Pope Leo XIV waded into a leadership controversy in the United States on Tuesday, mere hours before the dispute became largely academic.

Speaking with journalists Tuesday evening as he was departing the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, Leo took a question from an EWTN reporter regarding a decision by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago to present US Sen. Dick Durbin (D – IL) with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at a fundraising gala for the archdiocesan “Keep Hope Alive” immigration charity scheduled for this coming November 3.

The announcement of the award sparked a major backlash, owing to Durbin’s prominence as a nationally known Catholic politician with a staunchly pro-choice and pro-abortion voting record, positions squarely at odds with Church teaching.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, IL – a suffragan of Chicago – led several prelates in decrying the decision, even publishing a lengthy “fraternal correction” on the website of First Things, a staunchly conservative journal of affairs.

“The planned honor is titled a ‘lifetime achievement award’ and the event where Durbin is to receive it is called the ‘Keep Hope Alive’ benefit,” Paprocki wrote in the piece published September 23. “This is darkly ironic,” Paprocki continued, “because the slaughter of the innocents in utero is nihilistic and always without hope, and the policies Durbin has supported have denied a lifetime to countless unborn children.”

In his comments on September 30, Leo XIV said he was “not terribly familiar with the particular case,” but added that “it’s very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, 40 years of service in the US Senate.”

Leo said he understands “the difficulty and the tensions, but I think, as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the Church.”

“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but says, ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life,” Leo also said.

The pontiff also said, “Someone who says that I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants here in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

“They’re very complex issues,” Leo said, adding, “I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them.”

“I would ask, first and foremost,” Leo said, “that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together, both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics, to say we need to really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward as Church.”

“Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear,” Leo said.

Mere hours after the pontiff offered his remarks – to journalists gathered in an informal press gaggle outside the papal summer residence – the office of Sen. Durbin announced he would not be accepting the lifetime achievement award.

“Senator Durbin today informed me that he has decided not to receive an award at our Keep Hope Alive celebration,” Cupich said in a statement posted Tuesday to the Chicago archdiocesan website.

“While I am saddened by this news,” Cupich also said, “I respect his decision.”

Cupich also said he wishes “to make clear that the decision to present him an award was specifically in recognition of his singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants, which is so needed in our day.”

“The tragedy of our current situation in the United States is that Catholics find themselves politically homeless,” Cupich also said in his statement. “Catholics themselves remain divided along partisan lines, much like all Americans,” Cupich said.