Archbishop Burke says Democrats may become “party of death”
In comments published over the weekend in a daily Catholic newspaper sponsored by the Italian bishops’ conference, former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said the Democratic Party “risks transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death.’”
According to a Catholic New Service story, Burke - now the head of the Vatican’s version of the supreme court - was told that musician Sheryl Crow played at the Democratic National Convention last month.
“That does not surprise me much,” the archbishop said. “At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitely into a ‘party of death’ because of its choices on bioethical questions as Ramesh Ponnuru wrote in his book, ‘The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life.’”
Archbishop Burke said the Democratic Party once was “the party that helped our immigrant parents and grandparents better integrate and prosper in American society. But it is not the same anymore.”
Pro-life Democrats are “rare, unfortunately,” he said.
In 2007, Burke resigned from the foundation board at the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center after the rest of the foundation’s board refused to replace Sheryl Crow as the musical headliner benefiting the hospital’s Bob Costas Cancer Center. Crow is a supporter of embryonic stem cell research, which the Catholic church considers akin to abortion.
The newspaper also asked Burke “for his reaction to reports that his Vatican job was designed to get him away from St. Louis.”
“I have too much respect for the pope to believe that in order to move someone away from a diocese he would nominate him to a very sensitive dicastery like this one,” said the archbishop…”
Tim Townsend has been the religion reporter at the Post-Dispatch since June 2004. He previously covered personal finance and consumer news for The Wall Street Journal. He holds master's degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Yale Divinity School. In 2005 he won the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, given by the Religion Newswriters Association. 
Is this really news? Burke is gone, there is no need to have stories about him as lead stories. Especially on a day like today when so many more important things are going on.
Todd, how can you be talking about lame comments by others when you say something like “Democrats are stupid enough to want to vote for Obama, they might as well be voting to for death to the United States.” That is a perfect example of the intelligence of Republicans in this area. It appears it is you who is way off base if you agree with an idiot like Burke.
I’m a pro-life Independent who votes Democratic a lot, but not exclusively. I just have a different vision of what is pro-life than Mr. Burke. To my way of thinking, adult women are alive and deserving of respect, too, not just fetuses. Mary wasn’t forced to have that kid. She was asked. She chose to. That makes her pro-choice, too.
If you are a Burke Catholic it is impossible for you to vote let alone participate in democratic discourse in America. The Republican party is just as politically motivated as the Democrats…make no mistake: it is not in their best interest to pass anti-abortion legislation, which is why they did not do it in the first six years of Bush’s presidency.
Additionally, Catholics are in a real pickle right now. If they vote for McCain/Palin, they are voting for a Vice Presidential candidate whose church leaders have stated in sermons that Rome is the Whore of Babylon. This woman is a radical Christian and is in no way compatible with the Catholic faith.
Bottom line is people should work towards reducing the number of abortions. Do the research and you find that when social services are there for women the number of abortions tend to go down. And you should also be working towards a more peaceful and just society that would bring justice to criminals who have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, who have endorsed TORTURE, and who have run this country into the ground.
Amen Joe. The Repubs would rather do it through unjust wars (war makes them money after all). Burke will be the one judged harshly in the after-life for moving around and ignoring PEDOPHILE PRIESTS that destroyed children and sometimes ended up killing them! His sin is greater than any of Crows.
I wonder where Burke’s larger than life “pro-life” stance was when, as late as December 2006, he placed at my parish with a elementary school, a priest who had been accused of having child pronography on his computer. His reasoning was he was “accused but never convicted” so there was no need to say anything. So I suppose that made the untold truth perfectly within reason. As I see it, it is a grave sin for me to vote Democratic while I’m sure Burke can peacefully lay his head on his pillow every night after going to communion everyday knowing he his “prolife” in the very strictest sense of the word. I am anti-abortion myself but also am a middle class wife and mother trying to keep my head above water, keep my families health insurance and make a better life for my family but also a “grave sinner”. Oh well….. Burke and I will both meet our maker one day and answer for our actions in our lives. I personally have no worries.
Would that this self-appointed watchdog of morals held his Republican backers accountable for the untold numbers of deaths in their war launched on behalf of lies and money. How about a campaign to prevent unwanted pregnancies — other than abstinence, which clearly doesn’t work (ask Ms. Palin)? Or how about more assistance and/or broader adoption services for these so-called “unwanted babies”? And wasn’t it McCain who has voted consistently against funding for head start and related programs? It is shameful.
Give the past history of the Roman Catholic Church in their quest for wealth and power around the world I believe the Party of Death would be themselves.
Bottom line: What happened to separation of church and state?
To “I still don’t understand how people can be pro-life and pro-war at the same time.” - Because freedom is not free.
Now you tell me how people can be pro-choice and anti-war in this sense - you’re against the sacrificing of human life for our country - I don’t agree that life for oil makes any bit of sense, but the left are against war in a broad sense, not just the one that we’re currently involved - yet you support the termination of human life in its infancy.