VATICAN CITY
LifeSite News
BY JOHN-HENRY WESTEN
Mon Dec 16, 2013
VATICAN CITY, December 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This morning the Vatican announced confirmations and new appointments to the important Congregation for Bishops leaving Cardinal Burke off the list. The news has shocked pro-life leaders for whom Burke has been the top ally in the Vatican curia in the work to restore a culture of life.
Burke has been known for his outspoken championing of the high priority that Popes Benedict and John Paul II gave to the Church’s pro-life and pro-family teachings. He has especially been both praised and criticized for his frequent insistence that persistently pro-abortion Catholic politicians must be denied Holy Communion according to Canon law requirements which Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became pope, directed the US bishops to follow.
The Vatican release confirmed Cardinal Marc Ouellet as the head of the Congregation of Bishops and also appointed Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, and Westminster UK Cardinal Vincent Nichols among others as new members to the Congregation. Another American Cardinal who was retained on the Congregation is Cardinal William Levada.
Virginia Nunziante, the head of Italy’s March for Life has a special place in her heart for Cardinal Burke since he is the only Bishop in Italy to march in the March for Life, even though he’s at the Vatican rather than in Italy. The news of Burke’s being removed from the Congregation of Bishops, she described as “a tragedy.”
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