Why was Card. Burke disliked?
ROMA
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSITÀ GREGORIANA
PIAZZA DELLA PILOTTA, 4
PERIODICA 96 (2007) 3-58
“Why was Card. Burke disliked?”
I know Cardinal Burke personally. He is a wonderful, caring person. Christianity oozes out of every pore of the man, but for some reason he has many enemies. In LaCrosse, his original diocese (his home diocese, in fact), and in St. Louis, he had lots of enemies. The usual complaints were:
- too old fashioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXzsyuytMlQ
- likes the Latin Mass too much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcOTkbhlEIg
- doesn’t embrace gay marriage and contraception
- too pro-life
- largely ignores the whining and bleating of liberals
- spent too much money
- heavy handed with people who were dissenters
- he often did not come across all that well when he spoke publicly. I can’t explain why this happened but when you spoke to him one-on-one he was this great, quiet, humble man. When he spoke to a cathedral full of people his voice got higher and he often sounded too pleading. This happened only when he was vested and used a prepared speech. When using a prepared speech, but not vested, his voice still went up but did not sounds as bad. Here’s an example of him not vested but with his voice noticeably higher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pnvGWzSsNg
Now listen to his normal speaking voice, his one-on-one voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edq69fJLnXo
Here he is preaching but you only get a few tiny hints of that bad habit I mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrGUTQBw9Xk What I mentioned was noticed by others who knew him personally.
Also, in St. Louis, some people blamed Burke for the rebellion at St. Stanislaus parish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stanislaus_Kostka_Church_(St._Louis,_Missouri)#Conflict_with_archdiocese