Pope Francis on Wednesday named Cardinal Blase Cupich as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The archbishop of Chicago’s appointment was announced by the Holy See press office on June 1.
In 2021, Cupich welcomed the publication of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, restricting celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Other churchmen named as members of the congregation include the Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, and the Bronx-born Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Di Noia also welcomed the publication of Traditionis custodes, saying in a 2021 interview with the Catholic News Service that “the TLM (Traditional Latin Mass) movement has hijacked the initiatives of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI to its own ends.”
Other members of the Congregation include Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, and Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.
Members of Vatican congregations normally have five-year terms.
According to his official biography, Cupich was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 to the Congregation for Bishops and in 2017 to the Congregation for Catholic Education.
In 2020, he was named to the Vatican Task Force to Assist Episcopal Conferences, Congregations of Religious and Societies of Apostolic Life in preparing and updating guidelines for the protection of minors.
In a November 2021 essay, Cupich said that Traditionis custodes (TC) offered an “opportunity to help all of our people come to a fuller understanding of the great gift that the [Second Vatican] Council has given us in reforming the way we worship.”
“I take seriously my obligation to move forward in a way that promotes a return to a unitary celebratory form in accord with the directives of TC, but in the meantime, we all need to pray, as Jesus did the night before he died, that all may be one,” he wrote.
In December 2021, the 73-year-old cardinal issued a new policy for the Archdiocese of Chicago that curtailed the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and other sacraments in Latin using liturgical books that predate Vatican II.
Under the policy, which took effect on Jan. 25, 2022, priests, deacons, and ordained ministers who wish to use the Old Rite must submit their requests to the cardinal in writing and agree to abide by the new norms.
The Congregation for Divine Worship is led by the English Archbishop Arthur Roche, who will receive the red hat at a consistory on Aug. 27. Roche succeeded Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah in the post in May 2021.
The Congregation will be renamed the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments when the new Vatican constitution comes into force on June 5, Pentecost Sunday.
