Excerpts from an interview and conversation with Cardinal Blaise Cupich
Yes. It’s a synodal model. The synod is not just an office, but it’s a way of being church.
That’s something that I have always tried to do when I’ve had positions of leadership, whether I was at the seminary or pastor of a parish or the head of a diocese, no matter how small or large it was.
Related: Cardinal Cupich shoulders Chicago’s Catholic future (Dec. 5, 2016)
I find that it does two things. First of all, it gives you insight into what the issue is by hearing other voices. And secondly, it keeps you from the temptation that you have to in some way make all the decisions, and the weight falls on you.
Or even worse, that you make your work an exercise in your own ego being affirmed. Because there is a temptation at times to make your whole work an exercise in narcissism, where you want to in some way prove yourself by the decisions that you make.
That’s very tempting to people who are in positions of authority. You want to build this building, you want to do this particular task that you want to leave behind as a legacy. I think that if you do that you’re really not going to be free to address the issues that are there because you’re going to be blinded by the task that you think is going to affirm your own ego.
I think that he has that kind of freedom to be able to get the insights of other people but at the same time make sure he’s free from that temptation.
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