Raymond Burke is a cardinal at the vatican. 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
highest ranking American prelate at the Vatican after Cardinal William Levada, who took Pope Benedict's place as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
He has been an outspoken critic of the democratc party and Obama.
2008 U.S. Presidential Election
In a September 2008 interview, Burke said that "the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,' because of its choices on bioethical questions," especially elective abortion.
In May 2009, he stated, "Since President Obama clearly announced, during the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience."
Bishops' policy on Holy Communion
In March 2009, Burke was interviewed by Randall Terry, the pro-life activist and Catholic convert who founded Operation Rescue. In the videotaped interview, Archbishop Burke called on American bishops to withhold Communion, in line with canon 915, from Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion. The bishops' failure to do so, Burke said, "is weakening the faith of everyone. It's giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion." He also called President Barack Obama "an agent of death" for his pro-choice views. |
