CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE: It is rather sad to admit, but the truth is, the politics of choosing a new Pope is in full swing. In fact the behind the scenes machinations have already been playing out for a number of weeks, if not years. Only a select few Cardinals exist, and even less can vote for a new Pope, about one hundred and twenty or so. Cardinals over eighty are not eligible. A supermajority of ninety votes are required to confirm the next Pope. According to the prophecies of Saint Malachy, Francis was supposed to be the last Pope before the End of the World.
AWKWARD EASTER: – Pope Francis died Easter Monday, just a day after meeting with US Vice President JD Vance as he attempted to mend his rocky relationship with the leader of the Catholic church. The 88-year-old Pontiff and Vance had an awkward exchange at the Vatican on Easter Sunday after Francis slammed the Trump administration’s treatment of illegal migrants.
It came just one day after Vance, an adult Catholic convert, appeared to have been snubbed by the Pontiff and forced to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Peter Gallagher. The Vatican said the meeting between the vice president and the Holy Father was ‘brief’ and lasted a few minutes.
Vance and the Pope tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration´s plans to deport migrants en masse. Francis made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy.
Vance spent Easter weekend in Rome with his family and attended Good Friday services in St Peter’s Basilica on Friday after meeting with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni. The vice president, who converted in 2019, identifies with a small Catholic intellectual movement often called ‘postliberal’, which is viewed by some critics as having reactionary or authoritarian leanings.
COUNTERREVOLUTION: Postliberals share some longstanding Catholic conservative views, such as opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. They envision a counterrevolution in which they take over government bureaucracy and institutions like universities from within, replacing entrenched ‘elites’ with their own and acting upon their vision of the ‘common good.’ (Project 2025)
Just days before he was hospitalised in February, Francis blasted the Trump administration’s deportation plans, warning that they would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity. In a letter to US bishops, Francis also appeared to respond to Vance directly for having claimed that Catholic doctrine justified such policies.
Vance had defended the administration’s America-first crackdown by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as ‘ordo amoris.’
He has said the concept delineates a hierarchy of care – to family first, followed by neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those elsewhere.
In his February 10 letter, Francis appeared to correct Vance’s understanding of the concept.
‘Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extends to other persons and groups,’ he wrote.
‘The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the Good Samaritan, that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.’
– By TARYN PEDLER Taryn for DM
FEELING A BIT SEASICK: – A pro-Donald Trump, American bishop is among the front runners to replace Pope Francis following his death. Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 76, is being touted as one of the leaders in the race for the papacy. His selection would mark the first time an American has held the papacy in the Catholic Church’s 2,000 year history.
The Wisconsin-born bishop is diametrically opposed to the late Pope Francis’ views on nearly all the contested issues within the faith. Burke is a traditionalist, who is de facto leader of the church’s conservatives. He is outspoken against any softening of its policy towards LGBTQ people, divorce, and the role of women and often spoke out to contradict Pope Francis’ more progressive stances.
Francis became so at odds with Burke that he stripped him of his role as head of the Catholic courts, the panel that chooses judges, and even his free Rome apartment. The Wisconsin bishop has been vocal in his support for Donald Trump and called his election victory in 2016 a win for anti-abortion causes.
In 2019, he urged voters to cast their votes for Trump again, stating that the president has a ‘great disposition’ towards the Church’s moral laws and would ‘follow the principles and dictates of our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’.
Burke became Archbishop of St Louis in 2004 until 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI called him to Rome to become the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura – the church’s highest court. Burke was made a cardinal two years later by Benedict, who was also known for his hardline views.
UNCOMPROMISING BULLY: Increasingly prominent as an uncompromising traditionalist, Burke clashed with new reformist pope Francis within a year of his inauguration. In December 2013 Francis declined to renew his membership of the Congregation of Bishops, a panel that helps the pope select new bishops. ‘One gets the impression, or it’s interpreted this way in the media, that he thinks we’re talking too much about abortion, too much about the integrity of marriage as between one man and one woman,’ Burke responded. ‘But we can never talk enough about that.’
He also spoke out in October 2014 when the Vatican Synod on the Family conference proposed relaxing papal approach towards homosexuality.
‘Many have expressed their concerns to me. At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the church is like a ship without a rudder,’ he said. ‘They are feeling a bit seasick because they feel the church’s ship has lost its way.’
The pope responded by sacking Burke from the Supreme Tribunal and named him patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a largely ceremonial role, instead.
Burke was outspoken in his condemnation of pedophile priests as the crisis engulfed the church, but repeatedly blamed it on feminism and homosexuality. He in August 2015 claimed it was the fault of ‘radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s’.
Then in 2019 he and German Cardinal Walter Brandmueller claimed the ‘primary fault’ for the scandal was ‘the plague of the homosexual agenda’, not the priests themselves. Burke claimed those priests who perpetrated abuse on children ‘were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity’. – By BETHAN SEXTON for DM.
Apr 21, 2025 8:00:52 pm