Burke apolgizes for remarks critical of U.S. bishops

Bishop Burke broke the ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT:

Thou Shalt NOT get Caught.

He will take over Cardinal Law's post, when Cardinal Law retires - as the title archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, a largely ceremonial post often given to retired prelates.

Vatican appoints former Boston archbishop head of a Rome basilica

The Associated Press
Thursday, May 27, 2004

VATICAN CITY- Pope John Paul II on Thursday gave Cardinal Bernard F. Law an official position in Rome, naming the former Boston archbishop who resigned in the sex abuse scandal as head of a basilica.
Law will have the title archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, a largely ceremonial post often given to retired prelates.

The 72-year-old Law resigned Dec. 13, 2002, to quell an outcry over his handling of sex abuse cases. He was the highest-ranking church leader to lose his job over the scandal that began in Boston and spread to Roman Catholic dioceses across the U.S., plunging the church into an unprecedented moral and financial crisis.

He moved from Boston and became resident chaplain at a convent in Maryland, although he retained his membership on nine Vatican congregations and councils, traveling frequently to Rome. He attended a number of events during celebrations for John Paul's 25th anniversary as pontiff in October.

An archpriest is in charge of administration in a basilica, and has ceremonial functions. At St. Mary Major in downtown Rome, near the city's main railroad station, he succeeds 82-year-old Italian Cardinal Carlo Furno.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents more than 130 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests, said the Vatican was sending a bad message by giving Law a high profile new job.

"He apparently is being transferred to a position that is comfortable and appears to be some sort of reward," Garabedian said. "The Vatican either doesn't understand the problem of clergy sex abuse, or it doesn't care. That shows by this new prestigious post given to Cardinal Law."

The Boston Archdiocese was at the center of the national clergy sex abuse scandal following the release of church documents revealing that church leaders shuffled accused priests from parish to parish instead of removing them from ministry.

Law himself was named in hundreds of lawsuits accusing him of failing to protect children from known child molesters. Ten months after his departure, Law's successor, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, helped to broker an $85 million settlement agreement with more than 550 victims of clergy sex abuse.

The Rev. Christopher Coyne, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

After becoming head of the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese in 1984, Law rose to become one of the pope's closest American advisers. Even after his resignation as archbishop of Boston, he retained the title of cardinal, leaving open the possibility that he could take another church post and retaining the right to vote in papal elections until he turns 80.

St. Mary Major is one of four basilicas under direct Vatican jurisdiction. It has an international staff of priests for the many tourists who visit the city.

No one answered the telephone at the basilica's offices on Thursday.

“I am deeply sorry for the confusion and hurt which the wrong use of the videotape has caused to anyone, particularly, to my brother bishops.”

The Bishop is NOT sorry for what he said.
He is sorry for the confusion and hurt caused.
The Confusion and HURT was caused by the WRONG use of the Videotape.

That is NO APOLOGY.

Bishop Burke reminds us yet another time of the weak calibre and integrity of the current crop of American bishops. What a pathetic creature! Thank God he is in Rome, now.

Peter Carey

Yes the Holy Spirit is at work, weak leaders like Cardinal Burke exhibit for all to see and understand that the Church is human, it is political, its leaders can be, as demonstrated, manipulative of its membership, it is only by the grace of God that we have lasted this long as an institution. Continue to pray for discernment always, pray that new appointments to leadership are strong, remember above all God is with us in spite of our leaders arrorgance.

Yes the Holy Spirit is at work, weak leaders like Bishop Burke exhibit for all to see and understand that the Church is human, it is political, its leaders can be, as demonstrated, manipulative of its membership, it is only by the grace of God that we have lasted this long as an institution. Continue to pray for discernment always, pray that new appointments to leadership are strong, remember above all God is with us in spite of our leaders arrorgance.

Nothing wrong with the facts that he explained from a Catholic teaching perspective as they are main line teachings and those percieved to be commented about in the heirarchy are very familiar with Archbishop Burke and his teachings as Ordinary of St Louis. However, the manner in which this was communicated was clearly wrong on so many levels... It's a problem about how it was communicated-these American Bishops commented about are APOSTLES and it is their duty to treat each other with utmost respect. Remembering Jesus when he says "LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU". One doesn't need to be a Binlical Scholar to realize that Jesus was talking to the Apostles and the first sense of the biblical passage is that it applies first and foremost DIRECTLY to Bishops. Pray for all concerned, that Cardinal Mahoney and others offended by the manner of communication will forgive their brother bishop. Pray for all concerned in Christ...

He's not a cardinal yet ... just thinks and acts as if he was.

If you're going to use Latin, please spell it correctly: Dominus vobiscum.

Well said!

You got it right . Another example of the hierarchy from the top down starting in Rome putting their foot in their mouth. They all need a lesson in media communications.

Perhaps he only means that he's sorry his statements were discovered and the US bishops found out (again) what he really is.

Let me be a bit more blunt. Randall Terry is unstable. He has a long history of wacky behavior and I'm surprised that anyone in the church hierarchy would get mixed up with him despite his new found Catholicism. Abortion is merely the wedge he used to get his foot in the door. His real mission was to demand punishment for those bishops he and his rightwing cohorts find too liberal to suit them.

Excellent point about the need for spiritual direction to help us keep from getting too full of ourselves, and well said, too.

He is SORRY that he got CAUGHT.

He will follow in the footsteps of another Bishop/Cardinal from America:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/28/us/cardinal-law-given-post-in-rome.html

Cardinal Law Given Post In Rome
By AL BAKER; Laurie Goodstein and Daniel J. Wakin contributed reporting from New York.
Published: Friday, May 28, 2004

Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who was forced to resign as leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston after a long and painful sexual abuse scandal involving clergy members, was chosen by Pope John Paul II on Thursday to head a basilica in Rome.

A statement released in the Vatican's daily bulletin announced that Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002, would become the archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, a church in a downtown neighborhood of Rome that is under direct Vatican jurisdiction.

The statement said that Cardinal Law, 72, would succeed the 82-year-old Italian Cardinal Carlo Furno, but it did not say when. It made no mention of Cardinal Law's new responsibilities, but a Vatican official said that ''now he will be responsible for one of the four most important basilicas'' in Rome. ''He will be in charge of the administration of the priests and anything related to the basilica,'' the official said of Cardinal Law. He added that the post ''is not a position of power.''

The appointment angered the cardinal's critics and others who see it as a reward.

David G. Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nonprofit support group based in Chicago, chided church leaders in Rome for what he called insensitivity to abuse victims.

''Why can't the Vatican officials see that any position of honor afforded to Law will inevitably and needlessly cause more pain to hundreds who have been abused and have already suffered enough?'' Mr. Clohessy said. He added, ''It just rubs salt into already deep wounds for parishioners, victims and their families.''

Cardinal Law, who has been serving as chaplain at the Sisters of Mercy of Alma convent in Clinton, Md., could not be reached for comment.

It was at a meeting in the Vatican on Dec. 13, 2002, that Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Cardinal Law, then the senior American prelate in the Roman Catholic Church. The resignation came after nearly a year of revelations that the cardinal and archdiocesan officials that he supervised had repeatedly allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to remain in the ministry. The news of Cardinal Law's new position seemed to tear at emotional scars from those events.

''It's pretty offensive for most Catholics, and the timing couldn't be worse,'' said David Gibson, author of ''The Coming Catholic Church'' (Harper San Francisco, 2003). ''They're just cleaning up the mess in Boston and closing parishes, and he's getting the ultimate golden parachute. He's getting a beautiful apartment in Rome in one of the four major basilicas in Christendom.''

Despite his resignation in Boston, Cardinal Law has remained a powerful American figure in the Vatican. He has posts in as many as nine Vatican congregations, or departments, including the one that determines church leadership worldwide by nominating candidates for bishop. He is a member of the Congregation for Clergy, which has a role in handling sexual abuse cases that are sent to Rome.

Now that Cardinal Law is an archpriest in Rome, it will clear the way for his successor in Boston, Archbishop Sean O'Malley, to be made a cardinal, Mr. Gibson said. Cardinals can vote in the conclave to choose the next pope.

The appointment could be financially lucrative for Cardinal Law. His predecessor in the job, Cardinal Furno, received a 10,000 euro monthly stipend, or about $12,000, said a former Vatican official who is a friendly acquaintance of Cardinal Furno. Cardinal Furno lived in a palatial apartment alongside the right flank of the basilica that is reserved for the archpriest, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

''It's the classical Roman apartment with frescoes on the wall,'' the former official said. Cardinal Furno paid for costly renovations, he said, adding, ''It's endless.''

The appointment is also likely to make Cardinal Law one of the most influential Americans in the Vatican.

And the job will give him considerable autonomy. While at the Maryland convent, he was technically under the authority of the local bishop. Now, ''he answers to no one but the pope,'' the former Vatican official said.

Do not confuse "compassion" with "compromise"! He IS a compassionate leader, but he stands on principle.

Colkoch1, you imply rather strongly that "militant pro lifers" have a well established reputation for lying. I would ask you what evidence you have for that. I've belonged to the pro life movement for better than two decades, and I am proud to be joined with such people, for the utter worthiness of the cause they represent, and also because I admire them as people of integrity. They are not necessarily great PR people, but they do stand for a truth that our country (world) will not face, namely that taking human life is not an acceptable solution for personal or social problems. It is the so called pro choice people who stand for a lie, or at least will not face the truth that every life is sacred from conception to natural death

Please Michael, Saskatoon, Sask, Canada, has more class than this.

Well, Harry, since it is likely Vatican officials who "suggested" he apologize, who now is going to do the excommunication?

Dear Harry: It appears that your are correct to some extent-"Bishop burke is a coward and a traitor.... (to his fellow travellers, at least- my addendum). If he had any integrity at all he would have stood by his original remarks." Right on. Even right wingers, especially right wingers, keep a watch over your shoulder - on your friends.

Yea! and all the Bishops & Priests who ignore the fact that the Catholic majority practice artificial birth control should be "removed from office". These morally corrupt couples have the nerve to receive communion. Perhaps the parish priest should police all young catholic families that do not have a new baby every few years? A committee of the upstanding faithful could act as questioners, like the inquisition? We shouldn't forget the unmarried sexually active couples. Perhaps we need to police them too! After all they too dare to receive communion, when they go to church. By the way, last time I heard, birth control pills are actually abortafacients because the pill acts by creating a hostile host for the CONCEIVED ovum to impregnate the womb, a process called fecundation. Imagine the millions of conceived ovums that are wasted every month. Maybe we need to go after the doctors who perscribe B.C. pills and excommunicate them too? Then the church would be HOLY!

Pro-abortion ... as a matter of English means wanting abortions to occur. Which of the Bishops is advocating that all babies be destroyed?
Please tell me exactly what the pro-life movement has accomplished in the last, what, forty or fifty years? Nothing.
Isn't it time to try something additional by way of strategy? Or do all the pro-life people scatter when we undertake to improve public support for pregnant women and young families in this age when even good jobs don't provide enough money for a mother to stay home in a two-parent household. Shall we ignore the cries of the poor, at the same time we seek to jail those of them who dare get pregnant and seek to abort?
Yes, it is my belief abortion can be made so unusual as to harness social consensus to stop virtually all, and that that can be achieved with lightning speed compared to the criminalization approach. But we don't need to stop that approach. We can proceed on many fronts at one time.

I agree.

He didn't.

Please order a hand-painted reproduction of this painting for Burke

http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=c&a=p&ID=1129
The Blind Leading the Blind

Follow Cardinal Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/28/us/cardinal-law-given-post-in-rome.html
May 28, 2004
Cardinal Law Given Post In Rome
By AL BAKER; Laurie Goodstein and Daniel J. Wakin contributed reporting from New York.
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who was forced to resign as leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston after a long and painful sexual abuse scandal involving clergy members, was chosen by Pope John Paul II on Thursday to head a basilica in Rome.

A statement released in the Vatican's daily bulletin announced that Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002, would become the archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, a church in a downtown neighborhood of Rome that is under direct Vatican jurisdiction.

The statement said that Cardinal Law, 72, would succeed the 82-year-old Italian Cardinal Carlo Furno, but it did not say when. It made no mention of Cardinal Law's new responsibilities, but a Vatican official said that ''now he will be responsible for one of the four most important basilicas'' in Rome. ''He will be in charge of the administration of the priests and anything related to the basilica,'' the official said of Cardinal Law. He added that the post ''is not a position of power.''

The appointment angered the cardinal's critics and others who see it as a reward.

David G. Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nonprofit support group based in Chicago, chided church leaders in Rome for what he called insensitivity to abuse victims.

''Why can't the Vatican officials see that any position of honor afforded to Law will inevitably and needlessly cause more pain to hundreds who have been abused and have already suffered enough?'' Mr. Clohessy said. He added, ''It just rubs salt into already deep wounds for parishioners, victims and their families.''

Cardinal Law, who has been serving as chaplain at the Sisters of Mercy of Alma convent in Clinton, Md., could not be reached for comment.

It was at a meeting in the Vatican on Dec. 13, 2002, that Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Cardinal Law, then the senior American prelate in the Roman Catholic Church. The resignation came after nearly a year of revelations that the cardinal and archdiocesan officials that he supervised had repeatedly allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to remain in the ministry. The news of Cardinal Law's new position seemed to tear at emotional scars from those events.

''It's pretty offensive for most Catholics, and the timing couldn't be worse,'' said David Gibson, author of ''The Coming Catholic Church'' (Harper San Francisco, 2003). ''They're just cleaning up the mess in Boston and closing parishes, and he's getting the ultimate golden parachute. He's getting a beautiful apartment in Rome in one of the four major basilicas in Christendom.''

Despite his resignation in Boston, Cardinal Law has remained a powerful American figure in the Vatican. He has posts in as many as nine Vatican congregations, or departments, including the one that determines church leadership worldwide by nominating candidates for bishop. He is a member of the Congregation for Clergy, which has a role in handling sexual abuse cases that are sent to Rome.

Now that Cardinal Law is an archpriest in Rome, it will clear the way for his successor in Boston, Archbishop Sean O'Malley, to be made a cardinal, Mr. Gibson said. Cardinals can vote in the conclave to choose the next pope.

The appointment could be financially lucrative for Cardinal Law. His predecessor in the job, Cardinal Furno, received a 10,000 euro monthly stipend, or about $12,000, said a former Vatican official who is a friendly acquaintance of Cardinal Furno. Cardinal Furno lived in a palatial apartment alongside the right flank of the basilica that is reserved for the archpriest, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

''It's the classical Roman apartment with frescoes on the wall,'' the former official said. Cardinal Furno paid for costly renovations, he said, adding, ''It's endless.''

The appointment is also likely to make Cardinal Law one of the most influential Americans in the Vatican.

And the job will give him considerable autonomy. While at the Maryland convent, he was technically under the authority of the local bishop. Now, ''he answers to no one but the pope,'' the former Vatican official said.

Probbably shouldnt ask that question. He might reply "whatever I tell him to do".

The fact that Burke has ANY authority in the Church is scary. This man shouldn't even be in charge of building a sand castle, let alone the Roman Rota. The Church's motto, "If a Bishop screws up one job, promote him to a better one." I pray he doesn't get a red-hat someday - that the Holy Spirit could intercede in this one and spare us this man have a voice and vote in a future pope.

Archbishop Burke affirms Kolbean theology .So does SSPX

All Graces from Jesus come to us through Our Lady, All Hindus, Jews, Muslims and others need to enter the Catholic Church for salvation, and only an ecumenism of return, the Polish apologist taught.

In an extraordinary, rare interview for a bishop in Rome, Archbishop Raymond Burke, affirmed the teachings of the Polish saint Maximillian Maria Kolbe.
Inside the Vatican has carried the report by Andrew Rabal, Australian ITV correspondent. The interview was also the first-lead report on the website Spirit Daily (June 16, 2009 See Archives Vatican official calls U.S apparition ‘beautiful devotion’).
Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome ‘the office which oversees the correct administration of justice in the Church’ says he was ‘very steeped in the whole spirituality of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the way to the Sacred Heart of Jesus...’
St. Maximillian Kobe was also a journalist and founded an apologetic publication which taught that all people needed Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water for salvation. He also taught an ecumenism of return; the need for all Christians to enter the Catholic Church for salvation.
St.Maximillian said
"There is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s ecumenism, which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy. We must realize the goal of the Militia Immaculata as quickly as possible: that is, to conquer the whole world, and every individual soul which exists today or will exist until the end of the world, for the Immaculata, and through her for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus." -The Immaculata Our Ideal, p. 37 (From the website Athanasius Contra Mundi).

‘In fact, Cardinal Kasper is on record as disparaging the traditional Catholic teaching on Christian Unity. He said in 2001, “Today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would 'be converted' and return to being 'Catholics.' This was expressly abandoned at Vatican II.”(7)-from the website Ecumenical Chapel at St. Paul Outside the Walls by John Vennari .’

Ad Gentes Vatican Council II says that ALL people, need Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water for salvation.So does the SSPX.No where in Nostra Aetate is it said that Jews do not have to convert. The SSPX does not hold the present Jews responsibible for the death of Jesus.
The SSPX rejects Vatican Council II as interpreted by the Jewish Left, the National Catholic Reporter,USA and The Tablet,UK.
They accept Vatican Council II as a historical reality.
They accept only an ecumenism of return,like Kolbe and Pope John Paul II (Ut Unum Sint, Ecclesia Dei,N.35, 36, 37, 38, 46,Dominus Iesus).
So if doctrine is said to be an issue for their separation then Cardinal Kaspar is in schism. Since in the L'Osservatore Romano (10July 2009) he wrote Jews do not have to convert. The SSPX is in accord with Vatican Council II , Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Castrillion Hoyes, Catholic religious communities and those who interpret Vatican Council II as a continuation of Sacred Tradition.