ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times
By Danny Wicentowski Thu., Jan. 8 2015
A beacon of old-timey religion, Cardinal Raymond Burke still enjoys the admiration of those traditionalist churchgoers who like their liturgy intoned in Latin and their prelates dressed like a satiny Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float.
One of those admirers is a group called the New Emangelization Project (yes, that’s their real name), which recently let Burke weigh in on Christianity’s so-called “man-crisis” by way of a lengthy interview posted to the organization’s website. Burke’s closed-mindedness particularly shines through when he casually states that “disordered” (read: gay) priests are ultimately to blame for the molestation and child-abuse cases that continue to rock the Catholic church.
Although Burke was recently demoted from leading the Church’s highest court, the former St. Louis archbishop has has become a frequent, critical voice speaking against Pope Francis’ seemingly inclusive stance on gay and divorced church members.
As for his view of gay clergy’s responsibility for child abuse, Burke’s statements came in the midst of an already befuddling rant against the “feminization” of church services, in which he criticizes women and altar girls for driving men away from traditional Mass.
“We can also see that our seminaries are beginning to attract many strong young men who desire to serve God as priests. The new crop of young men are manly and confident about their identity,” Burke tells New Emangelization Project founder Matthew James Christoff. “This is a welcome development, for there was a period of time when men who were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these disordered men sexually abused minors, a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.”
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