Now that Raymond Burk has been appointed Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Holy See’s highest court, he can be both judge and executioner of Fr. Bozek. How convenient! Burk is a hard-liner, or in the Vatican parlance, an intransigent. History has shown that whenever the Holy See has taken a polarizing position on temporal and quasi-temporal issues, it has either lost or worse, has been simply ignored. The two recent Vatican appointments of American prelates by Joseph Ratzinger bring with them baggage that can only harm the credibility of the Vatican, as if recent events haven’t already done so. William Levada, Prefect of the once, Holy Office, has had an ambivalent, if not cloudy relationship with one Msgr. Gregory Ingles, accused of sodomizing a 15 year old boy. Levada has also supported Burk in the latter’s altercation with the lay board of St. Stan’s parish in St. Louis. Very convenient, again. If the pope thinks that by taking stand on tendentious and problematic positions will bring order and unity to the Church, he is sadly mistaken. Given the acrimony that now prevails, realpolitik and detente would seem to be the order of the day.

Way to go Bill McKenzie and Dea.It seems to me there are not many Catholics on this blog.If you are Catholic then you must follow the rules of the Catholic church.If you want a religion that allows you to do as you please then go make up your own.It’s been done many times but if you want to follow the true religion then you should be a Catholic.My opinion so don’t bother butchering me………………..

As a Catholic from another Diocese, I am grateful for Apb. Burke’s steadfast defense of Catolic orthodoxy. Now that he is the Supreme Canon Lawer of the Church, I hope he will continue to apply Canon 1378, which he skillfully used to excommunicate the women who mocked a sacrament of ordination to the priesthood, and the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith upheld. Again, now that he is in this position, I hope and pray he will help continue to purge the Church of “heterodox-cafeteria Catholics”. The Episcopal church has signs that state “The Episcopal church welcomes you”. I contend that “so-called Catholics’ (the cafeteria type) are being called to their true home, that is the Episcopal church, which affirms everything you all believe in (abortion on demand, women priestesses, same-sex marriage) and defends nothing from Apostolic Tradition.

Again, at 60, Apb. Burke will most likely be made a Cardinal and hopefully in some 18 or 19 years later (Pope Benedict will be close to 100), he will be involved in the next conclave and help elect another solidly orthodox Catholic Pope to help restore orthodox Apostolic Tradition. As Pope Benedict stated, the Church may have to get smaller and suffer persecution first, but a smaller more faithful Church will be more fruitful and letting the light of Christ shine through.

Pax Domine Christi

Congratulations to Archbisop Burke on his promotion to Italy where he will shortly join Cardinal Law in enjoying the culture of that lovely country. It is my fervent dream that many more with his qualities join him in future, so that the Roman Catholic Church will continue along the course it has been following for the past century.

If this magical purge of the Catholic Church ever takes place the only people left will be those who kept their head in the sand about clerical abuse of children and those who prefer to look past the words of Christ in favor of their own interpretation of Tradition. These are also the people who will deny that the Church has every been corrupt, and deny that it is even possible to consider that while the Holy Spirit does guide the Church, it is still run by a bunch of men who like to run around wearing dresses and red designer slippers and who are no doubt closet homosexuals. If anyone can tell me that the likes of Burke, Law, and Braxton are heterosexual…wow. Talk about denial.

This is coming from a life-long Catholic who believes in the Eucharist and the seven sacraments, believes that abortion is wrong and immoral, believes that capital punishment is wrong and immoral, believes that the war in Iraq is wrong and immoral, and believes that the measure of a true Catholic is how faithfully he or she follows the message of Christ in terms of loving one another.

And yeah, lets give Burke a medal for excommunicating a bunch of women who effectively excommunicated themselves based upon the teaching of the Church. Great job there buddy. And yet we do not hear of ANY priest who was ever brought up on charges for child molestation, nor do we hear of any bishop who followed the laws of our United States by turning in a priest who molested children to secular authorities. Again, great job there Canon lawyer.

Archbishop Burke is a very good man because he obeys and follows the Catholic teachings and when people get upset at him because they think that he tells people to vote for this person or don’t do that because it goes against Catholicism ,well thats were they are wrong the church never forces someone to obey they just advise what decisions to make to lead Holier lives.
So when Burke leaves His Holiness Pope Benedict the XIV will assign a Stronger Archbishop Burke.

With respect to SOuth Siders comments, as a a Catholic who is considers himself Traditionalist in the context of how G.K. Chesterton put it, not someone who rejects Vatican II, only the “spirit of Vatican II” interpretation that incorrectly saw VII as a “break with the Tradition” that came before it, I agree there are many priests with homosexual orientation that are in places of control across many dioceses. With respect ot Abp Burke, I don’t think that applies to him for the following reasons. The dioceses that are controlled by the “lavendar mafia” tend to be the ones with very few priests and are rampant with dissent. This is because as you pointed out, the “priestly sexual abuse of minors” scandal” is more correctly a scandal of homosexual nature. This can be easily determined if one reads the J. Jay study which pointed out that some 80-85% of the abuse was with post pubescent males from ages 12 to 17.

As for a smaller Catholic Church, Christ started basically with 12 Aposltes and his Mother Mary, and perhaps a few hundred other disciples by the end of the Gospels, and as the Christ stated in the Gosepl of St. Matthew, the “gates of hell will not prevail against the Church” (c.f. Mt 16:18). And finally, I think the biggest problem with much of the Catholic Church and society at large is the loss of a sense of sin, that is the biggest problem, I and everyone else will sin, but it seems in some quarters of the Church, there are those who want to re-define what is sin, and that is outright heretical. I would hope that all would respond to God’s Grace and grow in conversion but at the same time, I realize that many cafeteria Catholics are probably nothing more that unitarians and liberal Protestants, which ultimately based on their own doctrines and behaviors that are endorsed will self destruct as abortion on demand, same sex marriage acceptance, are theologically an attack on God and in darwinian evolutionary terminology, by their very natural don’t reproduce themselves over the long haul and within a few generations, like all heresies, die out.

Thaks Theresa et al for adding your wonderfully correct information! Lindy, there WERE women priests for a minimum of 3 centuries - perhaps as many as 9, we DO know there women deacons installed that late. Did you that celibacy for clergy has only been in effect for half the church’s life? 12th century Pope Benedict was a monk, with such a vow, and figured everyone else should have to endure it; the wives and children of priests were forced (YES FORCED, if they wanted to eat!!) into virtual slavery for their bishops, and the papal household. The Assumption - oh yeah…I love that one…right up there with the pope (who was, in 20th/21st century palance, mentally unbalanced) declaring “infallibly” that the pope speak infallibly on faith and morals…but who never in fact did make an infallible statement that his earlier teaching on the Assumption was infallible…

And those, dear one, are the ONLY 2 infallible statements! None has been made on condoms, women priests, or even abortion.

Dogma such as the Real Presence has existed since the Middle Ages (roughly have the lfe of the Christian churches) but has been interpreted a number of ways over that time.

Yeah - Nicene Creed…”I believe in the Holy Spirit,” and that’s it, because the Spirit’s divinity, role and activity was a major point of division/contnetion between the eastern and western churches…so they copped out. Sacraments - ALL of them - were defined only at the COuncil of Trent, a mere 6 centuries ago! And all have been re-defined by pre-eminent theologians (like Thomas Aquinas, my personal hero) since then, up to and including Vatican Two - an Ecumenical Council which, *by Tradition* Lindy et al!, is the highest authority in the Christian churches (ALL of them)…even higher for Roman Catholics than papal authority.

Ginny and Teresa, you go girls. It is absolutely amazing how little most catholics know about the early church. I could tell you all about the “Papal” chair, but then all those pseudo-theologians would just get nasty. I was exposed to 9 years of catholic seminary and the tales I could tell, but then, because I was not ordained, I am called a heretic. There is only so much crap that a person can swallow, especially when they want you to cover their ass!

Burke’s departure will be a breath of fresh air into the St. Louis church. I’m hoping for a bishop that can lead through example and good deeds. Burke is known for intolerance. A “my way or the highway” type of guy, that might work well in the movies, but he is the leader of the Holy Catholic Church in St. Louis. He made it seem more like the Spanish Inquistion. Church leaders like Burke, should make everyone happy that the Church doesn’t run the government.

Th new archbishop only has to look at the long list of Burke failures, to see how not to run the church.