ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio
By PATRICIA RICE
Monday two former St. Louis archbishops, Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, lost their posts on the Congregation for Bishops. This powerful Vatican committee nominates priests to be bishops worldwide. It meets on alternate Thursdays in Rome.
While Rigali’s removal is not unexpected since he is retired with the title Philadelphia archbishop emeritus, the Burke move is dramatic.
Burke is a Vatican cardinal “in full” and head of the tribunal of last resort, which can countermand bishops when they want to remove priests from the clerical state, for example.
In 2008 when he had been St. Louis archbishop for less than five years, Burke became the first American appointed to the Vatican post of prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He was named cardinal and to the Congregation for Bishops as a result of this tribunal post. Vatican insiders say that he has been behind the naming of several U.S. bishops.
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