Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke
Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke responded to the recent revelation of over 300 ‘predator priests’ in Pennsylvania by blaming ‘homosexual culture.’
What he said
‘I believe that there needs to be an open recognition that we have a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the Church, especially among the clergy and the hierarchy, that needs to be addressed honestly and efficaciously,’ Burke said in an interview with Catholic Action for Faith and Family.
‘It was clear after the studies following the 2002 sexual abuse crisis that most of the acts of abuse were in fact homosexual acts committed with adolescent young men. There was a studied attempt to either overlook or to deny this.’
Burke went on to discuss how ‘anti-life’ and ‘contraceptive culture’ also contribute to this problem.
‘I think it has been considerably aggravated by the anti-life culture in which we live, namely the contraceptive culture that separates the sexual act from the conjugal union,’ he said.
‘The sexual act has no meaning whatsoever except between a man and a woman in marriage since the conjugal act is by its very nature for procreation.’
Burke’s homophobic history
This is not the first time Cardinal Burke has expressed homophobic beliefs. In 2015 after Ireland legalized same-sex marriage, Burke said the country is ‘worse than Pagans’. Back in 2014, he stated that homosexual couples who want kids are ‘irresponsible’. Around the same time, he also said that gay couples shouldn’t be allowed at gatherings if children are present.
‘If homosexual relationships are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are… then what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living [in] a disordered relationship with another person? If it were another kind of relationship – something that was profoundly disordered and harmful – we wouldn’t expose our children to that relationship, to the direct experience of it.’
The demotion
Following those 2014 remarks, Pope Francis demoted Cardinal Burke. Burke was once an Archbishop. At this time, he headed of the Roman Catholic Church’s version of the Supreme Court. He lost that position following the Pope’s demotion.
‘The pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts,’ Burke said.
