discussing wagers between church leaders and pizza. During the early years as Archbishop, reports indicate you would wager deep dish Chicago pizzas with church leaders serving in cities against whom Chicago’s professional sports teams may be playing.
For example, when the Blackhawks played the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2015 Stanley Cup, you wagered Lou Malnati’s pizzas that it would go to Pinellas Hope, a shelter in Pinellas County, Florida and Bishop Robert Lynch of the St. Petersburg Diocese wagered grapefruits that would go to St. Leo’s Residence, a housing community for veterans here in Cook County, Illinois. Chicago fans, of course, know the Blackhawks won the title that year. Would you please confirm whether the rumors are true that you not only graciously received the grapefruits, but also sent the pizzas?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: That’s right. Malnati’s told us that they would honor that and, and wanted to send the pizza down to Florida. And so it was really a way for us to celebrate our victory in a very gracious way. But also as I told Bishop Lynch at that time, I didn’t know if we should make a bet because really it’s immoral to bet on a sure thing.
Todd Ream: Very true. Very true. Would you also please confirm that you personally offered to inspect the pizzas, perhaps to test them for, you know.
Cardinal Blase Cupich: I did in fact, I went to Malnati’s on State Street here. And I decided that they really needed to be tested. And so I didn’t have any difficulty munching down on a few pizzas.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Yeah. For quality control purposes, of course. Yeah.
The Archdiocese of Chicago includes approximately 2 million people. 1,100 priests with approximately 700 being diocesan priests, 1,000 women’s religious, 150 religious brothers, 600 lay ministers, and 216 parishes. As the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese, how did you get to know Chicago?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, a couple of things. First of all I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just driven around to the various places. I wanted to drive myself and to get to know the diocese. I think just in terms of landscape, I tried to get to know the area.
The other is that I visited and continue to visit parishes, and get to know people not just for confirmation, but for other occasions. And that allows me to do that. There are also other various consultative bodies like our Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, our Archdiocesan Women’s Committee, the Finance Council of course, our Presbyteral Council and working with our deacons.
So in all of those encounters you get to know people and of course, it is a large group of folks to be able to meet and encounter, but I feel fairly comfortable about the fact that there have been plenty of opportunities to get to know folks.
Todd Ream: Thank you. What are some of the takeaways that you had about the city’s traditions and its people that have helped inform your ministry?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, you know, Chicago takes pride in saying that it’s a city that works. And people work hard here and they roll up their sleeves and get the job done. There’s also a resiliency whenever there’s a challenge that we face, that people do pull together.
In fact, that’s why the emblem of the Archdiocese has the phoenix rising out of the ashes which was in many ways respectful of the way the city rebounded after the fire in the 19th century. So, I think that it is important to recognize that.
The second component is that there are so many cultures here. We’re an immigrant city. Mass is celebrated in 50 languages in our city every weekend, and so it’s important for us to be respectful of that of a variety of people but also to see how it enriches who we are.
Todd Ream: How do you assess the spiritual needs of parishioners as well as the clergy and lay ministers that you lead?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, right now, we’re in the middle of Renew My Church project, not only in terms of reorganizing the archdiocese, the parishes, but also looking at what needs to be done to reach the de-churched and the unchurched.
We’ve conducted a number of studies with different demographic groups to know about their needs, especially young people who are post college. And some of that has been very informative for us as we put together a program. We’re very grateful for some of the fundings we receive from foundations in order to carry out that work, because I think it really is, in many ways, groundbreaking. And so we’re learning from all of that.
I think it’s always good to make sure that we’re in contact with folks to see what their spiritual needs are and also to be intentional about it.
Todd Ream: Thank you. How are you able to discern how to align finite resources to serve what perhaps can seem to be infinite social and economic needs here in the city?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I think first of all when I came here, it was very clear that we really had too many churches in. We had a 360 instead of the 216 that you mentioned. And 70% of our parishes needed financial aid just to operate. We needed to change that dynamic.
We also learned, after we did a study, that we had about $100 million in deferred maintenance. So through a six-year program of Renew My Church, where we consulted locally with people, we came to a decision to downsize, to merge, and also to close places. We reduced that deferred maintenance to 25 million. And now we also are in a position of helping the 30% of parishes that still need aid, rather than 70%. And that gives us some flexibility.
We also have been able to make sure that spiritual renewal happens. And that is the next phase of Renew My Church. We’re investing in that. It does challenge us to raise some money to carry on that work but people are responding in a way that shows how much they care for and love the Church.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Within the archdiocese, there are also 188 elementary and secondary schools serving approximately 49,000 students, while six Catholic colleges and universities serve approximately 47,000 students.
In what ways do those institutions join with the Church in preparing leaders who can meet spiritual needs as well as social and economic needs?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, of course, the primary and secondary level of education, we have more contact with, simply because our school office works with them. And there’s a curriculum with regard to religious education that takes place. In those institutions, but also in the parishes through the religious education classes. So we do have input in that.
It’s not so much with the colleges and universities. Although on an annual basis I do meet with the university and college presidents just to find out what their needs are. And now that I’m a member of the Dicastery for Culture and Education in the Vatican it’s an opportunity for me now to be more attentive to what their needs are so that I can represent that in the discussions that I have on the international level.
Todd Ream: In what ways do the charisms of the founding orders, offer those educational institutions contribute to their ability to meet the needs of diversifying student populations?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, and, and I think that that’s a very important question to unpack. Because let’s take, for instance, the Vincentians who founded DePaul.
DePaul University is the largest Catholic university in the United States. And they are a missionary society. They care about reaching out to, to people who sometimes live at the margins in terms of the practice of the faith. So I think their charism is a good fit for a diverse population that we have at DePaul.
It was started at the request of the Archdiocese to have the Vincentians come in because we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just for Catholics, that there was a diverse population. It was open to people of all faiths. A good number of students who are Jewish go to DePaul University and consider it their home, as alumni. So I think that’s a good example.
We also know that other religious communities, the Dominicans, we’re very much involved in establishing Rosary University, as it was called.
But it is a way in which that community of religious looks at their basis of their foundation of being teachers themselves and educating the youth that allows them to really, I think, enhance the educational program that we have here in the Archdiocese.
Todd Ream: Thank you.
If I may now ask you some questions about your own formation for the priesthood. While Chicago’s been home since 2014, you were born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, a city which fostered the callings of a considerable number of clergy, including Creighton University’s current president, Father Daniel Hendrickson, and Notre Dame’s recently retired president, Father John Jenkins.
Would you please share a few details about your upbringing in Omaha and you’re calling to serve as a diocesan priest?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I grew up in a family of nine children. I’m the third of nine. I have three brothers and five sisters. We lived in a Croatian enclave where the parish St. Peter and Paul was founded by immigrants from Croatia, including my four grandparents who were founders.
And we found that our everyday life because of school, but also cultural events, was tied to the parish. And so it really was seamless for all of us to feel very much a part of a church community. And I think that that instilled in all of us a sense of taking responsibility for the Church. I had two brothers at one time who were in the seminary as well.
My father always told us that, you know, when you think about the future, don’t discount serving the Church. And I think that that really instilled in us a sense of co-responsibility for the life of the Church as we go forward and participation in it.
And then after high school, I entered the seminary and finally continued and graduated from the university, or at that time it was called the College of St. Thomas, and then was asked to go to Rome in 1971. And I was at the North American College studying at the Gregorian University from ’71 to ’75, and then came home was ordained that year at, again, my home parish of Peter and Paul.
It was the only, the first ordination, I think the only one that took place in that parish. But it was for me, it was a matter of coming home in a different way that allowed me to celebrate with people who had been a part of my formation.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Were any particular individuals helpful, more formative in terms of your calling?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: I would say, first of all, my parents. I think that they had a deep faith. It wasn’t something they wore on their sleeve, but it was just a matter of everyday life. They made it very natural for us, not anything extraordinary.
I think also what really encouraged me, especially in my college years, was the study of philosophy. And I had some really good priests, mentors who taught philosophy at the College of St. Thomas who were particularly helpful in just helping me to open my mind to the rich tradition of the Church, the heritage of our tradition. And that I think was quite influential for me as well.
And then my first pastor that I had worked with was Father Peter Dunn, Monsignor Dunn, who was the last priest in the Archdiocese of Omaha, who actually worked as a priest with Father Flanagan who founded Boys Town. So there were a lot of stories about that. And that, it helped me integrate into being a member of the Presbyterate of Omaha to, again, be attached to a wonderful legacy.
Todd Ream: Are there any particular authors that you read or continue to turn to that nurture your calling?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Yes, I would say that it depends on the scope. For instance C. S. Lewis, so many of his writings were important for me in college. And then when I got into theology people like Karl Rahner who, in fact, I was able to take a class from at the Gregorian when I was there. Raymond Brown, the Scripture Scholar, I was also able to take a course from him when I was at the Gregorian. And so those kinds of theological, scriptural scholars were important to me.
But also I think you know the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins is something that has always intrigued me. I think I could probably, if I thought about it more, it could give you more but those kinds of authors were very important.
Todd Ream: Did the practice of any spiritual disciplines, nurture that calling, continue to nurture it to this day?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, yes, I think I’ve always tried to make my own spiritual life tied to the pastoral life. One of the, I think most rewarding spiritual exercises that I have is just sitting with the Word of God and preparing homilies, because it’s very important to prepare a homily in such a way in which you not only delve into what the Word of God is saying, but to imagine what it’s saying to a particular community that you’re gonna be with.
So I think I always keep in mind that audience, that, that congregation, that assembly as I meditate and pray about the Scriptures, because I feel it’s my responsibility to break open that word for them. And not just expound on scriptural exegesis or explaining Scripture, but how is it that I’m inviting them to receive that word? That I think has been a very powerful part of my own spiritual exercises in life every day.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you. You mentioned your study of philosophy at what is now the University of St. Thomas, and then also your study of theology at the Gregorian University. After being ordained in Omaha in 1975, you also studied at Catholic University of America. In what ways did your education at CUA and your ordination shape who you are today?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I pursued studies in liturgy and sacraments. And so that seemed to be a good fit for priestly pastoral ministry.
Again, I worked on, for my doctoral dissertation, as well as my license, unpacking the way the Church has used various scriptural texts for the season of Advent over the centuries. And I took three periods to compare how, then, the understanding of Advent changed by the very selection of different readings. And I used an interpretation theory of a French philosopher who, in fact, taught here at the University of Chicago, Paul Ricoeur.
So that really allowed me to to take a look at Scriptures not just in terms of the Bible, but in terms of the lectionary. And in fact, I even said that the lectionary is a new canon of Scripture because readings are put together that originally were not meant to be and formed a different kind of message.
So I found that to be really a very helpful exercise for pastoral ministry that in many ways connected me to my original aspirations of being a priest, of how I’m going to bring the Word of God to people’s lives.
Todd Ream: Thank you. You served as a parish priest in Omaha and were eventually called to serve as the Bishop for the Rapid City, South Dakota Diocese, then to Spokane, Washington where you served as Bishop and then you were called here to Chicago. In what ways did serving as a parish priest and then bishop of Rapid City and in Spokane prepare you for the leadership you now offer to the Archdiocese of Chicago?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I think there were other assignments too that helped me. So after my work in a parish, I was sent away to school to finish my license degree at the in Chicago and then the next year in, in, in Washington, D. C. And then, a year into that, I was asked to join the staff of the Papal Embassy in, in Washington, D.C., where I was Secretary at the Apostolic Delegation, became the Nunciature in 1984. So I was there for about seven years.
I came home, was a pastor for the parish for a year, two years or so. Then I became the rector of a seminary in Columbus, Ohio. I was there for seven years, came back and was a pastor for a year. So all of those experiences had an impact on me.
First of all, it gave me confidence that I could do leadership, being a rector of a seminary. But also that my time with the Vatican Embassy in Washington gave me a broad scope of what is happening in the Church universal, as well as in this country. So when I became a bishop in 1998, I knew most of the bishops in this country. And I found that you know, being especially in a rural area like western South Dakota, you got to know a lot of folks. I had only 28,000 Catholics over an area that’s the size of Ireland.
And then then again I went to Spokane. There were some issues that had to do with the bankruptcy that put more demands on the parish. But I felt confident because I had those leadership experiences to take up those challenges. And then out of the blue in 2010 2000, I’m sorry, 14, four years later, I was asked to come to Chicago.
Todd Ream: Thank you.
I want to ask you now about some of your writing, and in particular your writing in relation to educational institutions. You’re a frequent contributor to publications such as America: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture, and I’d like to ask you about an article you contributed in fall 2023 to America concerning what Jesuit Catholic universities can do to stay true to their identity and mission. You frame your argument by offering Jesuit college universities bear three identities, that of higher education, that of the Church, and that of the order. In your estimation, how can those three identities live in harmony with one another, especially the latter two with the first?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I think as I tried to, that was the result of a talk that I gave at Loyola. They’ve asked me to talk about that particular issue. And I said that Jesuit Catholic universities live in three worlds. And they have to look for a way in which the tensions that are involved in those three worlds enhance rather than detract from the university.
So let’s take, for instance, being a university itself. It has to be true to the norms of what universities are expected to be in this country. They’re accredited through the Department of Education. There are curriculum requirements in order to grant degrees. And there are standards which the university has to follow with regard to university professors and tenure and so on.
At the same time, they’re a Catholic university. They, they, in some way, they’re, they’re not to they have a, an approach to a worldview that is much broader than the secular world. And that, that should not be seen as in any way detracting from their role as a university. But enhancing it because maybe there are certain aspects about the university that need more attention that the Catholic experience can bring out.
And finally, as a Jesuit community as well, I pointed out that when Ignatius of Loyola, reluctantly, by the way, allowed the Jesuits to get into higher education, because he wasn’t convinced of it at first, that they, they, they anchor that religious institution in a parish, with the parish, because he wanted to make sure that it was reflective of the everyday pastoral life that was happening.
And so, how is it that a university, as a Jesuit university, that’s true to its charism, keeps that focus in mind as well? So I offer just some ways in which they can live within that tension, not to in any way threaten any of those characteristics, but enhance each one of them.
Todd Ream: Are there points in time when that identity of the university may live in irreconcilable conflict with that of the Church and the order, or perhaps vice versa?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I think that you, you use the word irreconcilable I think in a very helpful way. I think it’s up to the university and the board, as well as the president and leadership, to take up the work of reconciliation and, and ongoing dialogue. I think this is one of the things that is coming out of the synodal experience the Holy Father is giving us. And to realize that there are going to be different approaches, there are going to be different voices, different approaches to the university, Catholic university.
But what’s going to, that it will challenge people to stay in the dialogue and look for a reconciliation so that they don’t find themselves at an impasse in which they can’t go any further. I believe that there are points in each one of those characteristics of being a Jesuit Catholic University that there can be a common ground found.
Todd Ream: Universities in this country today are living in a season of duress, as many people have argued. Are there times when perhaps the identity of the Church and the identity of the order, in the case of the Jesuit order, you know, as we’re talking about here, can compel leaders to reimagine and reinvigorate what it means to be a university?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, yes, I think we’re seeing a trend today that’s somewhat disturbing to me in universities, and that is pulling away from the humanities and reducing a university just to a trade school where people are learning skills, where the science and math are taking over to the point where all it is is about job preparation.
I think that impoverishes an educational institution because what we really want to do is to train leaders for the future who have critical thinking abilities. And how the humanities can help in that, I think, is something that should not be ignored.
We’re seeing also as well the emergence of artificial intelligence. How is that going to change the way that professors see their role in bringing about education? Let’s face it, AI provides a whole new library to students. And a library that’s much richer than perhaps the experience of the professor has. So how is it that AI is not going to replace a teacher and reduce education to just transferring information, but a real formation in critical thinking? I think a professor has to keep that in mind as they go forward.
There’s going to have to be real adjustments. I don’t think theology can be taught in the same way that it is now of just lecture style or ways in which the tradition is shared. I think there has to be an aspect in which people are formed in terms of the encounter with the Word of God that changes their lives. And a professor, I think, needs to take up that role as theology is taught today.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you. I want to ask you a little bit more about the relationship that the parish can play. You mentioned Ignatius of Loyola’s, St. Ignatius’s, you know, commitment that the parish be an integral part of the university experience.
You noted in that article that the university was a thinking heart and that you were convinced that the local church can contribute to the enterprise of the Catholic university, allowing the lived experience of people with all their joys and struggles to ground our educational institutions and serve and save them, excuse me, from abstraction. Would you please unpack what that relationship looks like perhaps in contemporary terms today?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, to give you an example, I was at a meeting of some of the students at Loyola University in which they engage in the synodal process. And we had students at tables and so on replicate what we did in Rome during the synod to take up topics and to discuss them, but also to share from their perspective what the response should be to the particular question.
So I think that a university can be instrumental in training facilitators to do that work, but also to occasionally have those kinds of experiences so that the classroom then is informed, as well through that enterprise.
Take another example, we are receiving a number of graduates from Catholic universities who have done a lot of pastoral training. We have them working here in the Archdiocese as parish renewal leaders. We’re working with universities, Catholic universities now, to see whether or not the experience that they have in their leadership can then be echoed back into the classroom so that there is a dialogue between what happens in the parish through their experience and then what is taught in the classroom and vice versa, how the classroom studies can inform how what we’re doing our work as well.
So I think there are a lot of opportunities for that to take place.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you. You conclude by addressing the mission growth Jesuit college universities can experience by participating in Mission Priority Examen, a self-study process and peer review process concerning institutional mission that’s rooted in the process of examen, detailed by St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises. What do you believe such a process can yield for Jesuit colleges and universities?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I think that the Examen is the process by which we can make sure that we don’t live in the world of abstraction. It is a means by which we are tethered to reality.
And that is why I think it’s important for the various disciplines within a university to realize, especially those who teach those various disciplines, that there has to be an application to everyday life— how this is going to be relevant for a person’s own going out into the world and taking up responsibilities as faithful citizens, as parents in a family, as contributors to civic society, to ways in which they’re going to be members of the Church.
So, I think that those kinds of everyday realities and context come into the discussion when you do an Examen because it tethers ideas to realities. Or as the Pope said in his first epistolic exhortation, the “Joy of the Gospel,” “Realities are greater than ideas,” you know, and I think that, that Examen allows, gives a tool for that to happen.
Todd Ream: When rooted in the charisms of their respective founding orders, what do you believe comparable processes could yield other Catholic colleges and universities in terms of their mission, or perhaps even Protestant colleges and universities?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I don’t know too much about Protestant universities and colleges. I do know that unfortunately we have seen in those instances, you look at some of the great universities that we have here at the University of Chicago, Yale places around our country that were founded by various denominations, now have absolutely no relationship to them at all.
I think what the Holy See did a number of years ago in issuing Ex Corde Ecclesiae was to make sure that we don’t uncouple the founding of a Catholic university’s charism by religious order or by diocese or whatever from its future, you know. And so that is why I think we need that ongoing dialogue.
One of the ways we can do that is, as Ex Corde recommends and really insists on, is that there be an annual meeting between the university and the local bishop so that’s in dialogue that allows at least two to make sure that whenever controversies arise, there’s a relationship by which in fact they can be dealt with.
But also I think to have the university remember that it is part of the enterprise of the mission of the Church and for the diocese as well to do everything possible to make the university successful in what it’s doing. Because I think that double relationship is mutually enhancing.
Todd Ream: Thank you.
In addition to serving as the Archbishop of Chicago and a member of the College of Cardinals, you also serve, as you mentioned, as a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education. Would you please offer a few more additional details concerning your efforts with the congregation?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, yes, as it’s now called, the Dicastery for Catholic Education and Culture, we just had a plenary meeting this last week, before I returned to Chicago. And then the Holy Father received us as well.
And there was a very vigorous discussion about artificial intelligence, for instance. I learned a lot from that exchange. I wasn’t too familiar with all of the details. So for me, being a member was a moment to be educated. I didn’t know if I had a lot to contribute. I could ask questions that might then provoke other paths of discussion. But I learned a great deal about what the challenges were in terms of artificial intelligence.
But I think the other piece is that I believe that I was asked to join that Dicastery simply because we have a large footprint of Catholic colleges and universities in this Midwest area. And so it’s an opportunity for me to bring my dialogue with those institutions into the work of the Dicastery. And also as I’m consulted on various issues to have that experience, as a context for any action or response that I would give. So it’s a mutual exchange.
I would have to say though that I’m learning. It’s the third Dicastery that I’m in because I’m also in the one for Divine Worship and Sacraments and the Dicastery for Bishops. So this is the latest one that I’ve been appointed to and I’m just learning.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you.
Would you please offer a few additional details concerning the responsibilities and investments that you’re called to make, say, in the Catholic colleges and universities?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: I think first of all, I always want to be present to them. I keep telling the university presidents that you know, if there is an event that I can help with as you carry on your work, please let me know. It’s not my job to be involved in their administration of their universities. I’m here to be their biggest cheerleader because I want them to succeed.
At the same time, I think that my experience as a pastor, but also as a member of the Dicastery for Education, can be a resource for them. And I think that that kind of mutual, mutual exchange continues to be something that I want to invest in.
I do attend some of their events that are fundraisers. And I think they like to have me there as I wouldn’t say bait, but as a draw and I want to help them because I want them to succeed. So I think it’s part of all of that.
And when I retire, I would like to go back to teaching at the university level, which I did some years ago. When I was at Creighton, I did some teaching there. And then of course, when I was rector of a seminary. So I would hope that it would be a fresh opportunity.
I enjoyed, for instance, my time in Spokane where I was lived on the campus of Gonzaga University and had really good exchanges with faculty and the administration in the short years that I was there, but also didn’t mind going to their basketball team to watch the Bulldogs.
Todd Ream: When you think about those years that you spent as an educator and perhaps anticipate returning to the classroom one day, for educators who serve in institutions of higher education today, how have you come to sort of understand the academic vocation and in particular in your estimation, what characteristics or commitments define such a calling, as expressed across the disciplines?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: I think that I would hope that all those who are involved in higher education in a Catholic institution see themselves as having a mission. I know there are a lot of folks who are not Catholic who teach in our universities, but I do think that they have to have a sensibility and a sensitivity of the mission of the university and make it their mission as well, to see it not just as a job, but as a role in which they are asked to dedicate their lives to prepare the future generation, to form them to be good citizens, to be faithful in the commitments that they make, but also to add to the common good.
So I would expect that of anybody who’s associated with, with a with a Catholic university or college, that they see that their role is not just a matter of knowing their discipline and being able to convey what the results of that study would be, but that they really care about the students, love the students and want to make sure that they’re formed.
Todd Ream: When thinking about the academic vocation as a means of formation for the next generation, what virtues, whether they be intellectual, moral, or theological, do you believe are most important for educators to cultivate?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: I would say a commitment to truth. There was a nice little book that John Tracy Ellis, a late Catholic historian, who was a dean of Catholic history, I was grateful to have a chance to have a couple of classes with and I knew him well, wrote a little pamphlet called The Commitment of Truth to Truth.
And, and I think that truth today is, seems to be bantered around as though it’s optional or it can change. And I think that really has to, we have to make sure that we help young people identify and stay close to the truth. That’s a prerequisite.
I think the other aspect of taking up the mission of education in a Catholic institution has to be in many ways rooted in fidelity. Fidelity, not just in terms of the past, that’s important, but fidelity in a way that allows an individual to be true to themselves. That an educator would see that the enterprise of teaching should be enhancing to them personally, spiritually that it should be an opportunity for them to grow deeper in their experience of God.
I think that kind of commitment as well envision of what’s taking place. Otherwise it just becomes another job, a discipline. I think it has to be that personal for them, so that their own self-understanding grows. That they grow as a person, and they mature.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you. For such a vocation, against what vices do you believe it is most critical for educators to be vigilant?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Oh, that’s a very interesting question. I guess it would have to be the vice of selfishness in the sense that a person is disconnected from the community of learning that is an education, that is an educational institution. There has to be this community of learning so that they’re not just going in and doing their job and disconnected, but they’re really connected to the scholarship of the past, the scholarship with the present but also the young scholars that they’re preparing.
I think that if you live in isolation, where it’s just a matter about you getting what you want rather than contributing to and being a participant in the enterprise of education, I think that’s deadly. I think it’s deadly. That’s a vice that should be avoided.
Todd Ream: As unfortunately our time has now become short, I wanted to ask you one more question if I may.
In what ways do you believe the health of the academic vocation, as we’ve been discussing it, is related to the health of the relationship shared by the university and the Church?
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Well, I think that, again, a healthy university always has to realize that it’s outward focused. That it really does have a mission. It can’t be self-referential.
And that is what the Pope is calling the Church to as well. As he said, you know, in his talk before being elected Pope, so often we imagine Christ knocking at the door from the outside and know He’s in the inside wanting to get out. So how, how is it that the university can see itself as a real contributor to society, to be, as he’s calling the Church, a field hospital in the world? I think that is where the two can intersect between a university and the Church.
Share that common focus, that common approach, that it has to be outward centered because once you begin to think only of yourself and be self-referential, you’re going to die. You’ve lost your, your mooring, you lost your North Star. And the more that a university and the Church can take up that common mission, the healthier they’re going to be.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Our guest has been Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago. Thank you for taking time to share your insights and wisdom with us, and for welcoming me here to the Quigley Pastoral Center.
Cardinal Blase Cupich: Good to be with you, Todd. Thanks, and my best to all of those who are going to be watching this program.
Todd Ream: Thank you.
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Thank you for joining us for Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. We invite you to join us again next week for Saturdays at Seven.
