Raymond Leo Burke

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Raymond Leo Burke bigraphy, stories - Catholic cardinal

Raymond Leo Burke : biography

June 30, 1948 –

Raymond Leo Burke (born June 30, 1948) is an American Cardinal. Retrieved Dec 18, 2010 of the Roman Catholic Church. mentions "The cardinals of the Holy Roman Church…". He is the current Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, having previously served as Archbishop of St. Louis (2003–2008) and Bishop of La Crosse (1994–2003).

Elevation to the College of Cardinals

On November 20, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Burke to the cardinalate, as Cardinal-Deacon of Sant’Agata dei Goti. Burke was the fifth man who served as Archbishop of St. Louis to become a member of the College of Cardinals, the others being John Joseph Glennon (1946), Joseph Ritter (1961), John Carberry (1969) and Justin Francis Rigali (2003), the now-retired Archbishop of Philadelphia.

According to the St. Louis Review, the archdiocese newspaper, St. Louis Archbishop Robert James Carlson announced at a reception at the Apostolic Signatura during a pilgrimage to Rome upon the occasion of Cardinal Burke’s elevation the creation of a Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke Chair in Canon Law at St. Louis’s Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. This follows the similar establishment of a Justin Francis Cardinal Rigali Chair in Liturgical Studies there, when former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Francis Rigali was named Archbishop of Philadelphia.

On February 5, 2011, the memorial of St. Agatha, Cardinal Burke took canonical possession of his titular church in Rome, Sant’Agata dei Goti. The ordinary form stational Mass, said in Italian and Latin, was held in the evening.

In May 2011, Cardinal Burke was awarded another honorary doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. In his Commencement speech, he said that long admired the University because he regards it, unlike some other American Catholic universities in the context of a highly secularized Western society, as having remained faithful to the ethical guidelines and teachings of the Church’s Magisterium (the teaching office of the Catholic Church, made up of the Pope and the bishops worldwide in communion with him, and those given authority to teach by them).

In October 2012, for the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the New Evangelization, he is the President of the Commission for Controversies, which is probably due to his role both as a Canon Law expert and his position as the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura.http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_25_xiii-ordinaria-2012/02_inglese/b01_02.html

Notable actions and statements

Burke is seen by many as one of the most conservative of the American bishops, and increasingly as a leader of the conservative wing of Cardinals in the Church. Reasons for his U.S. prominence include his position regarding the political actions of Catholics who hold public office, and his disputes with St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis; while support for him among conservative Cardinals and bishops is based upon his clear and magisterial style of governance, coupled with his advancing of a return to traditional expressions of liturgical piety to the Church’s fold.

Politicians supporting legalization of abortion

During the 2004 presidential election, Burke publicly stated that John Kerry and other Catholic politicians who publicly support legalized abortion should not be given or receive the Eucharist."The St. Louis archbishop made headlines earlier this year when he said he would refuse to give Communion to the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a Catholic who supports legal abortion." (, by John Thavis, CNS, Nov 29, 2004) This statement was based mainly on two canons of Catholic Canon Law, which state that ministers of Holy Communion should not administer the Eucharist to people who obstinately persist in manifest grave sinId. canon 915 ("Ad sacram communionem ne admittantur excommunicati et interdicti post irrogationem vel declarationem poenae aliique in manifesto gravi peccato obstinate perseverantes.") and that those who are conscious of being in a state of grave sin (as determined by Catholic doctrine) should not receive the Eucharist.Codex Iuris Canonici canon 916 ("Qui conscius est peccati gravis, sine praemissa sacramentali confessione Missam ne celebret neve Corpori Domini communicet, nisi adsit gravis ratio et deficiat opportunitas confitendi; quo in casu meminerit se obligatione teneri ad eliciendum actum perfectae contritionis, qui includit propositum quam primum confitendi.")