O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church ... give us holy priests. You yourself maintain them in holiness.
O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares, which are continually being set for the souls of priests.
May the power of Your Mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring the naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priest, for You can do all things. - St. Faustina (Diary, 1052)
Respect For the Dignity of Human Life Is the Foundation of Good Order In Our Individual Lives and Our Society
Cardinal Burke Speaks at “Being Faithful, Even Unto Death” Conference
Kansas City, Kan., Jul 25, 2011- (CNA/EWTN News) – At a Kansas City conference on end-of-life care, Cardinal Raymond 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,” Cardinal Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, told CNA.
“It’s never right to snuff out a life because it’s in some way under heavy burden.”
Cardinal Burke spoke July 23 to a packed auditorium of over 350 people at the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan. on the “mystery” of human suffering and dying for his keynote address at the “Being Faithful, Even Unto Death” conference.
The meeting, organized by the St. Gianna Physician’s Guild, addressed medical issues surrounding those suffering and those at the end of their lives. The event was the first initiative of its kind for the group.
In his speech on Saturday, Cardinal Burke said that human suffering can only be understood in light of the “gift” and “dignity” of human life.
“Human life is a gift to be accorded the highest respect and care from its beginning until natural death,” he emphasized. “We are not the creators of human life and must respect the plan of the author of life for us and for our world.”
The cardinal stressed the importance of Catholics giving end-of-life care more attention, in light of cases involving vulnerable people such as Teri Schindler Schiavo – a severely disabled Florida woman who was deprived of nutrition and hydration by court order and her husband’s request in 2005.
He underscored that nutrition and hydration are part of “basic human care” and to deprive patients of such care is not in any way “compassionate.”
Rather, “deliberately taking the life of an innocent human person is intrinsically evil and therefore, is never justified,” he said.
Along with the need for Catholics in general to be more informed on Church teaching about euthanasia, Cardinal Burke put special emphasis on Catholic students and seminarians being well versed on the topic.
All students, he said, should “pursue a certain number of courses of philosophy, so that in whatever field they specialize in,” they will use a logical, faith-filled approach to life issues.
Ultimately, he noted, “respect for the dignity of human life is the foundation of good order in our individual lives and our society.”
Without this respect, “our personal lives become profoundly disordered and society soon becomes a theater of violence and death.”
Cardinal Burke told CNA in comments following his talk that a Christian worldview isn’t necessary for people to agree that society does not have the right to determine who lives or dies.
He said that “right reason” alone is enough for people from different perspectives to enter into productive dialogue on the issue.
Also speaking at the event on Saturday was Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla who discussed the spirituality, life and legacy of her mother, Saint Gianna Beretta Molla.
Dr. Molla’s mother was declared a saint in 2004 by the Catholic Church and is known for her heroism in choosing a risky operation to save her daughter Gianna’s life when she was two months pregnant. The conference marks the first visit to the U.S. for St. Gianna’s daughter.
Other speakers included geriatric specialist Dr. Austin Welsh, Thomas More Society executive director Peter Breen, and Bobby Schindler and Suzanne Vitadamo – both siblings of Teri Schiavo.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City and Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph also attended the event.
Cardinal Raymond L. Burke delivered a lecture on what he calls a nearly 50-year trend of self-centered liturgy last week at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, D.C.
“In the time since the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, but certainly not because of the teaching of the council, there has been exaggerated attention on the human aspect of the sacred liturgy,” said the high ranking Vatican official in his May 11 address.
Cardinal Burke acknowledged upfront that the topic could seem redundant because the liturgy is, by its very essence, God-given and God-directed.
“Is not the Church by its very nature divine? That is, called into being and sustained in being by God, and therefore centered in God. Are not the Church herself and her worship by definition directed toward God?” he asked.
But, the American cardinal said, in the last 50 years undue attention has been given to the “human aspect of the sacred liturgy, which has overlooked the essence of the sacred liturgy as the encounter of God with us by means of sacramental signs. That is, as the direct action of the glorious Christ in the Church, to give to us the grace of the Holy Spirit.”
The over-emphasis on the human dimension, said Cardinal Burke, has raised the need to discuss this important topic.
Cardinal Burke drew on Old and New Testament scripture passages to demonstrate that God is the first and last object of worship in liturgy.
“He founded the covenant of faithful and enduring love between himself and his people on the Decalogue – the Ten Commandments.”
The Vatican-based cardinal said that the first three of the Ten Commandments establish the jus divinum – or “the divine right of God to be worshiped by us, in the manner in which he wishes to be worshiped.”
Cardinal Burke continued, saying that the first three commandments establish God as the only rightful recipient of worship. Following these first three commandments are the regulations about making sacrifices at the altar. About these regulations, Cardinal Burke reiterated that they were not man-made, but rather “the gift of God to man, in which God makes it possible for man to offer the sacrifice of communion with him.”
He went on to draw several parallels between Old Testament worship and the New Testament, where God’s unique right to be worshiped finds its ultimate fulfillment.
“In the Sermon on the Mount, in which our Lord Jesus communicates the law of the New Covenant – the fulfillment of the covenant on Mt. Sinai – the first beatitude is poverty of spirit, which recognizes the Lord as the source of our being itself and of every good.”
In Jesus’ affirmation that he came to fulfill the Old Testament law, rather than abolish it, Cardinal Burke said, “The words of the Lord confirm the fundamental service of the law, which is to honor and to safe-guard the jus divinum, the divine right, and thereby to honor and safeguard the order written by God in his creation.”
The cardinal argued that the Old Testament sacrificial code commanded by God is fulfilled in Christ’s commandment at the Last Supper – “Do this in remembrance of me.” This command, he said, brings the rightful worship of God full circle in the Eucharist we celebrate today.
He also asserted that it is clear from Jesus’ teaching that “faith in him as messiah, as God the son … is expressed first of all, and most perfectly, in the worship owed to God.”
Cardinal Burke summarized his talk by saying: “All of the norms of the Law are directed to the just relationship between God and his people upon which depends the salvation of the world. And thus they must be respected as the commandment of God and not the invention of man.”
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Would you let Courageous Priest know how you think the over emphasis on the human aspect of the liturgy has impacted the faith of Catholics, especially Catholics in North America.
Houston, Texas, May 5, 2011 / 12:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Top Vatican official Cardinal Raymond L. Burke is set to pray and speak out against abortion at Planned Parenthood’s new facility expansion in Texas.
Cardinal Burke will pray at the Planned Parenthood facility in Houston, TX on Monday, May 9, 2011
“Cardinal Burke is a man of great passion for the pro-life cause and is one of the highest ranking U.S. bishops in the church,” said event organizers from the Catholic Charismatic Center on April 28.
The cardinal serves as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura for the Vatican in Rome.
“His particular presence at this abortion facility will be a very significant moment of official opposition to the abortion industry in America.”
Hundreds are expected to join Cardinal Burke on May 9 outside the Houston clinic, which recently built a sizable addition specifically for late-term abortions.
The prayer vigil is part of two pro-life events slated in the next week which include a “Night for Life” benefit on May 8 with Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
The gala will help fund the Pro-life Apostolate of the Catholic Charismatic Center.
“The presence of these two prominent voices for the unborn in this country lends special significance to this Gala and the message that will be spoken regarding Planned Parenthood’s huge expansion in Houston making it the abortion capital of the United States and South America, will be heard by many,” organizers said.
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Please keep Cardinal Burke and Cardinal DiNardo in your prayers as they pray at the gates of the monster abortion facility.
Listen To a Tell All Interview with Cardinal Raymond Burke
Go ahead treat yourself and listen or read it below.
St. Louis Review Interview with Cardinal Burke – An Interview with Cardinal Raymond L. Burke during his visit to St. Louis to celebrate the occasion of his elevation to the Sacred College of Cardinals. Cardinal Burke also was present for the Ordination Mass of the new Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Bishop Edward Rice. The interview was conducted by Jennifer Brinker, a reporter for the St. Louis, Review.
Now that several months have passed since you were elevated to the College of Cardinals, have you had time to reflect on that moment? And have you thought to yourself: How did this happen, and how did I get here?
I have, in fact. In particular, having the celebration of a Mass of Thanksgiving, both in the Diocese of La Crosse and also now in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, has given me even more occasion to reflect upon the reality of the new responsibility which has been given to me. When I think about it, it is not something I ever would have imagined when I began my studies for the priesthood or even in my years of service as a priest and bishop. I simply thank God for the privilege to serve our Holy Father in this way. And at the same time, I am calling upon the help of God, because I realize my own limitations in providing for the Holy Father whatever he may ask of me.
How, if at all, has becoming a cardinal changed your priesthood?
My priesthood has taken on a new consciousness. Now there is the need to be even more attentive to the Magisterium of the Holy Father and to try to assist him in carrying out his work as he is inspired to do it. I’m conscious of the need to pay a closer attention to the words of our Holy Father and to his manner of carrying out his service of the Universal Church, and to try to assist him in any way that I can — clearly, through my regular duties as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and as a member of a number of his congregations and councils, but also in my everyday service as a priest and bishop.
Tell me about your position as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Could you provide our readers with a glimpse of the work that you do?
What the Supreme Tribunal does is to help the Holy Father in his responsibility to secure justice in the Church. To take care that justice is done, which it is the minimum but essential work of the Church, in order that She carry out her highest service, which is charity. But where there is not justice, there cannot be charity. So we often say in the Apostolic Signatura that we carry out a very humble, but essential service.
What do we do? We have the oversight of all of the Church tribunals throughout the world, and we respond to all the diverse kind of requests and questions that come from the tribunals themselves, or from the faithful who have had some experience with the tribunals, either asking us to discipline a situation or to assist them in some way, so that the tribunal can assist the faithful. Each tribunal submits an annual report on its status and activities, which is given careful study. After the study of the report, we may ask for some further information or request copies of decisions of the tribunal, in order to understand better how it is operating and to assist it. This first area is a big area of responsibility. There are over 1,000 ecclesiastical tribunals throughout the world. There is a great deal of work here, and we could always do more.
Secondly, we handle what are called administrative cases, namely recourses against an individual administrative act of someone in authority in the Church, usually a bishop or a religious superior. The faithful may be upset, for instance, about the suppression of a parish … or a religious about his or her dismissal from the religious life, or a priest about his transfer or his removal from office. If they believe that the act was not carried out according to the Church’s law, they may make recourse to the Holy See. Those are very laborious cases. They come to us after they have already been appealed to one of the Roman congregations or councils. If either party, either the superior or the person making the recourse, is not happy with the decision given at the Roman congregation or council, he can then appeal to us for a final decision. We handle it in a judicial way, with arguments from advocates for both parties, with the intervention, as often as necessary, of the promoter of justice of the Supreme Tribunal. Then the final decision is rendered by the judges who are all cardinals, or archbishops or bishops of the Church.
These are very difficult cases in which there is usually a great deal of unhappiness. The only comfort that we take is that we are able to give a definitive decision in the name of the Holy Father. This brings peace to people in the sense that they know now that their contention has been judged at the highest possible level. They have received a decision, and even if they don’t like it, at least they know that they have been heard, at the highest level, by those who act for the Holy Father.
The third area that we deal with is very limited and that is the cases against the Roman Rota, which is the Pope’s ordinary tribunal for judicial cases, mostly cases of marriage nullity.
During the events of the consistory, I remember you saying that “I discovered in canon law a great richness that has to do with the whole life of the Church. In many ways, it’s a very humble discipline … but it’s at the service of every aspect of the Church’s life.” Can you elaborate on that?
Canon law, the discipline of the Church, which is codified in the canons of the Code of Canon Law, is what guarantees the effective exercise of the Church’s mission, whether it’s teaching, whether it’s sanctifying, or whether it’s governing the people of God. And so when you study canon law, you end up studying all of the various aspects of the Church’s life. Her organic nature, the different vocations, the different states in life, the different services given by various members of the Church … In that way, you come to appreciate very much the richness of the life of the Church. As I say, it’s humble. We don’t have the joy in canon law of actually carrying out these services, but we have the deep joy of knowing what we’re doing is safeguarding relationships and situations in the Church so that the Church’s mission can be carried out.
What is life like serving in ministry for the Universal Church? I ask this because many Catholics have not had the privilege of seeing firsthand how the Roman Curia works. How does that work hand in hand with the life of the average Catholic in the pew?
What I experience, and what anyone working in the Roman Curia experiences, is the direct service of Catholics, individual Catholics in the pew, but now coming from every corner of the world. One experiences a whole diversity of situations in the Church, and what you learn and come to know, serving in the Roman Curia, is the wideness of the Church, Her Catholic nature embracing the whole world, embracing people of every language and race and nation. And that is, at one and the same time, a source of wonder and also a … cause for humility.
In summary, what does the Church teach on the subject of free will?
God made us in His own image and likeness. And that means that He made us to both know the truth and to live the truth in love. With our mind we come to know the truth; with our will, we love the truth and live the truth. Free will for us is never a question of license, namely doing whatever I please, because that really doesn’t make us free. And all of us have had the experience when we’ve just done what we please. Indeed, we don’t enjoy freedom. In fact, we become enslaved to one or another creature, or enslaved to a habit of sin.
Free will is developed in us through a discipline of our thoughts and our affections, and our words and our actions, so that they more and more are conformed to the mind and heart of Jesus Christ. And as we attain that conformity with the mind and heart of Jesus Christ, we experience a great freedom. We discover that freedom is not meant for my selfish enjoyment, but that true freedom is for the good of my brothers and sisters and the good of those who are around me. We discover that our greatest joy comes from being selfless and being generous and sacrificing ourselves, even when it hurts us very much, in order to love.
Even though God has a plan for every one of us, why is it that He gives us free will to make decisions in our earthly life? Why doesn’t He just say He has a predestined plan for us and make us act according to that?
If that would be the case, we would no longer be made in His own image and likeness. We would be a kind of determined creature who is simply carrying out a program. Yes, He has a plan. The plan is our own perfection, what is for our greatest good. And we are confident that, if we pray to know God’s will and use all of the appropriate means to discover His will in our life, we will do it. But we will do it through our own knowledge, with the help of God’s grace of course, and our choice. We give ourselves. We are not determined to do something, but it is our free gift. That’s the way our Lord wants it, because we’re made to have communion with Him. And communion with Him means we share in His own gifts of truth and love.
Would you say that a properly formed conscience is the meeting point between God’s will for us and our freedom to choose to live according to His plan? What sort of instruction must one go through to have a properly formed conscience?
We start with reason itself and what it can uncover for us with regard to God’s plan for us in our world. And fundamentally what we discover is the Ten Commandments. The respect for the inviolability of human life, the respect for the integrity for marriage and of the family. And ultimately the respect for God Himself as the origin of all being, and moreover the Savior, after the rebellion of our first parents. And so God … has written into our hearts the knowledge of His law, a disposition to grow in the knowledge of His law, which is called conscience. Conscience is a meeting place between God and ourselves, and is formed through reason first. Then, Divine Revelation, as it is handed down to us in the teaching of the Church, brings us to an ever deeper understanding of the truth. … It also uncovers for us particular aspects of our relationship with God and one another that we would not be able to discover by reason alone.
What about a person who has an ill-formed conscience? I think of the case in which an Arizona hospital recently lost its Catholic status after allowing an intentional abortion. What, then, happens to the matter of free will if a person has not been properly formed in conscience or deliberately chooses to go against God’s design for us?
We simply become subjects to either what is popular or what the majority wants or is advocating, or of some fad or … of a confusion and an error, for instance, with regard to abortion. Once we abandon the truth that it is always and everywhere wrong to take the life of an innocent and defenseless human being, then we are following a voice which is not the truth, and we are leading ourselves down a path which is ultimately deadly. What is produced in a society by this kind of conduct, by a lack of respect for a properly formed conscience, is a culture of death. We find increasing violence, we find the taking of the lives of the innocent and defenseless unborn, then the attack … on those who are bearing a heavy burden of weakness because of age or serious disease or some special needs.
What are your thoughts on those who are held against their will and unable to freely make a choice? There are women who every day are coerced into having an abortion, either by the child’s father, or the mother’s parents, for example.
It’s a difficult choice, but we cannot ever say that the end justifies the means. There can be all kinds of situations, especially during times of war, and other situations where people are obliged to endure imprisonment, or even death itself in order to follow their conscience. For instance … St. John Fisher refused to acknowledge the supremacy of King Henry VIII over the Catholic Church; which would have been for him to deny that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth. And he remained free in upholding the teaching of the Church, but it cost him his life. But his freedom was too important to him to give it up in order to save his life. The same way with St. Thomas More.
Do you think individuals take for granted this awesome responsibility and gift of free will? What kind of advice would you give to someone to help that person to remember that God gives us free will, but yet also keep in mind His will for us?
I do think that there’s a tendency in society today, especially through a lack of a deep education of the children and young people, and also from a lack of study and reflection on the part of us who are adults … to lose sight of the central reality of free will and of conscience in our lives. And that’s how we end up with so many tragic situations in the world. … I would urge, especially in the home, that parents devote themselves to forming the conscience of their children, even as they seek to keep their own consciences well informed through the study of the Catholic faith — especially through participation in Sunday Mass and the other means that are given to deepen the Catholic faith. … Our institutions of Catholic education should be very much directed to helping the students to develop a well-formed conscience.
“How Tragic” That Many Catholic
Universities “Exemplify Secularism”
Boston, Mass (CNA)- The authentically Catholic university helps students resist “secularist dictatorship” by keeping Jesus Christ at the center of its mission and by exposing the moral bankruptcy of contemporary culture, Cardinal Raymond Burke said Dec. 4.
Cardinal Raymond L. Burke
The cardinal’s comments came in an address at St. Thomas More College’s annual President’s Council Dinner, held Dec. 4 at the Harvard Club of Boston.
In a lengthy discussion of the nature of Catholic higher education, he said that a Catholic university faithful to its identity will help students give an account of their faith and help them resist “the secularist dictatorship which would exclude all religious discourse from the professions and from public life in general.”
He also declared Jesus Christ, the “fullness” of God’s revelation, as “the first and chief teacher at every institution of Catholic higher education.”
“A Catholic college or university at which Jesus Christ alive in His Church is not taught, encountered in the Sacred Liturgy and its extension through prayer and devotion, and followed in a life of virtue is not worthy of the name,” he told attendees.
Jesus’ presence is not something “extraneous” to the pursuit of truth because he alone inspires and guides professors and students to remain faithful in their pursuits and not “fall prey to the temptations which Satan cleverly offers to corrupt us.”
Cardinal Burke lamented the fall of many American Catholic colleges and universities that have become “Catholic in name only.”
Citing Pope John Paul II’s ad limina address to the U.S. bishops of New York, he said that the service of Catholic universities “depends on the strength of their Catholic identity.” The Catholic university was born from “the heart of the Church” and has been “critical” to meeting the challenges of the time.
The Catholic university is needed more than ever in a society “marked by a virulent secularism which threatens the integrity of every aspect of human endeavor and service,” he said.
“How tragic that the very secularism which the Catholic university should be helping its students to battle and overcome has entered into several Catholic universities, leading to the grievous compromise of their high mission,” he commented.
The American-born cardinal said that rather than exemplifying secularism, the Catholic university’s manner of study and research should “manifest the bankruptcy of the abuse of human life and human sexuality … and the bankruptcy of the violation of the inviolable dignity of human life, of the integrity of marriage, and of the right order of our relationship to one another and to the world.”
This bankruptcy is “the trademark of our culture, a culture of violence and death,” he charged. Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, he said the mission of the Catholic university is “to develop a society truly worthy of the human person’s dignity.”
The Bishop’s Role
Cardinal Burke also described the kind of relationship that should exist between the local bishop and a Catholic university. The “noble mission” of the university, he said, can only be accomplished within the Church, and the local bishop should be able to depend upon the Catholic university as a partner in meeting the challenges of evangelization, in teaching the faith, and in celebrating the liturgy.
He criticized as “totally anomalous” the situation in which the Catholic university views the bishop as “a suspect or outright unwelcome partner in the mission of Catholic higher education.”
On the issues of creating curricula and hiring professors, Cardinal Burke advised “special care,” noting the poor religious formation of many young Catholics.
“Given the religious illiteracy which marks our time and in fidelity to the seriousness with which university studies should be undertaken, there is really no place for engaging in speculative theology and certainly no time to waste on superficial and tendentious theological writings of the time,” the cardinal contended.
He questioned why students should be engaged in discussions about the ordination of women as priests when they already have little knowledge of the “consistent teaching” of the Holy Scriptures and Catholic Tradition on the priesthood.
He closed his remarks by praying that St. Thomas More College will form its graduates to cultivate “the divine wisdom and truth” and always to place truth and love first.
“My reflection is offered to assist us all in seeking always first the truth and love by which we serve others and our world well by serving God first,” he said.
In an e-mail to CNA, St. Thomas More College president William Fahey characterized Cardinal Burke’s speech as “a kind of authoritative gloss on Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” John Paul II’s encyclical on Catholic higher education.
In his own remarks at the President’s Council Dinner, Fahey characterized the New Hampshire college as “small by design” like the U.S. Marine Corps. He stressed the college’s Catholic identity and its commitment to the New England region, asking for help and prayers to support a growing student body.
It is so refreshing to listen to a clear and charitable teaching on a topic that so many people never hear. Email subscribers will need to click on the headline to view the video.
If You Love the Truth, Then This Video Says It All!
“Contraceptive Mentality Is Essentially Anti-life”
“The Human Bankruptcy of our Culture”
“Integrity of the Conjugal Act is Essential to the Advancement of the Culture of Life”
“Disobedience of Faith, also on the Part of Certain Bishops”
“The Lack of Integrity in Obeying the Magisterium”
“It Is Not Possible to be a Practicing Catholic” and Support Homosexual Marriage or Abortion
Addressing the Human Life International World Prayer Congress, Archbishop Raymond Burke divulges the true Catholic stance on . . .
Contraception
Abortion
Homosexuality
Obedience to the Magisterium
Self-Professed Catholic Politicians
Self-Professed Catholic Voters
Do yourself a favor and click the play button. I can’t encourage you enough to take the time and watch this video!
Your Open Dissent From Church Authority Is Absurd!
Kathleen Gilbert Life Site News–Catholic consecrated religious who openly dissent from the authority of Rome and the church’s teaching on life are “an absurdity of the most tragic kind” and should cease identifying themselves as Catholic, said Archbishop Raymond Burke, the head of Rome’s Apostolic Signatura.
Burke gave the remarks in his keynote address Friday at the Institute for Religious Life’s national meeting at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. The Institute also honored Burke with their Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award at a celebration of the legacy of Servant of God Fr. John Hardon, SJ.
In excerpts of the address published by Thomas Peters of the American Papist blog, Burke took a moment to express his exasperation with the defiance of Catholic religious sisters in the U.S. who supported the federal health care bill – a measure dubbed the most pro-abortion piece of legislation since Roe v. Wade, thanks to its vast expansion of government abortion funding.
“Who could imagine that consecrated religious would openly, and in defiance of the bishops as successors of the apostles, publicly endorse legislation containing provisions which violated the natural moral law in its most fundamental tenets – the safeguarding and promoting of innocence and defenseless life, and fail to safeguard the demands of the free exercise of conscience for health care workers?” Burke questioned.
The Vatican official also severely criticized “public and obstinate betrayal of religious life by certain religious” towards Rome’s ongoing apostolic visitation into U.S. religious orders.
After the visitation began last spring, Sr. Sandra M. Schneiders of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary said in remarks published on the National Catholic Reporter that nuns should receive representatives of Rome “politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house.”
“Who ever could have imagined that religious congregations of pontifical right, would openly organize to resist and attempt to frustrate an apostolic visitation, that is, a visit to their congregations carried out under the authority of the vicar of Christ on earth, to whom all religious are bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty and obedience?” he asked.
Abp. Burke indicated that the attitude of sisters towards the visitation represents “a growing tendency among certain consecrated religious to view themselves outside and above the body of Christ as a parallel institution looking in upon the Church with an autonomy which contradicts their very nature.”
“Religious life lived in the heart of the Church, and for that reason religious congregations are, by their very nature, bound in strictest loyalty to the Roman Pontiff,” he said. “It is of course an absurdity of the most tragic kind to have consecrated religious knowingly and obstinately acting against the moral law.
“The spiritual harm done to the individual religious who are disobedient and also the grave scandal caused to the faithful and people in general are of incalculable dimensions.”
Burke also directly challenged Sr. Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, as well as Network, a pro-abortion lobby group of U.S. nuns, whose support for the bill the Obama administration openly acknowledged as critical to its success.
“Now is the time for us all, and in particular for consecrated persons to stand up for the truth and to call upon our fellow Catholics in leadership to do the same, or to cease identifying themselves as Catholics.”
A Culture of Death
“Can Only Produce Violence and Death
and in the End Destroy Itself!”
Archbishop Raymond Burke stands firm and attacks the evils of abortion, homosexual unions, embryonic stem cell, euthanasia…
Read this edited homily proclaimed by our beloved Archbishop Burke given at the annual Red Mass, Diocese of Phoenix in St. Mary’s Basilica. Full homily here.
Archbishop Burke Portrait
More and more, we witness the violation of the most fundamental norms of divine natural law in the policies and laws of our nation, and in the judgments given by her courts. Justice founded on obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, first of all, must safeguard and defend the inviolability of innocent human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, and the integrity of the faithful and indissoluble union of man and woman in marriage through which spouses, in cooperation with God, create and nurture new human life. At the same time, the law more and more dares to force those with the sacred trust of caring for the health of their brothers and sisters to violate the most sacred tenets of their consciences, and to force individuals and institutions to cooperate in egregious violations of the natural moral law. The reality of the situation is cloaked in a false garment of justice, for example, the direct taking of human life at its very earliest stages of development and the direct abortion of infants in their mother’s wombs is justified as the research necessary to find cures for dread diseases or as necessary for “reproductive health,” and the violation of the integrity of the marital union is justified as the practice of tolerance.
The Evils We Face
The present situation of our nation is the source of our deepest concern as we pray for the ministers of justice. In our nation, the lives of millions of our unborn brothers and sisters have been and continue to be legally destroyed through embryonic stem-cell research and procured abortion; the lives of those who have the first title to our respect and care – the seriously ill, those with special needs and the advanced in years – are increasingly viewed as a burden to be eliminated from society; our laws presume to redefine marriage and the family, the first cell of the life of our society, in defiance of the law of nature; and the freedom of conscience is denied to individuals, even taxpayers in general, and to institutions by policies and laws which force cooperation in acts which are always and everywhere evil.
Evil Fruits Are Evidence
We see before our eyes the evil fruits of life in a society which pretends to take the place of God in making its laws and in giving its judgments, in a society in which those in power decide what is right and just, according to their desires and convenience, even at the cost of perpetrating the gravest harm upon their neighbor. We see before our eyes the evil fruits of life in a society in which a right conscience no longer guides those who make laws and give judgments, in which those in power no longer have “God alone before their eyes.” In such a society, the administration of justice is no longer a participation in the justice of God, an obedient response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but a façade cloaking our own selfishness and refusal to give our lives for the sake of the good of all our brothers and sisters. It is the kind of society which we, as Americans, have rightly deplored and against which we have so often fought at the greatest human and material cost to our nation. It is a society which is abandoning its Judaeo-Christian foundations, the fundamental obedience to God’s law which safeguards the common good, and is embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the “hope,” the “future,” of our nation. Reason and faith teaches us that such a society can only produce violence and death and in the end destroy itself.
Don’t Lose Hope
The situation of our nation, profoundly disturbing as it is, cannot be for us a cause of discouragement, let alone abandonment of the ministry of the justice which comes from God and, therefore, serves the good of all without boundary or condition. Uniting ourselves to Christ in His Eucharistic Sacrifice, we accept not only our portion of His suffering for the sake of justice but are also filled with confidence in His victory over sin and the forces of evil. Praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the ministers of justice in our society from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, His Eucharistic Heart, we must be completely realistic about what the prompting of the Holy Spirit will demand of them in our time. At the same time, we must be confident that the Holy Spirit will give them the wisdom and courage to declare what is just and right on behalf of their brothers and sisters. If we are tempted by doubts of faith, we should contemplate again the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of our brother in the Communion of Saints, Saint Thomas More. Even as the Holy Spirit inspired and strengthened Saint Thomas More to be true to his conscience, not only for the sake of the salvation of his own soul but for the good of the people he had been called to serve, even so the Holy Spirit will produce the same holiness of life in our ministers of justice, so that they will be able to declare at all times: “I am the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”
My brothers and sisters who are the ministers of justice, all of us depend upon you to speak what is just and right on our behalf and on behalf of all our brothers and sisters, especially those whose lives are in any way threatened. Conscious of the heavy burden which you carry, especially in the present situation of our nation, we beg God, today, to pour forth upon you in abundance the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that you, in Christ, will judge “[n]ot by appearance … nor by hearsay” but with the justice which has its foundation in obedience to the law of God. We thank God for your presence with us today, as we offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, giving thanks to God for your service on behalf of us all and petitioning an abundance of God’s grace for the fulfillment of your most fundamental and noble service of us all. In a special way, we pray that you may never give way to discouragement or to the abandonment of the demands of your conscience, but may enjoy always the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit dwelling within your souls.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love, have mercy on us.
O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mirror of Justice, pray for us.
Using the example of St. Thomas More, Archbishop Raymond Burke exhorted legal professionals present at Tuesday’s Red Mass in St. Mary’s Cathedral to keep God before their eyes as they strive to administer justice amidst a “society which is abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations.”
“As a Catholic lawyer, it is an incredible honor to be graced with the presence of Archbishop Burke at the Red Mass,” John Kelly, general counsel for the Diocese of Phoenix, told The Catholic Sun. “This is also a man who has publicly and unabashedly defended the teachings of the Church on the sanctity of life. An opportunity to celebrate Mass with someone like this does not come along very often.”
Archbishop Burke presented the story of St. Thomas More, a lawyer who was martyred for choosing to serve God instead of the king. The patron saint of lawyers, the archbishop reminded, is known for exclaiming, “I die the king’s good servant, and God’s first.” “Saint Thomas More understood that there could be no contradiction between his service of his nation and his service of God, and that, in fact, he could only serve his nation truly and faithfully by his true and faithful service of God,” Archbishop Burke declared. As he reflected on the calling of those in the legal profession, the archbishop called to mind the traditional formulation of a definitive sentence, “the judge, in giving the final disposition of the sentence, always first declared: ‘Having God only before my eyes.’”
In our culture, “the law more and more dares to force those with the sacred trust of caring for the health of their brothers and sisters to violate the most sacred tenets of their consciences, and to force individuals and institutions to cooperate in egregious violations of the natural moral law,” he said. “In such a society, the administration of justice is no longer a participation in the justice of God, an obedient response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but a façade cloaking our own selfishness and refusal to give our lives for the sake of the good of all our brothers and sisters.” “It is a society which is abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations, the fundamental obedience to God’s law which safeguards the common good, and is embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the hope, as the future, of our nation. Reason and faith teaches us that such a society can only produce violence and death and in the end destroy itself,” Archbishop Burke warned.
Addressing the lawyers and politicians present, he stated, “All of us depend upon you to speak what is just and right on our behalf and on behalf of all our brothers and sisters, especially those whose lives are in any way threatened.”
May we lift up our politicians and judges to the Eucharistic Heart of Our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of his mother, and pray for each of their conversions.
God and, therefore, serves the good of all without boundary or condition. Uniting ourselves to Christ in His Eucharistic Sacrifice, we accept not only our portion of His suffering for the sake of justice but are also filled with confidence in His victory over sin and the forces of evil. Praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the ministers of justice in our society from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, His Eucharistic Heart, we must be completely realistic about what the prompting of the Holy Spirit will demand of them in our time. At the same time, we must be confident that the Holy Spirit will give them the wisdom and courage to declare what is just and right on behalf of their brothers and sisters. If we are tempted by doubts of faith, we should contemplate again the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of our brother in the Communion of Saints, Saint Thomas More. Even as the Holy Spirit inspired and strengthened Saint Thomas More to be true to his conscience, not only for the sake of the salvation of his own soul but for the good of the people he had been called to serve, even so the Holy Spirit will produce the same holiness of life in our ministers of justice, so that they will be able to declare at all times: “I am the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”