A conservative revolt is brewing inside the Vatican

[rug]

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, left, stands by Pope Francis saluting bishops, at the end of weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sept. 2, 2015. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

By Anthony Faiola
September 7 at 7:33 PM

VATICAN CITY — On a sunny morning earlier this year, a camera crew entered a well-appointed apartment just outside the 9th-century gates of Vatican City. Pristinely dressed in the black robes and scarlet sash of the princes of the Roman Catholic Church, the Wisconsin-born Cardinal Raymond Burke sat in his elaborately upholstered armchair and appeared to issue a warning to Pope Francis.

A staunch conservative and Vatican bureaucrat, Burke had been demoted by the pope a few months earlier, but it did not take the fight out of him. Francis had been backing a more inclusive era, giving space to progressive voices on divorced Catholics as well as gays and lesbians. In front of the camera, Burke said he would “resist” liberal changes — and seemed to caution Francis about the limits of his authority. “One must be very attentive regarding the power of the pope,” Burke told the French news crew.

Papal power, Burke warned, “is not absolute.” He added, “The pope does not have the power to change teaching (or) doctrine.”

Burke’s words belied a growing sense of alarm among strict conservatives, exposing what is fast emerging as a culture war over Francis’s papacy and the powerful hierarchy that governs the Roman Catholic Church.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/a-conservative-revolt-is-brewing-inside-the-vatican/2015/09/07/1d8e02ba-4b3d-11e5-80c2-106ea7fb80d4_story.html

[47of74]

1. Burke's lucky

If I was Pope he'd be busted down to parish priest of some remote town in Alaska somewhere above the Arctic Circle with strict orders not to travel more than 150 miles from that town.

[rug]

2. This has prompted me to look closer into the history of Lefebvre and the SSPX.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. How about papal nuncio to Pyongyang?

Or Greenland? Or Lesotho?

[meow2u3]

4. Burke thinks Jesus died and left him in charge instead of the Pope

Isn't that better known as insubordination?

Burke is among those far right conservatives who threatened to excommunicate Americans for dissenting from the so-called "non-negotiables" (read: abortion, sex, birth control). Now that Pope Francis is giving them a taste of their own medicine, they don't like the taste.

[47of74]

5. It's because of guys like Burke that the church loses so many people.

[meow2u3]

6. Authoritarianism puts off the faithful

Cardinals like Burke are the kind of religous authorities Jesus denounces as the hypocrites they are.