CNA staff, August 20, 2024 / 11:21 a.m.

In an invocation on the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich lamented the “ongoing injustices in our national life” while calling for national unity. Pro-life groups expressed disappointment that the prayer did not make specific reference to the tragedy of abortion.

Speaking to a full house at Chicago’s United Center on Monday night, Cupich said Americans are regularly called upon to “reweave the fabric of America.” He argued that the country is “a nation composed of all peoples and cultures, united not by blood ties but by the deep aspirations of life, liberty, justice and boundless hope.”

“In each generation we are called to renew these aspirations,” the prelate said. “We do this by living out the virtues that dwell in our hearts, but also by confronting our failure to eradicate persistent injustices in our national life, especially those that arise from moral blindness and fear of the other.”

The archbishop asked God to “awaken in us the resolve to protect your work.”

“May our nation become an ever stronger peacemaker in our wounded world, with the courage to imagine and seek together a loving future,” the archbishop prayed. “And may we as individual Americans become ever stronger instruments of God’s peace.”

Cupich also called for world peace, especially “for those who suffer from the senselessness of war,” and invoked Pope Francis in encouraging listeners to “dream dreams and have visions of what the world can become by (God’s) grace.”

In response to the cardinal’s prayer, Illinois Right to Life released a statement pointing out that the prelate’s attendance came at a time when Planned Parenthood was offering free abortions and vasectomies “right outside the doors” of the convention.

Mary Kate Zander, president of Illinois Right to Life, said it was “incredibly disheartening to see a local church leader who once joined our cause participate in an event as profoundly pro-life and pro-family as the DNC.”

“Cardinal Cupich missed a clear opportunity last night to condemn their abhorrent, murderous policies, effectively betraying the vibrant pro-life community he once belonged to in our state,” she said.

Writing for Catholic Culture, veteran Catholic journalist Phil Lawler echoed Zander’s sentiments, lamenting, “Nowhere in his invocation did Cardinal Cupich challenge the perverse ideology that dominated the Democratic convention.” “On the contrary, the few passages in his prayer that could have been interpreted as references to current political issues sounded more like encouragement to Democrats.”

Cupich’s prayer contrasts with that of Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who delivered the prayer last month at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“Lord, we thank you for our nation. Our Founding Fathers held these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” Listen prayed.

“For 248 years we have pursued this vision: to preserve the dignity of every life from conception to natural death, to protect their freedom, especially the right to speak freely and to worship You, and to support them in their pursuit of happiness in this life and the next,” the Archbishop added.

Here is the full text of Cupich’s invocation:

We praise you, O God of all creation. Awaken in us the resolve to protect your work. You are the source of all the blessings that adorn our lives and our nation.

We pray that you will help us to truly understand and answer the sacred call of citizenship. We are a nation made up of all peoples and cultures, united not by blood ties but by the deep pursuit of life, liberty, justice, and boundless hope. These aspirations are why our forefathers saw America as a beacon of hope. And with your steady leading, Lord, may we remain so today.

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In each generation, we are called to renew these aspirations and to reweave the American fabric. We do this by living out the virtues that dwell in our hearts, but also by confronting our failure to eradicate persistent injustices in our national life, especially those caused by moral blindness and fear of the other.

We pray for peace, especially for those who suffer from the senselessness of war. But while we pray, we must also act, because building the common good requires work. It requires love.

And so we pray: May our nation become an ever greater peacemaker in our wounded world, with the courage to envision and pursue a loving future together. And may we, as individual Americans, become ever greater instruments of God’s peace.

Guide us, Lord, as we meet our responsibility to write this new chapter in our nation’s history. May it be rooted in the recognition that for us, as for every generation, unity triumphs over division, is what advances human dignity and freedom.

Let this initiative be driven by the women and men elected to public service who know that service is the mark of true leadership.

And may this new chapter in our nation’s history be filled with overwhelming hope, a hope that refuses to limit our national vision but rather, as Pope Francis has said, “dreams dreams and sees visions” of what, through Your grace, our world can become.

We ask for all this and trust in your ever-present care for us. Amen.

This story was updated at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, August 21, with reactions to Cardinal Cupich’s remarks.