Contentious prelate leaving St. Louis for Rome appointment

National Catholic Reporter, July 11, 2008 by Tom Roberts

Click the "Leadership" button on the Web site of the St. Louis archdiocese and Archbishop Raymond Burke is no longer on the list. That's because June 27 he was appointed prefect of the church's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura, and will be moving soon from his Midwest post to Rome. The Signatura generally handles conflicts between two Vatican offices; appeals against decisions by diocesan bishops and Vatican offices; and appeals against decisions by the Roman Rota.

Prior to this most recent appointment, Burke, 60, was named to two Vatican posts in May: the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and the Congregation for Clergy. The archbishop said he will retain those positions.

The appointment, announced at a news conference, noted that as of 5 a.m. Central Time that day (the hour of the announcement in Rome) he had ceased to be archbishop of St. Louis.

Just ahead of that deadline, however, Burke, as one of his last acts as archbishop, issued severe canonical penalties against Sister of Charity Louise Lears. It was punishment for her open support of women's ordination. It was a fitting final act for a church leader who had been in the spotlight repeatedly during his four-and-a-half-year tenure, mostly because of disputes with dissident Catholics; with politicians who didn't vote in a way Burke considered in line with church teaching; with rock star Sheryl Crow, who supports stem-cell research and headlined a fundraiser for a local Catholic hospital; with members of the board of directors of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church; and with supporters of a Missouri stem-cell initiative.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

He even tried to force St. Louis University to discipline its basketball coach, Rich Majerus, after the coach showed up at a Hillary Clinton rally and announced he was pro-choice and in favor of stem-cell research.

Burke was not merely a scholar of canon law. He appeared to use it regularly to discipline individuals he deemed in defiance of church authority or teaching. He excommunicated six members of the St. Stanislaus board and the priest who ministered to the parish. He also cited canon law in prohibiting Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer, from defending excommunicated members of the parish.

If his tenure was controversial, it also attracted conservative young men as candidates for priesthood and attracted traditionalist groups to the archdiocese.

St. Louis is one of about 10 dioceses in the United States and only 50 in the world in which the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, an Italian-based society of apostolic life, operates. One of its principal missions is restoration of the traditional Latin Mass, which it uses exclusively. Its ceremonies are conducted in elaborate traditional attire.

Burke's emphasis on increasing the number of priests has resulted in a significant jump in candidates and ordinations. In May, nine seminarians at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary were ordained, the largest class in St. Louis in 25 years and one of the largest in the United States, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In interviews with Post-Dispatch writer Tim Townsend, seminarians spoke of their attraction to Burke's conservatism, which has led to more formal dress in the seminary and regular use of the Latin Mass.

[Tom Roberts is NCR news director. His email address is troberts@ncronline.org. Catholic News Service contributed to this report.]