Bishop Cupich Roundup

First, it's apparently pronounced "Soopich'. His current diocesan homepage and writings can be found here. Bishop Cupich is the episcopal advisor for the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project. He's been commended as wise, pastoral, caring, and good, heard at a National Catholic Educational Association conference, spoken on the John Jay report, contributed to a Lenten retreat, part of a PSA on Child Abuse Prevention Month, and visited by Bishop Robert Lynch, He's written for America on a fairly regular basis in recent years, as editor Fr. James Martin, SJ, notes:

Eagle-eyed America readers and church observers will have noticed that two America authors have been selected for leadership roles by Pope Benedict. Blase Cupich, a frequent contributor to our pages, and formerly the bishop of Rapid City, S.D., has been named Bishop of Spokane, Washington...Bishop Cupich most recently wrote for us "Twelve Things the Bishops Have Learned from the Sexual Abuse Crisis," and "Serious Thinking" on Caritas in Veritate.

Topics covered include the role of the laity in ecclesial ministry, abortion and the death penalty, and Benedict's social teaching in response to the economic collapse. He's been in the news for rapid removal of a priest accused of sexual abuse, responding to Sen. Tom Daschle's public pro-choice advocacy, commenting on the Vatican's norms for gays in the clergy, calling on his brother bishops to meet with sex abuse victims, and for some rather useful comments on the new translation of the Mass:

Bishop Cupich cautioned, “This is not ‘reform of the reform’ – all that language we’re hearing from people who have an axe to grind or who are trying to cause trouble for the church; this is an ongoing attempt to try and have an actual translation of the Latin into vernacular. This is the first time in the history of the church we have done this; we have to be patient with ourselves.” The bishop explained why an accurate translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal, published in 2000, was needed. “English is seen as the universal language. Texts throughout the world take their translations from the English,” he said. “There is concern that the English translation is as accurate as possible so that when others use it, they are not distanced from the Latin.” As an example, he noted that “many of the prayers” in the second Latin edition (1975) translated into English (1985) “address God as though we were telling God something as opposed to praising God for who he was.” “The reason we say, ‘Dominus vobiscum’ (The Lord be with you) and ‘Et cum spiri tu tuo’ (And with your spirit) as a people in response is not that we are addressing the priest who had said that; we’re addressing Christ whose presence the priest represents,” Bishop Cupich said. “We’re addressing the person of Christ. You are ordained in spirit to be Christ present. The risen Christ is there. We believe that the risen Christ was there, present.” Noting that all other language groups use “And with your Spirit,” the bishop added, “This is an example of the nuances that were lost in the early translations.… What is being proposed offers a richness that we’ve missed.…”