“All Are Welcome” greets Blase Cupich as he arrives at cathedral

From Crux: 

During a ceremony rich with ritual and symbolism, the next archbishop of Chicago was welcomed to his new assignment Monday night as a prelude to his formal installation as head of the nation’s third-largest Catholic community today.

And Blase Cupich, named by Pope Francis to replace ailing Cardinal Francis George, wasted no time in outlining his priorities: the poor, the disadvantaged, immigrants. And he called for more civility in public discourse — including among Church leaders.

Although temperatures plunged to the low teens Monday night, keeping many Chicagoans indoors, there was a decidedly warm atmosphere inside Holy Name Cathedral to greet Cupich.

As part of the Rite of Reception ceremony, Cupich used a small mallet to knock on the cathedral’s bronze doors three times — symbolic of his request to be admitted — where he was met by George, the first outgoing archbishop in the city’s history to live to see his successor.

Cupich was presented with a crucifix and holy water, and in front of a crowd that included the city’s mayor, representatives from several religious traditions, and scores of bishops and priests, the two bishops walked to the altar to the music “All Are Welcome” as the crowd broke into sustained applause.

Representatives of Chicago’s diverse religious scene, as well as political and community leaders, greeted Cupich in the sanctuary, adorned with bouquets of red, orange, and yellow roses, before two Chicago priests presented him with the archdiocesan stole.

During a 25-minute homily, evocative at times of a political stump speech, Cupich laid out his vision for his tenure.

“Our aim should be to make sure that everyone has a place at the table of life,” he told the 1,100 guests, “the mother needing prenatal and postnatal care and protection for herself and her child, the former inmate seeking a fresh start, the drug addict who needs someone to help her take one day at a time, the father and mother who want their children to have the educational opportunities other families have — this is the vast army God is inviting us to raise up with him.”

Read it all. 

Rocco, meantime, offers a little analysis: 

Given Blase Cupich’s background in liturgical theology, the ritual choices were anything but an accident. That “All Are Welcome” – the anthem of inclusion equally beloved by progressives and abhorred by more traditional folks – marked his first trip up the aisle was an even more pointed signal, as was the reinforcement of his homily when the African-American spiritual “Them Dry Bones” was sung as the recessional.

As the Chicago clergy packed the pews – while, outside, a phalanx of bundled-up police shut down the surrounding streets on a blustery, bitterly cold evening – the scene before the door-knock felt more than a little like New Year’s Eve as the anticipation built. Then again, rare is the holiday party that sees Rahm Emanuel casually working the pews by himself, no security in sight.

While the prolonged, clearly heartfelt ovations that washed over an ailing Cardinal Francis George were all the more poignant coming from a famously independent presbyterate with which he’s often been at loggerheads, the tensions of the last 17 years were evident nonetheless in the nickname for Cupich quietly circulating among the brothers: “Archbishop Rolaids,” so dubbed as he’s felt to be bringing “relief.”

And, lastly, there’s this:

Such is the demand for seating in Holy Name that priests who hadn’t indicated their attendance by last week were told there’d be no room for them. As previously relayed, not until tomorrow will the new archbishop meet the 600-plus permanent deacons – the largest diocesan contingent of the order in the global church – at one of two prayer services for the constituencies who serve the 2.3 million Catholics of the nation’s third-largest diocese.