Archbishop Burke: Catholic News Service (CNS) Needs 'New Direction'
Leading Vatican Prelate says "Faithful Citizenship" partly to blame for election of “Most Pro-Abortion President” in history.
'When a man has stepped over the threshold and allowed himself to fall into mortal sin, he must be purified by trial, but he must also, My children, be purified by the rule of penance and confession. 'What manner of evil is being set now upon mankind that compels him to lose his soul by rejecting the Sacraments, by no longer confessing to his confessor, but coming to receive My Son in sacrifice, while his soul is degraded by sin of mortal nature!' - Archbishop Burke, Our Lady of the Roses, September 7, 1976
PrintArchbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said “led to confusion” among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.
The US bishops’ document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of "other grave reasons," as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position.
Archbishop Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louise Mo. and recently appointed head of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, told LifeSiteNews.com that although “there were a greater number of bishops who spoke up very clearly and firmly ... there was also a number who did not.”
But most damaging, he said, was the document “Faithful Citizenship” that “led to confusion” among the voting Catholic population.
“While it stated that the issue of life was the first and most important issue, it went on in some specific areas to say ‘but there are other issues’ that are of comparable importance without making necessary distinctions.”
Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analysed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal “a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenceless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’
“But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenceless human life.”
Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedalled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.
“The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgement,” he said.
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This information dovetails with an article by Amy Sullivan of November 08, 2009 in Time Online. "Priests Spar Over What it Means to Be Catholic". Archbishop Burke takes aim at Francis Cardinal George. From the controversy, it would appear that the U.S, Catholic Bishops' Conference toned down abortion criticism with the direct intention of electing President Obama for sociological reasons. Here in St. Louis, it was obvious that Ab. Burke was "run out of town on a rail" by the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference and its connection to pro-Abortion Catholic politicians. Burke was out and Carlson was in. The first thing that Archbishop Carlson did was to appoint a woman as chancellor who had followed him from three different posts. It is obvious that the U.S. Bishops are "sold" on the evangelization of women and need to "soft pedal" the abortion message for that reason to say nothing of the large influx of gay priests.
Thank you Archbishop Burke for speaking out about the need to reform Catholic News Service. This organization supplies many of the news articles for diocesan newspapers across the country. They have many fine writers but also many who write articles that spread doubt and confusion on profound issues such as respect for human life.
A recent article focused on professors at Catholic universities who thought our current President's thinking was more in line with Catholic social teaching than previous ones. Another spoke with glee about the record numbers of Catholics in office even though so many are at odds with Catholic teaching.
Until reading Christopher Mannions recent article in the Wanderer I was unaware that the CNS was owned by the NCCB. Please consider writing your bishop and ask him to appoint a staff that truly faithful to the Catholic Church. And to the rest of the Catholic media how about some coverage on this most important topic.
Some people intentionally mislead. I am a parishioner from the Archbishop's old diocese. My Priest appearred to intentionally misdirect the parish to vote for Obama. Do not underestimate that it appears that Priests in the 50 to 60 age bracket are undermining the Pope and the Archbishops. It certainly is happening in St. Louis. Under the radar they try and guide people to Richard Rohr and his New Age, woman priest and gay agenda.
Chris,
Thank you for being so calm in your comments. It is dishearteing the in the past 8 years the Republicans have not helped the movement out as you are saying. How couldn't they help the prolife movement get more funding and cut the funding for the PP. This could be one reason that the liberal Catholics decided to stop being misled by the Republican party. They repeatedly use this one issue as a "ok, I have the Catholic vote".
I promise you that they are in the "wilderness" reevaluating all of their stands on all of the issues. They will keep this one only because it works. It kills me that we on the pro-life side will settle for so little from our government. When my parents were younger and involved there was so much more talk of social justice, so much more action about helping the poor find a support system that could help women in this situation. Our side does not have that. My parents were one of the 1,000 points of light, not getting any government assistance and making it work for many women and families. So please keep up the fight and help people stop looking to the government for help on this. It will get you no where! Do it grassroots.
The problem wasn't so much that the document was flawed, it was that it left room for ill-formed and intellectually dishonest Catholics to twist it into meaning something it was never intended to mean. I read it and clearly understood that the proportional evil the Bishops talked about was refering to something along the lines of the Holocaust, something like the killing of 50 million defenseless babies. Yet, as we can expect, intellectual perverts twisted it to mean that shortening the war in Iraq by 4 months or giving substandard universal health care to the general population constituted something proportional to the butchering of our nation's children. The fault isn't with the Bishops. The meaning was clear. But now we know that the Bishops must phrase this type of thing in such a way that even the most twisted perverse mind among the nominally Catholic American electorate can't find a way to justify a vote for his favorite baby-murdering monster.
Mr Oliver is partially correct when he notes that Faithful Citizenship was based on the document written by then Cardinal Ratzinger. Indeed he wrote a document, but if the bishops had truly followed the teaching/thought of that document, they would have developed a much different document than the one we have in Faithful Citizenship. The American bishops own the ambiguity created by their writing. But this is consistent with so much that the Bishops put out. They worry about who they might make mad or which group might fault with them. Consequently, they either do nothing or create a document that does little in presenting the clear teaching of the Church. Catholic politicians who clearly support abortion rights continue to receive The Holy Eucharist and then write a letter to the Holy Father criticizing him for lifting the excommunication of the Bishops of the SSPX. But who defends the Holy Father? Mr Donohue of the Catholic League! Who speaks out about "so called catholic" politicians? People like Mr Donohue. And let's not even talk about Catholic News Services which seems to think we have nothing to worry about when it comes to the potential FOCA legislation. Now you tell me what is wrong with the picture!
Vonada
Perhaps if the adoption services and other pro-life services got even a 1/100th of the money planned parenthood gets from the government (which totals in hundreds of millions) and which pro-life is denied (because they feel it would be a violation of church and state separation) we wouldn't be closing down these services. It's the pro-life people and services who are denied funding while planned parenthood and other pro-choice groups are fully funded. And you are considering this part of God's plan? I call it one-sided liberalism that is killing such services. We (pro-life movement) have to fight for funding in private arenas only. We also don't have the luxury of having the media on our side where pro-choice has no shortage of all the media coverage they could need and want. Don't blame the people or pro-lifers for closing of services. We are struggling but we will eventually win..because the cause is right.
The mistake has been made but can be corrected for the election of 2012. We must stop the liberal abortionist with a new president at that time!
I am shocked at the lack of faith you all have in God's plan. You have taken your eye off of the ball. Work within your own community to change the culture that supports abortion as a solution. I have never ever heard people from the anti abotion side mention ADOPTION. The adoption solution should go hand in hand with their retoric. Yet communities are closing down their Catholic Social Services adoption services.
This is where our energies should be geared. And if you listen to President Obama you will hear the same idea. Change society so abortion is not the answer.
So pray, focus and work...
If this proble is so terrible get back to work on it and stop waiting for the courts to decide. The Lord is waiting...
Don't forget that the paper on faithful citizenship was based on a document written by Cardinal Ratzinger. So ownership of the mistake goes almost all the way to the top.