More from Cardinal Burke

Michael Sean Winters
National Catholic Reporter
November 4, 2014

Cardinal Raymond Burke, whose term as Prefect of the Signatura is about to end and, apparently will not be renewed, is once again complaining about the recent Synod on the Family. He is worried about "confusion" coming from the synod, especially the mid-synod report. But, I do not think anyone was confused. The mid-term report got a little ahead of the synod fathers. The final relatio was a bit more restrained. That is how synods work. But, what really bothers +Burke is that the issue of how the Church's teaching is applied was even up for discussion. Here is the key quote:

"The secular media, not without reason, referred to it as an earthquake in the church,” he said. “While some bishops and others excused it saying well this wasn’t a doctrinal statement, it was just a report of what was being discussed in the synod, the very fact that these matters were being discussed and questioned by the presidents of the conferences of bishops, by the heads of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and by other special appointees of the Holy Father to the synod caused a tremendous confusion and could even induce the faithful into error with regard to the teaching about marriage and other teachings.”

I am not scandalized that the bishops and the Holy Father had some discussions about the application of the Church's teaching. I do not think the discussion, or the fact of the discussion, created as much confusion as +Burke suggests. Indeed, I think most people were delighted to see the Church engaging these issues. Those of us in the pews have been dealing with these issues for some time now.

Cardinal Burke is playing with fire. He is stoking the opposition to the very idea of synodality. You do not need a synod to rubberstamp what the curia wants. It is time for him to be removed, and to go as quietly as possible. I will not gloat when his removal is announced, but I will breath a sigh of relief.