U.S. Cardinal Burke Dethroned From Vatican Supreme Court
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has removed U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke from the Vatican Supreme Court. Cardinal Burke, a conservative who made himself a leader of the Vatican faction that obstructs Pope Francis' reformist agenda, was finally flushed out and demoted to a largely ceremonial post..
It is one more sign that Francis is determined to flush out bishops, cardinals and bureaucrats who stand in way of progress, says the Associated Press. Burke has been highly disrespectful. He publicly attacks the Pope's church leadership and organizes opposition to the Pope's initiatives: For example:
(1). Burke politicized U.S. Catholic Church by leading campaigns to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who won't support conservative agendas
(2): Burke publicly re-butted the Pope's pronouncements and approaches
(3): In October, 2014 Cardinal Burke organized Catholic conservative from around the world to directly criticize Francis for proposing reform to Vatican rules that needlessly ban Communion for divorced, remarried Catholics
(4): When Pope Francis denounced the excesses of global capitalism that impoverishes poor nations for the benefit of corporations it was Cardinal Burke, not the global business community, that publicly attacked the Pope.
Catholicism is growing the fastest in Africa and Asia and South America has the world's biggest concentration of Catholics. So Pope Francis moved to construct a Vatican Leadership hierarchy that is noticeably more diverse so that the Church leadership could reflect Africans, Asians as well as Latinos.
When Pope Francis unveiled his first large batch of Cardinal appointees in January, 2014, it was largely made up of bishops from countries outside of the Western world. Conservative bishops complained about these reforms.
Pope Francis and Cardinal Burke also differs in style. While Francis wears simple white garment (and meets with poor/sick people), Burke dresses up in specially embroidered green garments that cost as much as $20,000 and meets mainly with Catholic business executives. Burke's final disrespect to the Pope may have happened in November when Burke compared the Pope's leadership of the Catholic Church as "a ship without a rudder."
That was the last straw of insult that broke the Cardinal's back!
In 2013, as warning, Pope Francis removed Cardinal Burke from Vatican's powerful Congregation for Bishops, which handles appointments of bishops worldwide. But by Saturday, November 8, 2014, the Pope had had enough. His Holiness removed Cardinal Burke from the Vatican Supreme Court and transferred him to the largely ceremonial post of "Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta," a charity whose activities include monitoring drug abuse clinics, hospitals and residences for the elderly around the world.
OPENNESS AND CHANGE ARE INEVITABLE!
THE ALMIGHTY LOVES PROGRESSIVE CHANGE!!
POPE FRANCIS HAS GOD'S WIND ON HIS BACK!!!
