Archbishop Raymond Burke outside the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica before the 2005 Final Four. Photo by Huy Richard Mach, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It’s always interesting when the national media “finds” a story that local hacks have been covering for years. That’s not exactly what’s happening with the American press’s recent discovery of St. Louis emeritus Archbishop Raymond Burke - after all, the archbishop began making headlines before he was even installed here in 2004 - but it’s close.

Since his move to Rome to lead the Vatican’s version of the Supreme Court, Burke’s profile has heightened. Over the last 18 months, he’s made some public statements - mostly either to gatherings of Catholics, or the the Catholic press - that have caused momentary stirs in both the Catholic and political worlds.

Amy Sullivan has written a piece for Time, called “A Tale of Two Priests,” comparing Burke to Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, though the story is really about Burke. Sullivan’s thesis is that Burke…

St. Louis emeritus Archbishop Raymond Burke

Pope Benedict XVI named St. Louis emeritus Archbishop Raymond Burke to the Vatican’s influential Congregation for Bishops on Saturday.

The congregation, or Vatican office, is responsible for recommending Roman Catholic bishop candidates around the world to the pope.  Over time - and Burke is only 61 - the Congregation’s members can have a significant impact on the direction of the Catholic church.

Burke will join another former St. Louis archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, at the Congregation for Bishops. He’ll be the fifth American member of the office.

Burke left St. Louis to become the prefect, or leader, of the Apostolic Signatura - often described as the Vatican’s version of the Supreme Court. Burke also is a member of two other Vatican offices, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which interprets canon law, and the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons.

Whispers in the…

St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson gives his first St. Louis homily at the Cathedral Basilica at an evening prayer service June 9. Courtesy of the St. Louis Archdiocese.

Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson will be installed Wednesday, but Tuesday evening, he gave his first St. Louis homily homily at an evening prayer service at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica.

Carlson first asked the 1,000 in attendance to “welcome back” his predecessors - Cardinal Justin Rigali, now of Philadelphia, and Archbishop Raymond Burke, now the supreme justice of the Vatican’s highest court. The faithful did so, to rousing and sustained applause.

Dressed in regal, gold vestments, Carlson spoke of the need for the Roman Catholic church to work with the civic community and other Christian churches to help change the status quo.

“If the civic and business communities provide the body of that engagement, the Church needs to be its soul,” Carlson said.

His installment is scheduled for 2…

Joseph R. Cistone, the new bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw, speaks during his introductory press conference at the Center for Ministry in Saginaw Township. The Saginaw News.

On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI named an auxiliary bishop from Philadelphia - Joseph Cistone - to replace Robert Carlson as the new bishop of Saginaw, Mich. The pope named Carlson archbishop-elect of St. Louis just four weeks ago - nine months after he named former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to a prominent Vatican position.

Carlson’s installation is scheduled for June 10.

“It was a great surprise to find out the Holy Father was entrusting me to serve as a diocesan bishop,” said the 60-year-old  Cistone, at his news conference in Saginaw Wednesday, according to the Saginaw News. “The speed of the announcement took me by surprise, too.”

The News gave a hint of Carlson’s trademark sense of humor,

Leader in Saginaw for four years, Carlson introduced Cistone to a stunned crowd of…

President Barack Obama

Archbishop Raymond Burke

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke was in Washington Friday morning to give the keynote speech at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. And he didn’t hold back.

Speaking of the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor President Barack Obama - an abortion rights supporter - at its commencement later this month, Burke said Catholic universities should not give a platform, let alone honor, “those who teach and act publicly against the moral law,” according to the Associated Press.

“The proposed granting of an honorary doctorate at Notre Dame University to our president, who is so aggressively advancing an anti-life and anti-family agenda is rightly the source of the greatest scandal,” Burke said.

The Washington Post’s God in Government blog reported that Burke “did not disappoint” the “1,300 mostly conservative Catholics at the event” who “interrupted his 45-minute address more than a dozen times with applause.” Post religion reporter and blogger Jacqueline L.…

St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert J. Carlson

Pope Benedict XVI has named Robert James Carlson as the next Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis.

The 64-year-old archbishop-elect has led the Saginaw, Mich. diocese since 2005. He will be the 10th ordinary, or leader, of St. Louis Catholics since 1827.

Carlson’s new assignment was announced publicly at 5:18 a.m. St. Louis time on the Vatican’s website.

Carlson was also the bishop of Sioux Falls, SD for ten years before his tenure in Michigan. He succeeds Archbishop Raymond Burke, whose four-and-a-half year tenure as St. Louis Catholic leader ended in June when the pope named him to lead the Vatican’s supreme court.

Like Burke, Carlson is trained as a canon, or church, lawyer. Burke is now the head of the Vatican’s version of the supreme court.

From the Saginaw diocese’s website:

A native of Minneapolis, Minn., he was ordained to the priesthood on May 23, 1970 for the Archdiocese of St.…

Bishop Robert Finn of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph

“We are at war,” declared Bishop Robert Finn of the Roman Catholic diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri at the Gospel of Life Convention in Overland Park, Kan. on Sat. Finn called himself and those gathered to hear his keynote address “warriors - members of the Church on earth - often called the Church Militant.”

“We are engaged in a constant warfare with Satan, with the glamour of evil, and the lure of false truths and empty promises,” Finn continued.

Finn, who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Archbishop Raymond Burke to lead the St. Louis Archdiocese, also predicted the president of Notre Dame will lose his job.

The gathering was co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph and Finn went on to discuss the current controversy at the…

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has issued a statement rebuking Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, for a video Terry presented Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington.

The video is of an interview [part 1 & part 2] Terry conducted with Burke, now the head of the Vatican’s supreme court, earlier this month in Rome during which the archbishop said that President Barack Obama’s concept of hope was “very disturbing.” But in his statement today, Burke didn’t apologize for his remarks about American politics. Instead, he apologized to his brother bishops.

Michael Sean Winters of America magazine was at the press conference with Terry Wednesday. He writes that Burke’s failure to defend his brother bishops during the interview in the face of Terry’s, Burke “was the Vatican equivalent of throwing them under the bus.”

Here is the text of Burke’s statement:

ROME, Italy - In response to the…

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke’s recent criticisms of American politicians who support abortion rights continued today. In the past Burke has chastised members of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. senators, presidential candidates, potential presidential cabinet picks and the entire Democratic party. This time he’s condemning the president himself.

In a 12-minute interview shown today at the National Press Club in Washington [transcript here], Burke said President Barack Obama’s popularity - both in the U.S. and in the rest of the world - has the capacity to make him “an agent of death.”

“President Obama uses this word ‘hope’ in a way that for us is very disturbing,” Burke said in the interview.

We need to have hope, the hope that is founded in Jesus Christ, alive for us in the Church; Jesus Christ who gave His life for everyone without exception, and with a particular love for…

Justice Antonin Scalia

Archbishop Raymond Burke

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke will keynote this year’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Burke is now the head of the Vatican’s supreme court. U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Antonin Scalia also will address the Catholic gathering in May.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor

Archbishop Raymond Burke

According to London’s Daily Telegraph, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has told a Catholic organization to rescind its invitation to former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass at London’s Westminster Cathedral in June.

On his Holy Smoke blog, the Telegraph’s Damian Thompson says the Latin Mass Society had invited Burke - now the head of the Vatican’s supreme court - to be the main celebrant at its annual Latin Mass at the famous cathedral. Canon law says only the bishop of a diocese - in this case Murphy-O’Connor - can invite another bishop to celebrate Mass at a church in his diocese.

“In accordance with Canon 838, it is the Cardinal who lays down in the church entrusted to his care the liturgical regulations which are binding on all,” a spokesman for Murphy-O’Connor told Thompson. Archbishop Burke “is welcome to attend”, but “it wasn’t really the position…

Bishop Allen H. Vigneron, 60, right, and Cardinal Adam Maida speak during a news conference in Detroit, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Pope Benedict XVI came roaring back from the Vatican’s December business respite and named Bishop Allen Vigneron of Oakland, Cal., a Michigan native, as archbishop of Detroit on Monday.

St. Louis is one of 10 dioceses - and the only archdiocese - currently without a bishop in the U.S. church. (The others are Biloxi, Miss.; Charleston, S.C.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Duluth, Minn.; Gallup, N.M.; Juneau, Alaska, and Knoxville, Tenn.) As of Monday, Oakland and Owensboro, Ky. joined the list.

The leaders of 10 more U.S. dioceses have reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. Until the end of 2008, Detroit and New York (along with New Orleans and Omaha) were the four largest American archdioceses with archbishops on the edge of retirement.

Benedict crossed Detroit off his to-do list on Monday by naming Vigneron to succeed…

Archbishop Raymond Burke

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke is scheduled to be deposed by lawyers for St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on Thursday.

The deposition is part of an ongoing legal battle between the St. Louis Archdiocese and the historically Polish church just north of downtown St. Louis.

George von Stamwitz, attorney for St. Stanislaus, said Monday that he was waiting for more documents from the archdiocese, but that two litigators for his firm would be traveling to Wisconsin to take Burke’s deposition.

Bernard Huger, an attorney for the archdiocese, confirmed that Burke was due to be deposed this week.

Burke is scheduled to be in La Crosse this week for events surrounding the Dec. 12 feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the shrine he founded near his hometown.

In July, the archdiocese and former St. Stanislaus parishioners, including former board members, sued the church, asking a judge to restore the structure that existed before its board…

Bishop Salvatore Matano of Burlington, Vermont. Credit: cardinalseansblog.org

In a town as Catholic as St. Louis, it’s only natural that in the transition time between archbishops the speculation about whom the pope might assign as the city’s next Catholic leader runs rampant.

The truth is, no one knows who will succeed Archbishop Raymond Burke, and anyone who has any information about the specifics of the search is bound by a vow of silence - called a papal secret. A papal secret is a secret - if you’re a priest or bishop - you likely don’t want to let out of the bag.

Those who keep a close eye on this kind of thing rarely stick out their necks to offer actual candidates’ names to inquiring reporters, or, when they do name names, they take pains to ensure their own remains off the record.

What is always unclear is where prospective candidates’ names surface to begin with,…

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…

Nancy Pelosi has gotten into hot water for misrepresenting Catholic Church teaching against abortion. Appearing on Meet the Press last Sunday, she said:

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time,” she said.

“And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.

And Senator - St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know,” she said…..

In a release issued Monday night, Washington, D.C.,  Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl said Pelosi’s comments on “Meet the Press” on Sunday “were incorrect.”

“We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record.”

He cited…

Archbishop Raymond Burke dedicated the pilgrimage site - the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe - he founded in his home diocese of La Crosse, Wis. yesterday.

Joe Orso, religion reporter and columnist at our Lee Enterprises sister paper, the La Crosse Tribune, wrote a great story about yesterday’s dedication. And the paper has a terrific, interactive multimedia page for anyone who wants to take a closer look at the shrine.

The shrine’s own website has some interesting features, including a schedule of events that Burke took part in during this dedication week. And a Catholic New Agency story has a good description of some of the shrine’s features.

And Duncan Stroik, one of the shrine’s architects, describes the shrine on his website.

The St. Louis Archdiocese is in a brawl with a national Catholic newspaper.

Earlier this week, the National Catholic Reporter posted an article on its website written by its executive editor, Tom Fox. The story cited anonymous sources who said an affidavit in the archdiocese’s file for Sr. Louise Lears suggested the archdiocese had sanctioned a secret video taping of a women’s ordination ceremony last fall.

NCR said the affidavit gave “permission to an individual to attend the ceremony in order to record it.” According to the story:

The archdiocese authorized someone to record the rite and then used the recording, along with photographs apparently taken from the video, as evidence to punish a Catholic nun who attended the liturgy, according to several people familiar with the case.

The paper subsequently updated its story with quotes from Rabbi Susan Talve, whose Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis was the site of the ordinations, and who told the paper…

If you are running short on patience with what you see as various jackanapes who publicly criticize Archbishop Burke on his style rather than on his message — which is what really ticks them — you might be interested in veteran Vatican watcher John Allen’s recent column.

Allen writes:

“Since news of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke’s appointment as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura was announced June 27, I’ve received numerous telephone calls and e-mails, from both sides of the Atlantic, posing some version of the following question: Was this a case of what the Italians call promuovere per rimuovere … promoting someone in order to get rid of him?

“…..The following … is not based on any insider insight. Nonetheless, my hunch is that this is not a case of promuovere per rimuovere, but what one might call “promotion for multiple motives.” In no particular order, I suspect that at least the following…

(1) Happy Birthday, Archbishop Burke. Ad Multos Annos!

(2) A local nun looks back on imprisonment in a WWII camp:

“On Chinese New Year the sisters’ hearts skipped a beat when they were told they had been summoned to the office of the camp’s commander.

“We were told to come to the Japanese headquarters and we wondered what in the world was going to happen,” Sister Mathews said. “So we marched, I think it was a mile and a half. We had a soldier behind each one of us and two soldiers at the tail end (of the group). We wondered what in the world would happen when we got there…..”

(3) The Pope does not wear Prada.

(4) Bad tenured teachers are hard to fire:

MIDDLE ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) — Few people know better than school superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer that disciplining a tenured teacher can be a long and expensive process.

An English teacher in his…