| His Eminence Raymond Leo Burke |
|
|---|---|
| Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura | |
| See | St. Louis (emeritus) Sant'Agata dei Goti (titular) |
| Appointed | June 27, 2008 (3 years, 329 days) |
| Predecessor | Agostino Vallini |
| Other posts | Cardinal-Deacon of S. Agata de’ Goti |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 29, 1975 by Pope Paul VI |
| Consecration | January 6, 1995 by Pope John Paul II |
| Created Cardinal | November 20, 2010 |
| Rank | Cardinal-Deacon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 30, 1948 Richland Center, Wisconsin |
| Nationality | United States |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Residence | Rome, Italy |
| Parents | Thomas and Marie Burke |
| Previous post |
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| Alma mater | Holy Cross Seminary Catholic University of America North American College Gregorian University |
| Coat of arms | |
Raymond Leo Burke (born June 30, 1948) is an American Cardinal[1] of the Holy Roman Church.[2] He is the current Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, having previously served as Archbishop of St. Louis (2003–2008) and Bishop of La Crosse (1994–2003).
Burke was born on 30 June, 1948, in Richland Center, Wisconsin,[3] the youngest of the six children of Thomas (died July 21, 1956) and Marie (died February 29, 1996) Burke. He was baptized on July 11. The family later moved to Stratford, Wisconsin. From 1962-68 he attended the Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse, Wisconsin. From 1968-71, he studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. as a Basselin scholar and received the degrees Bachelor of Arts (1970) and Master of Arts (1971), both in Philosophy. He completed his studies for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (1971-75), receiving degrees (Bachelor of Sacred Theology, 1974; Master of Arts, 1975).[3] Pope Paul VI ordained Burke to the priesthood on 29 June 1975 at Saint Peter's Basilica.[3]
Burke is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America.
After his ordination to the priesthood Burke was assigned as assistant rector of the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He also taught religion at Aquinas High School in La Crosse, where a new addition built in 1996–1997, the Bishop Burke Hall, was named in his honor.[4] From 1980 to 1984, Burke studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received his license (1982) and doctorate (1984).[3] He then returned to La Crosse and was named the Moderator of the Curia and Vice Chancellor of the La Crosse Diocese. In 1989, Pope John Paul II called Burke to be the first American Defender of the Bond of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, apart from the Pope himself.[3]
On December 10, 1994, Pope John Paul II named Burke Bishop of La Crosse, consecrating him to the episcopate on January 6, 1995 in St. Peter's Basilica. Co-consecrators included Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Titular Archbishop of Forum Novum and an official of the Vatican Secretary of State, and Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops.[5] Burke took possession of the See of La Crosse on February 22, 1995.[6] During his time in La Crosse, he founded the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe designed by Duncan G. Stroik, in collaboration with River Architects.[7][8][9][10] In 2000 Burke convened the fifth diocesan synod for the Diocese of La Crosse. Synod V, Acts: celebrated June 11–14, 2000/ Diocese of La Crosse, published by the Diocese of La Crosse, (circa 2003) were the documents of the fifth diocesan synod that were published.[11] He was also named a Knight Commander with Star of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 1997 and received the Canon Law Society of America's Role of Law award in 2000.[3] In 2002 Burke was influential in founding the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, an order of Augustinian canons dedicated to the traditional form of the liturgy.[12]
During his tenure as Bishop of La Crosse, Burke initiated the construction of a shrine near La Crosse on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas. As part of the shrine, a chapel designed in the Renaissance style was dedicated on July 31, 2008. The archbishop also installed a prominent shrine to the Sacred Heart in the diocesan cathedral, reflecting his desire to foster the sacred arts and to encourage spiritual devotions which have long been characteristic of Catholicism.[13] Cardinal Burke remains director of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, even though currently residing in Rome, Italy.[14]
Burke served as Bishop of La Crosse until December 2, 2003, when he was named as successor to Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali (who had been appointed to be the Archbishop of Philadelphia) as Archbishop of St. Louis.[15][16][17][18] He was installed on January 26, 2004. Burke was presented with the pallium on June 29, 2004 by Pope John Paul II. In St. Louis, Burke emphasized the promotion of vocations to the ministerial priesthood; he also published a column in the archdiocesan weekly newspaper, the Saint Louis Review. In both La Crosse and St. Louis, Burke established oratories for those who attend the Tridentine Rite. He invited traditionalist Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest into his dioceses and ordained priests for the group both in the US and abroad. His ordination of two traditionalist priests on June 15, 2007, was the first time in 40 years that the Tridentine rite of ordination had been used in the cathedral.[19] In July 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Burke as a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura,[20] the highest court in the Catholic Church. He issued a statement, in line with Catholic moral precepts, opposing embryonic stem cell research when an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that allows it was narrowly passed by voters there.
During his tenure in Saint Louis, Archbishop Burke was awarded two honorary doctorates in humane letters. One was from Ave Maria University in 2005;[21] the other was from Christendom College in 2007.[22]
On June 25, 2007, Burke accompanied Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, on a trip to Rome, where the prelates reviewed Pope Benedict's impending motu proprio Summorum Pontificum granting any priest of the Roman Rite to celebrate the Latin Mass according to the Missal of Pius V (revised by John XXIII) without the permission of his bishop.[23][24]
On May 6, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named Burke to two Vatican offices, increasing Burke's already prominent stature in Rome. He was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which authentically interprets Canon Law, and also became a member of the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons.
| Styles of Raymond Leo Burke |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
On June 27, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Burke to the office of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura,[25] a position roughly equivalent to that of President of the Conseil d'Etat of France. The Signatura is the final canonical venue for most administrative recourses (requests for review of decrees issued by Bishops) unless the Pope advocates cases to his judgement, while the Tribunal of the Roman Rota remains the highest judicial venue for ecclesiastical trials, excepting questions of nullity of its decrees or sentences which are judged by Signatura. In terms of the importance of his Curial post, Archbishop Burke was the second-highest ranking American prelate at the Vatican after Cardinal William Levada, who took Pope Benedict's place as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Archbishop Burke was the first non-European named to head the Tribunal within the Roman Curia. The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura exercises final appellate jurisdiction concerning conflicts occurring between two or more Vatican Congregations or Dicasteries, and appeals of administrative decisions rendered by diocesan bishops and Vatican Congregations.
With this appointment, Burke became the tenth US native to serve in the Roman Curia. Upon the public announcement of the appointment by the Holy See, he said: "I am deeply humbled by the trust which His Holiness has placed in me, and, in priestly obedience, I have pledged to serve our Holy Father to the best of my abilities." He continued stating that "leaving the service of the Church in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis is most sad for me. It has been an honor and gift for me to serve the archdiocese over the past four years and five months."[26]
His farewell Mass in the Archdiocese of St. Louis was held in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis on Sunday, August 17, 2008. It was concelebrated by Bishops George Joseph Lucas, Robert Joseph Hermann, John Joseph Leibrecht, John R. Gaydos, Robert W. Finn, Raymond James Boland, and Kevin William Vann. Over seventy-five priests, fifty seminarians, a full honor guard of the Knights of Columbus (over 60 members), and over fifty Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta were in attendance.[27]
Like all heads of departments of the Roman Curia, Cardinal Burke is a member also of various other offices in the Curia. The appointments are for five years and are renewable. Being resident in Rome, he is invited to attend not only the plenary meetings of those departments, which in principle are held every year, but also the ordinary meetings. Thus on May 6, 2008, Burke was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which authentically interprets canon law, and of the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons; on October 17, 2009, of the Congregation for Bishops, the curial body charged with overseeing the appointment of most but not all Latin Rite bishops outside mission territories.[28][4]; on July 6, 2010, of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;[29] on 24 July 2010, of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints;[30] on 29 January 2011 of the Council of Cardinals and Bishops of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State.[31]
On October 7, 2008, Burke was appointed President of the Commission for Advocates, which is responsible for admitting the world's qualified canon lawyers to a registry of those who may practice in the Vatican's courts - a sort of bar association. This post is related, but secondary to and distinct from, his post as Prefect of the Signatura.[32]
On March 11, 2010 (in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that had come to light in the countries of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria), Burke said that the Vatican needed to design a set of guidelines based in canon law that would guide bishops and tribunals worldwide in determining how to report the cases to the Holy See. Revisions will also be made to a policy formulated by Benedict that provides for high levels of secrecy in the process. The German bishops had drawn up guidelines that Pope Benedict XVI was considering using worldwide, and many other countries (such as the United States) already have set procedures for such cases. However, it is a delicate process, especially for a bishop who must formally denounce and remove a priest (presuming he is indeed guilty and thus that the accusations are based in fact), who is spiritually considered to be his son. Also, there remain questions about how to handle scandals that only come to light during sacramental confession, where the confessor is obliged under pain of excommunication to be totally silent about anything and everything he hears from any penitent. A further problem is the fact that some pedophile priests who are perpetrators of child sexual abuse do this in the confessional, which is an especially grave offense in the eyes of the Church.[33]
On 20 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Burke to the cardinalate, as Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Agata dei Goti. Burke was the fifth man who served as Archbishop of St. Louis to become a member of the College of Cardinals, the others being John Joseph Glennon (1946), Joseph Ritter (1961), John Carberry (1969) and Justin Francis Rigali (2003), the now-retired Archbishop of Philadelphia.
According to the St. Louis Review, the archdiocese newspaper,[34] St. Louis Archbishop Robert James Carlson announced at a reception at the Apostolic Signatura during a pilgrimage to Rome upon the occasion of Cardinal Burke's elevation the creation of a Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke Chair in Canon Law at St. Louis's Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. This follows the similar establishment of a Justin Francis Cardinal Rigali Chair in Liturgical Studies there, when former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Francis Rigali was named Archbishop of Philadelphia.
On 5 February 2011, the memorial of St. Agatha, Cardinal Burke took canonical possession of his titular church in Rome, Sant'Agata dei Goti. The ordinary form stational Mass, said in Italian and Latin, was held in the evening.[35]
In May 2011, Cardinal Burke was awarded another honorary doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. He has long admired the University because he regards it, unlike some other American Catholic universities in the context of a highly secularized Western society, as having remained faithful to the ethical guidelines and teachings of the Church's Magisterium (the teaching office of the Catholic Church, made up of the Pope and the bishops worldwide in communion with him, and those given authority to teach by them).[36]
Burke is seen by many as one of the most conservative bishops in the United States, and increasingly as a leader of the conservative wing of Cardinals in the Church. Reasons for his U.S. prominence include his position regarding the political actions of Catholics who hold public office, and his disputes with St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis; support amongst conservative Cardinals and Bishops is based upon his clear and magisterial style of governance, coupled with his advancing of a return to traditional expressions of liturgical piety to the Church's fold.
A few priests in the Diocese of La Crosse have claimed that Burke's leadership there was divisive. Richard Dickman, who had served as pastor of St. Mary's Church in Tomah, Wisconsin stated in a resignation letter that "I can no longer minister as a priest in this diocese and retain a sense of integrity. I find that my conscience is in conflict with the vision of ministry characterized by the bishop I have promised to obey. I am in an impossible position."[37] Father Dickman has since returned to active ministry in the Diocese.[38]
During the 2004 presidential election, Burke publicly stated that John Kerry and other Catholic politicians who publicly support legalized abortion should not be given or receive the Eucharist.[39] This statement was based mainly on two canons of Catholic Canon Law, which state that ministers of Holy Communion should not administer the Eucharist to people who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin[40] and that those who are conscious of being in a state of grave sin (as determined by Catholic doctrine) should not receive the Eucharist.[41]
Burke had articulated the same position while he was in La Crosse but the statements made as Archbishop of St. Louis gained more notice and added to his reputation for being canonically consistent. He is one of a number of bishops who have declared that they would refuse Communion to such politicians. He added that Catholic voters who supported pro-choice candidates specifically because they supported abortion rights were committing grave sin and should not receive Communion without first having their sin absolved through the Sacrament of Penance.[citation needed]
Burke later clarified his position, stating that one could vote for a pro-choice politician and not commit a mortal sin, if one believed there was a more significant moral issue than abortion at hand, but had also stated that he could not think what sort of issue would qualify.[42] His position is consistent with the one articulated by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in a 2004 letter to Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. As Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote: “Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia [...] While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”[43]
On April 25, 2007, after singer Sheryl Crow, a pro-choice supporter, was scheduled to perform at a benefit concert for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, Archbishop Burke resigned as chair of the hospital foundation's board of directors.[44]
Deeming this a scandal, Burke claimed that to have the hospital host Crow would give "the impression that the Church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching." The Saint Louis archbishop reportedly asked that her invitation be privately removed, but then felt compelled to submit his resignation once Crow's performance in concert was confirmed.[45]
On January 22, 2008, Burke urged Saint Louis University to take disciplinary action against its head basketball coach, Rick Majerus, after Majerus publicly supported abortion and stem cell research at a campaign event for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton three days earlier.[46]
With Saint Louis University being run by the Society of Jesus, Burke responded by saying, "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everything the Catholic Church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic Church." SLU spokesman Jeff Fowler responded to Burke's statement by saying, "Rick's comments were his own personal view. They were made at an event he did not attend as a university representative."[47]
Burke again responded to the controversy aroused by his statements in an interview with the archdiocesan newspaper, The St. Louis Review, on the following February 1.[48] The archbishop said, "It gives scandal to other people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, if they hear a Catholic give an interview to the media, saying that I am proud to be a Catholic but at the same time I hold these views." When asked about his usually outspoken manner in controversial issues, he responded, "Is there something unusual about a bishop saying that it’s wrong to be in favor of procured abortion? I’m a Roman Catholic priest and bishop. What else would you expect me to say?"
Archbishop Raymond Burke applied a severe interdict to Sister of Charity Louise Lears in June 2008, which excluded her from all Saint Louis church ministries and banned her from receiving any of the Sacraments in the archdiocese.
Burke had judged her guilty of three grave canonical offenses against the Catholic Church's faith and teachings. Lears, a respected pastoral worker and educator, had publicly stated her belief that all of the church's ministries, including the priesthood, should be open to women.[49] Lears received the interdict after attending an attempted ordination of a woman to the Catholic priesthood at a Jewish Synagogue by the WomenPriests movement.[50]
In a September 2008 interview, Burke said that "the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,' because of its choices on bioethical questions," especially elective abortion.[51]
In May 2009, he stated, "Since President Obama clearly announced, during the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience."[52]
In March 2009, Burke was interviewed by Randall Terry, the pro-life activist and Catholic convert who founded Operation Rescue. In the videotaped interview, Archbishop Burke called on American bishops to withhold Communion, in line with canon 915, from Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion.[53] The bishops' failure to do so, Burke said, "is weakening the faith of everyone. It's giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion."[53] He also called President Barack Obama "an agent of death" for his pro-choice views.[53] Terry called for the removal of Paul Loverde and Donald Wuerl, for not denying Communion to these politicians, and also criticized Cardinals Roger Mahony and Theodore McCarrick. After the interview was released, Burke apologized to his "brother bishops" for the "misuse" of his statements, saying: "Mr. Terry has used the videotape for another purpose which I find most objectionable."[54] He clarified that he made his remarks not as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, head of the Vatican's highest court, but simply as an American bishop.[54]
In an October 2010 interview, held before the consistory in which he was elevated to the cardinalate, Burke reiterated that to directly vote for a candidate who not only supports the right to choose to have an abortion and/or to have the right to euthanasia, but who actively supports abortion and/or euthanasia, because of the candidate's stance, is a mortal sin. To vote for a candidate who held these stances without a very grave reason- and he said there were not many, if any at all- would still be wrong even if the voter did not expressly vote for him or her because of those stances. The only possible valid reason, Cardinal-designate Burke said, would be if that candidate was the least pro-abortion or pro-euthanasia of the other candidates and the voter did not feel comfortable abstaining from voting, which would be acceptable under those circumstances.[citation needed]
On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, a story posted by the ZENIT website homepage (Innovative Media) described Cardinal Burke as underlining the importance of Catholic higher education, and the need for these institutions to keep their identity strong. The prefect...gave an address at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, New Hampshire), where he affirmed the importance that 'the Church has consistently assigned to Catholic higher education, in order that 'the convergence of faith and reason in the one truth may be seen more clearly'.[citation needed]
At the March 2, 2011 launch of a book in Italian, whose title translates as "How to Go to Mass and Not Lose Your Faith", Cardinal Burke declared that liturgical abuses damage the faith of Catholics: "If we err by thinking we are the center of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith. Unfortunately, too many priests and bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant, when, in fact, they are serious abuses."[55][56][57]
At a July 23, 2011 conference on end-of-life care sponsored by St. Gianna Physician's Guild, Cardinal Burke said that suffering does not cause a person to have less meaning in his life, nor does it give the government the right to decide if that person should live or die: "No matter how much a life is diminished, no matter what suffering the person is undergoing, that life demands the greatest respect and care. It's never right to snuff out a life because it's in some way under heavy burden."[58]
According to a Thursday, April 19, 2012 online news brief posted by Catholic News Service (CNS),: "Church communicators have an important and serious duty to obey church teaching and defend the church's mission of saving souls and safeguarding truth, said the head of the Vatican's highest court. Caution as well as control over content and where it's distributed are needed because while the field of communications "has great potential for good," it "also can be turned to the harm of the faithful," said U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature. Communicators should be guided and directed by pastors to make sure their content is free from doctrinal and theological error, and Catholics should avoid outlets that openly attack Christian morality, he added. The cardinal was one of dozens of speakers at a biennial seminar for people who work in the field of media and communications for dioceses, religious institutions and other church organizations. Sponsored by Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, the April 16-18 seminar focused on ways the church could better portray the essence and vitality of the Christian faith. Cardinal Burke, who is a canon lawyer, focused his talk April 18 on the importance of canon law in protecting the integrity of the church's mission and its members. The church's discipline and canonical processes are "not only not a hindrance to the effective communication of the Catholic faith, but also an effective manifestation of the vitality of the faith."..."[59]
| Episcopal lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Blessed Pope John Paul II |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| Robert William Finn | 3 May 2004 |
| James Vann Johnston, Jr. | 31 March 2008 |
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Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010) |
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Joseph Paul |
Bishop of La Crosse December 10, 1994–December 2, 2003 |
Succeeded by Jerome Edward Listecki |
| Preceded by Justin Rigali |
Archbishop of Saint Louis December 2, 2004–June 27, 2008 |
Succeeded by Robert James Carlson |
| Preceded by Agostino Vallini |
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura June 27, 2008–present |
Incumbent |
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