Durbin 'overwhelmed' by Pope Leo support on abortion rights

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Wednesday he felt "overwhelmed" after he received support from the Catholic Church's new pontiff and Chicago native, Pope Leo XIV, following recent criticism for his support for abortion rights.

"It is amazing to me," Durbin told NBC News on Wednesday. "It’s quite a moment. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know it was going to happen."

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich had planned to honor Durbin's pro-immigration efforts with a lifetime achievement award before it faced condemnation from American bishops critical of Durbin's stance on abortion.

"The senator’s public record has been consistently pro-abortion and he has opposed any protections or safeguards for unborn children in the womb, even to the point of rejecting legislation to protect children who survive failed abortions," Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Neb., said in a social platform X post on Sept. 23. "That goes against the fundamental moral principles of the Catholic Church."

Durbin told NBC News that "the level of controversy" surprised him. He declined the award due to the reaction to Cupich's announcement.

But Leo later stepped in and defended the senator.

“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo said, according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA). “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 told CNA that while he was not "terribly familiar with [Durbin's] particular case," he said it was "important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, in 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

Following Leo's remarks, Durbin told NBC News that he did not reconsider declining the award.

“I knew there would be pushback from several — but the level of the controversy led me to believe that it’s best that I decline to accept the award," he said.

Cupich previously served as a close adviser to Leo's predecessor, Pope Francis, who upheld church teaching opposing abortion but also criticized the politicizing of abortion rights made by U.S. bishops.