Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a high-ranking Vatican Cardinal, was relegated by Pope Francis from his position of overseer of the highest judicial authority in the Roman Catholic Church, second only to the supreme ecclesiastical judge of the Pope himself, to a no-responsibility figurehead position running a charity. Suggested as being at the heart of the move is the Cardinal’s strong, conservative views, especially in opposition to gay rights and abortion.
Calling Cardinal Burke “hardly one of the Pope’s favorites,” the Columbus Dispatch on Nov. 9 said the Argentine pontiff and Holy Father reduced Burke to a “ceremonial position of chaplain for the Knights of Malta, a charity group.” Burke previously served as the Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
Burke has been in the Pope’s peripheral for a few years. In late 2013, Francis passed on renewing Cardinal Burke’s position on the Congregation for Bishops council – a powerful Vatican establishment that oversees the appointment of Bishops. Burke, an outspoken opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage, once famously prevented John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, from receiving communion because Kerry was an open advocate for abortion.
In response to his being replaced on the Bishop Congregation council last year, Burke said: “One gets the impression, or it's interpreted this way in the media, that [Pope Francis] thinks we're talking too much about abortion, too much about the integrity of marriage as between one man and one woman. But we can never talk enough about that.”
In October, Burke was the key Vatican figure to spearhead a campaign that overhauled language and struck down phrases in a draft document – originally titled “Welcoming Homosexuals” – that was set to openly accommodate homosexuals into the Catholic family. Writes OnTopMag.com: “The church released a groundbreaking draft report which asked Catholics to consider acceptance of gays. Conservatives criticized the move and the bishops responded by watering down the language. The new version replaced the title with ‘Providing for Homosexual Persons’ and altered a reference to gay unions.”
A disappointed Pope Francis remarked in return: “God is not afraid of new things. That is why he is continually surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways.”
Cardinal Burke has been unreticent on hot button issues, calling gay relationships “evil” and pointing out the harm they do to children. “If homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are – reason teaches us that and also our faith – then, what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living in a disordered relationship with another person?” Burke asked.
“We wouldn't,” he answered. “If it were another kind of relationship – something that was profoundly disordered and harmful – we wouldn't expose our children to that relationship, to the direct experience of it. And neither should we do it in the context of a family member who not only suffers from same-sex attraction, but who has chosen to live out that attraction, to act upon it, committing acts which are always and everywhere wrong, evil.”
Conservatives point out that the Cardinal’s hardline is supported by Scripture. While Christians are not homophobic, they recognize homosexuality for what it is – a sin condemned by the Bible. Paul in his writing to the Romans said “that is why God gave them over to uncontrolled sexual passion, for their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature; likewise also the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full penalty, which was due for their error.” (Romans 1:26,27)
As part of the Mosaic Law given to the Israelites, the nation was told: “You must not lie down with a male in the same way that you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable act.” (Leviticus 18:22) And among those described as not being eligible to inherit God’s Kingdom are “men who submit to homosexual acts, men who practice homosexuality,” listed in with idolaters, adulterers, drunkards, extortioners and the like. (1 Cor. 6:9,10)
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