By Judie Brown
What are virtues? The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the human virtues are stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order our passions, and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith.” It expands on this by saying that “they can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.”
An examination of these cardinal virtues begs a question regarding the decision that Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Illinois, has made to honor an avid pro-abortion individual. This man, Michael Sacks, is a billionaire who has supported Planned Parenthood for many years. Additionally, Sacks sits on the board of the Obama Foundation.
According to one report, “Sacks, a billionaire, was named in a Chicago Business article for donating $600,000 toward ‘shoring up Illinois’ abortion access infrastructure’ in order to ‘offset federal cuts to reproductive health funding.’”
Thus, we choose to juxtapose the actions of Cardinal Cupich with the cardinal virtues.
Is it prudent to honor a man who has spent millions promoting a culture of death? Of course not because, as the Church teaches, prudence is “the intellectual virtue which rightly directs particular human acts, through rectitude of the appetite, toward a good end.”
Regarding justice, Bishop Thomas Olmsted once wrote, “Justice is the cardinal virtue most frequently praised in the Sacred Scriptures. All the Ten Commandments are concerned with justice. Jesus is the Just One who died for the sake of the unjust, that He might lead people back to God.”
Thus, is it just to honor a man who has been unapologetic in his positions on the many evils inherent in the reproductive rights agenda? Again, the answer is no. There is nothing just about the public record of actions that have resulted in millions of Sacks’ dollars feeding the abortion cartel over the past several years.
Discussing fortitude, a Catholic Education Resource Article states, “Fortitude binds the will firmly to the good of reason in the face of the greatest evils, and the most fearful of all bodily evils is death. And so the very idea of fortitude presupposes that there are certain things we should love more than our own lives, certain things we ought to be willing to die for.”
Imagine not assessing a public figure’s possession of this virtue or lack thereof before choosing to provide public accolades for his or her public life! What could so possess a Catholic cardinal to honor a man whose public record contradicts every aspect of the virtue that is given to strengthen moral fiber, not eradicate it?
This brings us to the last of the four cardinal virtues: temperance. Again, we observe the contrast. Temperance “may be defined as the righteous habit which makes a man govern his natural appetite for pleasures of the senses in accordance with the norm prescribed by reason. In one sense temperance may be regarded as a characteristic of all the moral virtues; the moderation it enjoins is essential to each of them.”
In this consideration of moderation as a synonym for temperance, we find, yet again, that Mr. Sacks leaves a lot to be desired, but even more so the man who has chosen to honor him, Cardinal Blase Cupich.
In response to criticism regarding his choice of Sacks, Cupich opined, “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.”
One is left with a few burning questions for the cardinal, none of which will receive his attention. Is there not one Jewish leader in all of Chicago who respects the dignity of the human person? Is there not one man or woman of Jewish faith who fights for the rights of the preborn? And most importantly, given the fact that Christ, the Son of Man, was born to Jewish parents, is it not insulting to Him to give a humanitarian award to someone who advocates for the killing of babies?
These are rhetorical questions, but when we think about the cardinal virtues and the cardinal who is apparently opting out of considering them in his choices for public accolades, we are left with only one conclusion.
Four strikes and you are out, Your Eminence!