Chicago's Archbishop-Designate Blase Cupich and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have already met, by phone.
“I wanted him to know the entire city, regardless of faith, welcomed him,” Emanuel said in an exclusive interview with NBC 5.
Emanuel said he hoped Cupich would “continue to be a moral voice as it relates to justice [and] compassion, remembering those who are less fortunate, that all of us have a role to play.”
Cupich told Archdiocese employees about his phone call with the mayor when he met them this week.
“I said, 'If there’s a way that the church can help with this whole business of violence in the streets, we want to be with you,'" he said. "We want to do what we can.”
Cupich arrived back in Chicago Monday for meetings with the Catholic Extension Society, which serves the poorest Catholics across the country.
He was appointed the next Chicago Archbishop on Sunday.
"People of faith really need to work together for the common good," Cupich said. "Labels are hard for anybody to live up to. I just try to be myself and I try to learn from great people."
Emanuel also said he and Cardinal Francis George had breakfast two weeks ago about pre-Kindergarten education.
The mayor reached out to Cardinal George on Saturday after the naming of Cupich “to personally thank him for his years of service to Chicago and for being a moral voice on the difficult issues.”
Cardinal George is cutting back on his schedule while he takes a new antibiotic to treat an infection as he battles cancer. A spokeswoman said the cardinal is not gravely ill.
"The Cardinal is being treated with antibiotics for a cellulitis infection in his right foot that may require him to use crutches for the near future," Susan Burritt said. "Because of this infection, the Cardinal has been advised that he should not fly, so he has canceled his out of town trip for later this week."
