Posted on 03/26/2009 5:25:37 PM PDT by chase19
Is the Obama Administration pressuring the Holy See to slience Archbp. Burke?
Context: Archbp. Burke recently made clear statements in an interview about pro-abortion Catholic politicians and Holy Communion.
It is written by Austin Ruse, "President of the New York and Washington, D.C.-based Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), a research institute that focuses exclusively on international social policy."
Read the whole thing there, but this is the salient part:
Thursday, 26 March 2009 Hey, Obama: Hands Off Burke Print By Austin Ruse
A reliable source tells me that someone representing the Obama administration is about to put pressure on the papal nuncio to the United States to get Archbishop Raymond Burke to be quiet. The Obama complaint is that Archbishop Burke, who is now head of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, has supported another bishop in his chastisement of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius for her support of abortion.
...
Burke closed the interview by issuing a challenge to his brother bishops, most notably Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.: “Every bishop is held to the same universal discipline which has been in force since the time of St. Paul the Apostle and is stated in canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.” And then this: “Whether Governor Sebelius is in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, or in any other diocese [italics mine], she should not present herself for Holy Communion because, after pastoral admonition, she obstinately persists in serious sin.”
You can see why the Obama administration might get upset about this. They played footsie with pet Catholics of left and right last year and thought they had this kind of problem covered, since some of them have already offered cover for Sebelius. Two groups created to offer such services, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance, started a petition drive saying Sebelius was really pro-life.
And now there is word that someone who is well known among Republicans, and who has served in previous Republican administrations, is reaching out on behalf of the Obama administration to get the Holy See to quiet Burke, or at least to make it clear he speaks not for the Church, but only for himself.
...
But it’s not just questioning her fitness for office that offends Obama and his Catholics. They are also offended about Burke questioning Sebelius’s fidelity to the Catholic Church, for this strikes at the heart of their appeal to Catholics in the pews. Catholics who believe the Democratic answer to health care is more important than the murder of a million children a year desperately need the fiction that someone like Sebelius is a Catholic in good standing. Burke gives the lie to that assertion.
...
The pressure won’t work, of course. Burke is just too smart, and tough. But Obama and his representatives are coming dangerously close to interfering in internal Church matters. [Just setting the stage for what is to come.] More than anything else, the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution was intended precisely to protect religious bodies from meddling by the state, even covert meddling by the White House like this. Obama and his pet Catholics should back off – and fast.
http://deacbench.blogspot.com/2009/03/burke-irked.html
“And now there is word that someone who is well known among Republicans, and who has served in previous Republican administrations, is reaching out on behalf of the Obama administration to get the Holy See to quiet Burke, or at least to make it clear he speaks not for the Church, but only for himself.”
I wonder who this individual might be...?
I was wondering that, too.
Kmiec
I am sure Pope Benedict supports Archbihop Burke 100%.
I read a suggestion on another site that it was either Kmiec or Paul O’Neill (Treasury Secy under Bush). I don’t know anything about O’Neill’s religious positions, but he’s certainly more important and more of a political figure than Kmiec, so maybe he’s the one.
Amen..
I believe it’s that little lap-dog Kmiec as well. He’s been very quiet over the ND scandal which is weird since he’s usually out swinging the bat loudly for - The Abortion President. Methinks he may be still swinging the bat by applying pressure but quietly this time.
I have no doubt in my mind that he will. They’re on the same page. Prayers up for both these great men.
Apparently the sitting President is totally ignorant, as I surmised, regarding The US Constitution. (Other than that he thinks it’s flawed and he’s not.)
Archbishop Burke has the full support of Pope Benedict XVI because this situation is exactly what the Pope spoke of when he was here in the States.
And if the sitting President thinks he is ‘bigger than the Pope’ because he thinks he’s some kind of messiah bringing his salvation to the world . . . he’s not just a fool (who has said in his heart ‘there is no god’), he’s a d@mn fool.
Didn’t the Nazis prior to WW2 manage to compromise the Church’s leadership?
Didn’t the Nazis prior to WW2 manage to compromise the Church’s leadership?
LOl! Burke will NOT be silenced.
They don’t know Burke very well.
**Didn’t the Nazis prior to WW2 manage to compromise the Church’s leadership?**
No
No, but there were Nazis in the priesthood, just as there were Communists. My guess is that at least some Irish clergy were pro-German.
You wrote:
“Didn’t the Nazis prior to WW2 manage to compromise the Church’s leadership?”
No. The leadership of the Church - before and during WWII - was decidedly against Hitler and the Nazis.
The Holy Father can resolve some of this by replacing the bishop of Washington DC.
I would also like B16 to call Fr Jenkins to Rome for little chat.
it’s gotta be.
The Holy See has a long history of dealing with hostile governments/politicians. Rome isn’t going to silence Archbishop Burke regardless of how much pressure the Administration tries to exert. Obama better watch himself here because if anyone goes down in this contest, it won’t be the Church.
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