Ah yes, Archbishop Raymond Burke.

[Jackeens]

(I know, nothing new here, just another example of a contemptible Catholic 'leader', but I thought I'd pass it on any way).


I was reading today about the lovely Archbishop Raymond Burke upping his campaign against Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama (more here: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98262CG3&show_article=1&catnum=3). For any of you lucky enough not to have heard of this creature, a flavour:

- In 2004, he said he would deny Communion to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights as part of public policy.

- He protested singer Sheryl Crow's appearance at a benefit for a Catholic children's hospital over her support for embryonic stem cell research.

- In January 2008 he called on Saint Louis University, a Jesuit school, to discipline college basketball coach Rick Majerus for publicly supporting abortion rights.

- said "the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,' because of its choices on bioethical questions," especially abortion.

- "One can legitimately question the wisdom of the decisions taken in the war in Iraq, but war in itself is not always and everywhere evil, as are, for example, procured abortion, human cloning, embryonic stem-cell research"

- called the confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, "the source of deepest embarrassment for Catholics."

- has accused President Obama of pushing an anti-life, anti-family agenda and of being "an agent of death"

- called Notre Dame's invitation to him to speak "the source of the greatest scandal"


Scandal? Ah yes, the Archbishop knows all about it:

....Several victims who claim they were abused by priests in La Crosse tell Riverfront Times they were stonewalled by Burke, who declined to report their allegations to local authorities. And while some of his fellow church officials nationwide were reaching hefty settlements with victims, Raymond Burke was unyielding in his refusal to negotiate with victims' rights groups. He declined to make public the names of priests who were known to have been abusive, and he denied requests to set up a victims' fund. Most strikingly, Riverfront Times has learned, while bishop in La Crosse Burke allowed at least three priests to remain clerics in good standing long after allegations of their sexual misconduct had been proven -- to the church, to the courts and, finally, to Burke himself.

..."We don't exist, for him," seconds Peter Isely, a Wisconsin leader of the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "Loyalty to the church is of the highest order for him, and his response to victims' claims has been lethargic and slow and reluctant and bureaucratic and impersonal."

From a detailed investigation in to Burke's handling of child abuse allegations: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2004-08-25/news/immaculate-deception



Ah yes, the same man who describes Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama as "the source of the greatest scandal".


Wikipedia: In 2008 the Pope elevated Archbishop Burke to the office of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, a position equivalent to that of Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court....as such, immediately after the Roman Pontiff, Burke holds the highest judicial office in the entirety of the Roman Catholic Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Leo_Burke

[MichiganVote]

1. Bigot Burke the Jerk. Figures the RCC would "elevate" one of their criminals.

[Ilsa]

2. But they'll let politicians who are pro-war come talk at NDU. Hypocrites. nt