If this keeps up, pretty soon American conservatives will begin a new Truther Movement in search of Pope Francis’s birth certificate.
Pope Francis has officially demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke, a prominent American Cardinal who has been highly critical of the pontiff’s increasingly progressive tone when discussing issues such as homosexuality and abortion.
Burke, who made waves in 2004 for saying that voting for a pro-choice candidate is “a serious sin,” has been an unusually outspoken detractor of Pope Francis since he ascended to the papacy in 2013. When the pontiff declared last year that the Catholic church was too “obsessed” with culture war issues such as abortion, for instance, Burke responded by saying that the church “can never talk enough” about the “massacre of the unborn.” And while Francis answered a question about gay priests by saying “who am I to judge?” last July, Burke told LifeSiteNews in October that homosexual acts are “always and everywhere wrong, evil.”
But on Saturday, the Vatican announced that Burke, who was elevated to Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, has been removed from his influential position as head of the Apostolic Signatura — the Vatican’s highest court — and reassigned to a largely ceremonial role as the Patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta.
“The position of Patron of the the Order of Malta is usually given to a retired cardinal, or as a second task to an active cardinal,” Michael Sean Winters, a prominent Catholic journalist, wrote in the National Catholic Reporter. “It has almost no responsibilities. The demotion is unprecedented, and completely warranted: Cardinal Burke’s influence at the Vatican has been crushingly backward looking, and that influence has resulted in some unhappy appointments.”
Ross Douthat cannot be happy, as he recently wrote that “if [Pope Francis] moves to reassign potential critics in the hierarchy” he will be taking a dangerous path that could lead to a crisis that would invite a schism within the Church that might lead to a restoration of Pope Benedict XVI.
Douthat is a strange dude.
Conservative Catholics have a ready-made teabag faction birthed in the time of Pope John XXIII. But they won’t go searching for a birth certificate (that could open a big can of worms wrt senior Vatican officials past and present that may not have been born legitimate). They’ll “pray” for someone to continue a Vatican tradition and bump Pope Francis off.
I thought the Pope was infallible, can you question someone who is infallible or rally against him?
You can if he isn’t excluding people from the tribe that the tribe doesn’t want included.
Oh sure. I think it was George Bernard Shaw who wrote (paraphrasing) that the infallible church claims for itself far less authority than the infallible state, or the infallible army, or the infallible media.
The pope’s infallibility is limited, according to the doctrine promulgated in the 19th century, to when he’s speaking “ex cathedra” on matters of faith and morals.
as long as there’s a doctrine
Douthat is a strange dude.
What gave it away? :-p
Prayers for Pope Francis.
So we finally have a decent Pope. Good to hear.
May he not be murdered by other Catholics who love God and Jesus.
May he not be murdered by other Catholics who love God and Jesus.
The guy who came right before JPII was likely murdered.
I believe that Oui has already written a diary on this.
From my diary …
○ Vatican Diary: Exile to Malta for Cardinal Burke | Chiesa Espresso Repubblica |
Ross Douthat should get together with Ken Langone for a School of Theology. I guess if Amos can be a prophet, they can be theologians.
My impression is that Francis doesn’t agree with the policy of excluding people from Communion based on theology. He doesn’t say gay couples, remarriage, etc., are ok. Based on some of his actions as a cardinal in Argentina, he really doesn’t think these things are OK. But he does seem to think they shouldn’t justify exclusion from communion (and presumably, an increased chance of salvation).
It’s an interesting twist from Arnaud Amalric’s saying of “kill them all and let God sort them out. Francis seems to believe “give them all communion and let God sort them out”. Quite the improvement, I’d say.
I’m not at all surprised Francis would demoted somebody who wanted to exclude people from Communion based on how they voted. That really seems outrageous if you think the Church’s job is to give souls the best chance at salvation.
God will know his own.
I’m pretty sure that’s the line.
Er, recognize his own.
Pope Francis is also sending a message to U.S. Cardinals who campaign for the Republican party. I think this Pope really cares about income inequality and understands the negative effects it has on people.
I’m not Catholic, but this Pope is my kind of guy. Had he been around in my formative years, who knows.
heh — I was once long ago. When Benni resigned, I found myself looking through the bios of those considered eligible for promotion. While none really shared my values, two were closer than the others. Of those two, one wasn’t quite untouched enough by the sex abuse scandals/questions. That left Cardinal Bergoglio who struck me as having a “holy” aura. Now if only I could get USians to agree with me about political candidates and economic policies.
He also excommunicated a pedophile priest.
http://news.yahoo.com/pope-excommunicates-pedophile-argentine-priest-194112602.html
About time!
How many backwater positions does the Church have for cardinals and bishops? ‘Cause Pope Francis might have to fill all of them before he’s done.