UNTIED STATES
Commonweal
The Editors
Schadenfreude can be a grave temptation and, if not resisted, a serious sin. There are some, both inside and outside the church, who have taken a certain glee in the fate of Cardinal Raymond Burke. Burke, the former archbishop of St. Louis, first made a name for himself as one of the American hierarchy’s most outspoken conservatives and energetic culture warriors. He came to national attention for warning that he would refuse to give Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. A canon lawyer, Burke argued that denying Communion to prochoice Catholic public officials was a cut-and-dried issue. He understands most things to be cut and dried. That is not, however, how Pope Francis sees things, and the pope has taken steps to sideline the cardinal. Last year Burke was removed from the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, and just last month he was relieved of his duties as head of the church’s high court. Instead, Burke has been given the ceremonial title of patron for the Knights of Malta.
Burke has not taken his removal from the centers of influence in Rome quietly. He has been perhaps the most outspoken critic of the recent Synod on the Family, repeatedly charging that the synod’s discussion of homosexuality, cohabitation, and the readmission of some divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion has sown dangerous “confusion” among the faithful. The church under Pope Francis, the cardinal warns, “is like a ship without a rudder.” Burke insists that what the church has taught about homosexuality and marriage is unchanging and unchangeable. Look it up in the Catechism, he urges.
Popes are free to staff the Vatican with whomever they think best suited to steward the church and implement whatever program of retrenchment, stasis, or reform is needed. Burke’s vision for the church calls for a defensive and rejectionist posture toward the modern world. Francis clearly thinks that strategy will result in a further eclipse of the gospel and marginalization of Catholicism. The pope’s aim is to steer the church away from the culture wars and toward a joyful engagement with Catholics and non-Catholics alike. “Joyful” is not the first word that comes to mind when listening to Cardinal Burke. Many find Francis’s openness a promising departure from the last two pontificates, while a vocal, entrenched minority, identifying themselves as the “orthodox,” see papal initiatives like the Synod on the Family as a kind of betrayal. Some, including Burke, speak darkly about the possibility of schism.
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