(From combined sources)
The Vatican announced on Saturday, November 8 that Pope Francis has removed Raymond Cardinal Burke from his position as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
The choice of a Saturday for the announcement was, according to Robert Royal on his The Catholic Thing blog, “the ecclesial equivalent of the White House late-Friday ‘news dump’ to lessen controversy.” Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute, Washington, D.C., said that move “was also singularly ineffective.”
He continued: “Even major secular newspapers and other media outlets — who have, shall we say, a certain interest in pushing the line that the Church is finally coming their way — carried stories Sunday about the ‘demotion of a Vatican hardliner’.”
And, noted Royal, the Associated Press further reminded readers that Burke had earlier been dropped from his position on the Congregation for Bishops.
Burke — who was until the November 8 announcement the top-ranking American at the Vatican — has been assigned to serve as the patron for the Order of the Knights of Malta.
John Jalsevac wrote for LifeSiteNews: “The move to the largely ceremonial position is almost universally being reported as a demotion for the outspoken cardinal, who is widely viewed as the number one English-speaking defender of the Catholic Church’s teaching on life and family issues.”
(See the News Notes column in this week’s Wanderer for an item on Burke’s successor at the Apostolic Signatura, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.)
In a release, the Knights of Malta welcomed Cardinal Burke’s appointment as Cardinalis Patronus of the Sovereign Order of Malta, noting that he succeeds Paolo Cardinal Sardi, who was appointed Patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal Burke has been a member of the Order of Malta since June 2011, said the release.
The Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Fra’ Matthew Festing, welcomed Cardinal Burke and thanked Pope Francis for the appointment.
The Knights of Malta’s release explained that: “The Cardinalis Patronus of the Order of Malta is the Pontiff’s representative to the Sovereign Order of Malta and has the task of promoting its spiritual interests and that of its 13,500 members, as well as being responsible for relations with the Holy See.”
Robert Royal further commented: “Cardinal Burke is a gentleman and a gentle man, and he will not comment on the Pope’s decision. Malta, though mostly a ceremonial post, is not nothing. I am not a member, but the women and men who are do very good work. Burke will no doubt perform his new duties with the same diligence and industriousness he has shown in every other post.
“These efforts of this Maltese falcon will bear fruit in their proper time, Deo volente.”
Jalsevac wrote for LifeSiteNews that “the move by Pope Francis comes as little surprise to observers of Cardinal Burke’s career,” noting that after Burke no longer served at the Congregation for Bishops, he “was replaced by cardinals with a more leftist reputation, including Vincent [Cardinal] Nichols of Westminster, and Donald [Cardinal] Wuerl of Washington.
“Pro-life and pro-family leaders reacted to that lesser demotion at the time with dismay, expressing concerns that it had the flavor of a purge aimed at lessening the cardinal’s influence.
“Vatican experts, including Crux’s John Allen and Catholic News Service’s Francis Rocca, are reporting that it is rare for a cardinal in such a high position at the Vatican to be removed without being assigned similar responsibilities.
“For years, the pro-life and pro-family movements have looked to Cardinal Burke as their strongest champion at the Vatican.
“In recent weeks, he led the charge against the push by some prelates, most notably Walter [Cardinal] Kasper, to liberalize the Church’s pastoral practice relating to divorced and remarried Catholics, and the issue of homosexuality.
“In a series of interviews he strongly defended traditional Catholic teaching on marriage, and criticized the way the Vatican’s recent Synod on the Family was conducted. Some of those interviews were also perceived as being critical of Pope Francis himself — although Cardinal Burke has decried such interpretations, saying, ‘I don’t ever put myself in opposition to the Successor of St. Peter’.”
Jalsevac continued: “The cardinal is perhaps best known for his staunch insistence that ministers of Communion have a duty to withhold the Eucharist from public and obstinate sinners — in particular Catholic politicians who have supported abortion or same-sex ‘marriage’.”
Judie Brown, president of American Life League (www.all.org), similarly commented on November 11, after noting that Cardinal Wuerl “is one of the prelates who refused to obey canon 915 requiring that pro-abortion public figures be refused the Eucharist until they repent of their sins”:
“And Wuerl is just one of Cardinal Burke’s colleagues who not only does not agree with the cardinal’s defense of the truth about canon 915, but who would go to any length to get him silenced.
I do not make that statement lightly, for I know firsthand — from conversations I have had with folks in the Vatican — that trouble has been brewing inside Vatican politics for some time.
“Cardinal Burke is not the favorite among those who allegedly have had the Pope’s ear — including German Cardinal Walter Kasper. In fact, prior to the synod, Cardinal Burke took issue publicly with Kasper’s proposal regarding giving Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics. When Kasper claimed to be speaking for Pope Francis, whom he stated agreed with him, Cardinal Burke remarked during an interview:
“‘I find it amazing that the cardinal claims to speak for the Pope. . . . The Pope doesn’t have laryngitis. The Pope is not mute. He can speak for himself. If this is what he wants, he will say so.’
“And so we arrive at the current point in time,” Brown continued. “We witness the transfer of Cardinal Burke from the curial office he has held for the past six years to an honorary post where he will no longer be part of the Roman Curia at all.
“In my mind, this latest Vatican move is not really that surprising. After all, the Curia is steeped in political intrigue that rivals the halls of the United States Congress. But what we have to remember during these times of conjecture, hyperbole, and mudslinging is that the Curia is composed of human beings, not gods.
“There are perhaps as many political agendas at work within the Vatican as one has fingers to count, but not a single one of them can ever change infallible doctrine.”
Open Season
Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf wrote on his wdtprs.com blog, November 11, that “liberal Religion News Service is less and less careful to pretended objectivity when it comes to coverage of Catholic matters. Crux [a liberal Catholic news site], by the way, took what follows lock and stock,” referring to the RNS report by Josephine McKenna about Burke’s removal.
The RNS article was titled: “Pope Francis sidelines, but probably can’t silence, conservative Cardinal Burke.”
McKenna wrote in part: “Burke is well-known for his uncompromising stance on abortion, homosexuality, and the sanctity of marriage, and his passion for doctrine is matched only by his passion for the elegant finery of his office.”
“Is she psychic?,” asked Zuhlsdorf in response to the above.
“During the global bishops’ Synod on the Family held at the Vatican last month,” wrote McKenna, “Burke bitterly complained that conservative views were being stifled amid initial signs of a more welcoming approach to gays and lesbians.”
“Which is about the worst crime there is these days,” Zuhlsdorf replied on his blog. “God forbid that anyone should uphold the Church’s actual teachings. Remember: Those who now defend doctrine are the new ‘dissenters’.”
He concluded: “It is open season on Raymond Cardinal Burke. The liberals have their knives out. Remember when Cardinal Kasper suggested that there were going to be negative consequences in the press for those who were on the opposite side of the positions he was proposing.”
Judie Brown ended her column by noting that “Cardinal Burke deserves our appreciation, our prayers, and our continuing respect for his courageous defense of truth.”
She added:
“Pope Francis deserves our prayers during this difficult time.
“And finally, we can be thankful that Christ promised long ago, when He proclaimed to the Church’s first Pope, St. Peter: ‘Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’.”
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