Exile to Malta for Cardinal Burke

Chiesa news ^ | 9/17/14 | Sandro Magister

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Vatican Diary / Exile to Malta for Cardinal Burke

As the impeccable prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura, he is on the verge of being demoted to the purely honorary role of “patron” of an order of knighthood. At the behest of Pope Francis

by Sandro Magister

VATICAN CITY, September 17, 2014 – The “revolution” of Pope Francis in ecclesiastical governance is not losing its driving thrust. And so, as happens in every self-respecting revolution, the heads continue to roll for churchmen seen as deserving this metaphorical guillotine.

In his first months as bishop of Rome, pope Bergoglio immediately provided for the transfer to lower-ranking positions of three prominent curial figures: Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, and Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, considered for their theological and liturgical sensibilities among the most “Ratzingerian” of the Roman curia.

Another whose fate appears to be sealed is the Spanish archbishop of Opus Dei Celso Morga Iruzubieta, secretary of the congregation for the clergy, destined to leave Rome for an Iberian diocese not of the first rank.

But now an even more eminent decapitation seems to be on the way.

The next victim would in fact be the United States cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who from being prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura would not be promoted - as some are fantasizing in the blogosphere - to the difficult but prestigious see of Chicago, but rather demoted to the pompous - but ecclesiastically very modest - title of “cardinal patron” of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, replacing the current head, Paolo Sardi, who recently turned 80.

If confirmed, Burke’s exile would be even more drastic than the one inflicted on Cardinal Piacenza, who, transferred from the important congregation for the clergy to the marginal apostolic penitentiary, nevertheless remained in the leadership of a curial dicastery.

With the shakeup on the way, Burke would instead be completely removed from the curia and employed in a purely honorary position without any influence on the governance of the universal Church.

This would be a move that seems to have no precedent.

In the past, in fact, the title of “cardinalis patronus” of the knights of Malta, in existence since 1961, like the previous one of Grand Prior of Rome, has always been assigned to the highest ranking cardinals as an extra position in addition to the main one.

This is what was done with cardinals Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro (appointed Grand Prior in 1896 while remaining secretary of state), Gaetano Bisleti (at the same time prefect of the congregation for Catholic education), Gennaro Granito Pignatelli (cardinal dean and bishop of Albano), Nicola Canali (governor of Vatican City), Paolo Giobbe (leader of the apostolic dataria), Paul-Pierre Philippe (until the age of 75 also prefect of the congregation for the Oriental Churches), Sebastiano Baggio (removed from the congregation for bishops but kept on as governor of Vatican City and camerlengo), Pio Laghi (until the age of 77 also prefect of the congregation for Catholic education).

Two separate cases are those of Cardinal Giacomo Violardo, who succeeded the 89-year-old Giobbe as patron at the age of 71, two months after receiving the scarlet at the end of long service in the curia, and of the outgoing Sardi, appointed pro-patron in 2009 at the age of 75 and made cardinal in 2010 after having been for many years the head of the office that writes pontifical documents.

Above all, Sardi’s retirement would not be a compulsory act, since the age limit of 80 does not apply to positions outside of the curia. And in fact, with the exception of Paulo Giobbe, all of the aforementioned cardinal patrons went on to a better life “durante munere.”

Burke is 66 years old, and therefore still in his ecclesiastical prime. Ordained a priest by Paul VI in 1975, he worked at the apostolic signatura as an ordinary priest with John Paul II, who made him bishop of his native diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1993. It was again pope Karol Wojtyla who in 2003 promoted him as archbishop of the prestigious see, once cardinalate, of St. Louis, Missouri. Benedict XVI called him back to Rome in 2008, and made him a cardinal in 2010.

With a very devout personality, he is also recognized as having the rare virtue of never having struck any deals to obtain ecclesiastical promotions or benefices.

In the liturgical and theological camp, he is very close to the sensibilities of Joseph Ratzinger. He has celebrated a number of times according to the ancient rite, even donning the “cappa magna,” as do cardinals George Pell and Antonio Cañizares Llovera, without being punished for this by Pope Francis.

A great expert in canon law, and appointed to the apostolic signatura for this reason, he is not afraid to follow it to the most uncomfortable consequences. Like when, to the tune of articles of the Code - number 915 to be precise - he upheld the impossibility of giving communion to those politicians who stubbornly and publicly uphold the right to abortion, bringing the rebukes of two colleagues in the United States valued by Pope Francis, Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston and Donald Wuerl of Washington.

Free in his judgments, he has been among the very few to make critical remarks on “Evangelii Gaudium,” pointing out that in his view it is orientational but not truly magisterial. And in view of the upcoming synod of bishops, he has repeatedly taken a stand against the ideas of Cardinal Walter Kasper - well known to be in the good graces of Pope Francis - in favor of communion for the divorced and remarried.

The dicastery headed by Burke, eminently technical, recently accepted an appeal from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate against a provision issued for them by the congregation for religious. A courageous move on the part of Burke, situated within the context of the punitive action undertaken by the Vatican congregation against one of the most substantial realities of Catholic traditionalism, an action that Pope Francis endorsed by approving in specific form the congregation’s decision to prevent the Friars of the Immaculate from celebrating the Mass according to the “Tridentine” rite. It is only with this kind of pontifical approval, in fact, that a decree of the curia can overturn standing law, in this case the motu proprio of Benedict XVI “Summorum Pontificum.”

It is difficult to identify among these episodes the ones that may have have had the greatest influence on the fate of Cardinal Burke.

But it is easy to predict that his definitive downgrading will provoke both a tumultuous reaction within the traditionalist world, where Burke is seen as a hero, and a corresponding wave of jubilation in the opposite camp, where he is instead considered a bogeyman.

On the latter side it can be recalled that the “liberal” Catholic commentator Michael Sean Winters, in the “National Catholic Reporter” of November 26, 2013, had called for the head of Cardinal Burke as a member of the congregation for bishops, because of the nefarious influence, according to him, that he was exercising over episcopal appointments in the United States.

On December 16, in effect, Pope Francis humiliated Burke by crossing him off from among the members of the congregation. To the hosannas of “liberal” Catholicism, not only in the United States.

The pope certainly did not do so out of obedience to the wishes of the “National Catholic Reporter.”

But now he seems right at the point of giving the go-ahead for the second and more grave demotion of one of the most untarnished personalities the Vatican curia knows.

__________


English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.

__________


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[Brian Kopp DPM]

Sorry folks, there's no longer any defending of this Pope.

[Celtic Conservative]

Is this the ecclesiastical equivalent of being put in charge of a 24 hour bowling alley during the night shift?

CC

[Ken522]

Bergoglio, as the Bishop of Rome, is a real stinker ....

[sneakers]

I’ve had an uneasy feeling about this pope from the beginning.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Cardinal Burke is the one who told John Kerry that he’d better not try to receive Communion in St. Louis — that he’d be denied.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Or worse.

[Riverine]

He was very much disliked by a lot of people during his time in St. Louis.

[Ken522]

Why was Card. Burke disliked?

[Brian Kopp DPM]

CANON 915:
THE DISCIPLINE REGARDING
THE DENIAL OF HOLY COMMUNION
TO THOSE OBSTINATELY PERSEVERING
IN MANIFEST GRAVE SIN

R. L. BURKE

ROMA
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSITÀ GREGORIANA
PIAZZA DELLA PILOTTA, 4

PERIODICA 96 (2007) 3-58

[Brian Kopp DPM]

This is just devastating.

There’s no longer any defending this Pope.

[Salvation]

Something smells of rotten fish or hurt feelings here.

[Salvation]

I have a sister in St. Louis who attested to the same thing.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Cardinal Burke was the single most important and effective opponent of the agenda of the upcoming Synod on the Family. This is paving the way for apostasy.

[ebb tide]

Agreed! It’s just getting worse.

May his reign be short.

[Pontiac]

Well he is still a Cardinal and still will have a vote (and influence) in the College of Cardinals.

[Dqban22]

2000 Years of Magisterium of the Church out... Marxist Liberation theology in!!!

[RockyTx]

there are lots of cardinals that are essentially
Archbishops in a red hat, and nothing more.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Tosatti: "De-Ratzingerization" purge moving full steam ahead
- If you're too "conservative", get out of the Roman Curia!

De-Ratzingerization underway

Marco Tosatti

[Senior Religion Correspondent for Italian Daily] La Stampa

September 15, 2014

From Spain we hear that the Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, the Spaniard, [Archbishop] Celso Morga, would be about to end his stay in the Vatican; twenty six years in all, but only four in the important office that he presently holds.

We are talking here about a [leaked] letter from the Secretariat of State to the Congregation of Bishops, where they are asked to verify the possibilities of a diocese becoming available soon (the level would not be relevant), so as to send the Archbishop there.

Archbishop Morga might have some characteristics that may not make him at all suitable for the present atmosphere in the papal entourage. He is known to be “conservative”, whatever that’s supposed to mean; and to have been Secretary of the Congregation at the time of Ratzinger. Celso Morga is close to Opus Dei, and this seems to be an element of further interest.

The latest rumors make him Coadjutor Bishop in Mérida-Badajoz. Others speak of Santiago de Compostela; while the Barcelona succession seems less likely, as it would involve a Cardinal’s hat.

Yet, if Celso Morga’s departure from a position was judged extremely “sensitive” by the Pontiff’s entourage, it’s already finding space in the media, the Spanish one for the moment and when announced internationally, it will appear to be a purge at all levels in some Congregations of people judged too close to the Ratzinger line, or “conservatives.” Transfers, removals, variations of appointments of small or medium caliber, [all of] which however, help to understand that perhaps we are not talking about something casual: on the contrary.

[Source, in Italian. Translation: contributor Francesca Romana]

[ebb tide]

Whose feelings are hurt here?

As far as the “stink” you smell, I think it emanates from Casa Santa Marta.

[GeronL]

But yet leftwing Bishops and Cardinals aren’t in fear of being demoted or exiled.