UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )
In what a noted Vatican journalist calls a “decapitation,” and “a move without precedent,” Cardinal Raymond Burke – who had a very sorry tenure running the St. Louis archdiocese (2003-2008), “is on the verge of being demoted” from head of the church’s highest court to a “purely honorary role” and an “ecclesiastically very modest title” at “the behest of Pope Francis.”
Even a staunch Burke defender says this demotion is “likely”.
“If confirmed,” writes veteran church observer Sandro Magister, “Burke would be completely removed from the curia and employed in a purely honorary position without any influence on the governance of the universal Church.”
Magister also wrote “On December 16, in effect, Pope Francis humiliated Burke by crossing him off from among the members of the congregation” and now “seems right at the point of giving the go-ahead for Burke’s second and more grave demotion.”
We are reminded of Martin Luther King’s remark that “The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.” It is just that Burke’s long troubling rise within the Catholic hierarchy has come to an end. The church will be safer and healthier as a result. Children will be better protected. And dozens of child sex abuse victims – in LaCrosse and St. Louis and elsewhere – will be comforted by the fact that such a cold-hearted prelate will have less influence.
We were sad when Pope Benedict promoted Burke to his post in Rome, one of a long string of bishops who ignored and concealed child sex crimes yet were rewarded by Vatican officials.
While in St. Louis, Burke was often reckless, deceptive and callous regarding predator priests, vulnerable kids and wounded victims. He expanded the troubling practice of importing sexually troubled priests from across the US, letting some of them work in local parishes and letting others stay in church facilities that are secretive and careless about public safety.
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