Cardinal Raymond L. Burke Demoted by Pope Francis for Orthodox, Pro-Family Views

Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a high-ranking Vatican Cardinal, was relegated by Pope Francis from his position of overseer of the highest judicial authority in the Roman Catholic Church, second only to the supreme ecclesiastical judge of the Pope himself, to a no-responsibility figurehead position running a charity. Suggested as being at the heart of the move is the Cardinal’s strong, conservative views, especially in opposition to gay rights and abortion.

Calling Cardinal Burke “hardly one of the Pope’s favorites,” theColumbus Dispatch on Nov. 9 said the Argentine pontiff and Holy Father reduced Burke to a “ceremonial position of chaplain for the Knights of Malta, a charity group.” Burke previously served as the Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

Burke has been in the Pope’s peripheral for a few years. In late 2013, Francis passed on renewing Cardinal Burke’s position on the Congregation for Bishops council – a powerful Vatican establishment that oversees the appointment of Bishops. Burke, an outspoken opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage, once famously prevented John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, from receiving communion because Kerry was an open advocate for abortion.

In response to his being replaced on the Bishop Congregation council last year, Burke said: “One gets the impression, or it’s interpreted this way in the media, that [Pope Francis] thinks we’re talking too much about abortion, too much about the integrity of marriage as between one man and one woman. But we can never talk enough about that.”

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