Pick up my cappa!
Since the Pope is always warning against the evils of gossip and backstabbing, I highly doubt he's being 'mean' to Cardinal Burke. I think media is making a mess here - not the Pope, and not Burke either. Besides, if the Pope had a problem with Burke - he'd tell him to his face - even if it ended in fisticuffs.
Song for this post here.
This pope makes it so hard, doesn't he? I hold the office in high regard, but the man in utter contempt. He's fermented such division, turning Catholic against Catholic, conservative against neo-conservative (and who even heard of such terms as "neo-con" applied to Catholics before this?), and has created an orthodox Catholic ghetto of outcasts.
ReplyDeleteI realize that there's great suffering going on that will be rewarded, and I don't for a minute question that God has a plan in all of this. (I like the commentator who referred to this pope as "The Pope of our Chastisement.") That doesn't make me question my faith, although I'm well aware that we may ultimately have to reassess the infallibility of the pope, vis the Orthodox.
But the Curia, after all, is a man-made institution, and we should not hesitate to analyze it as the political institution that it is, and to do so in political terms. They are all just men, after all, humans who are subject to the same foibles as the rest of us. Fr. Blake mentioned that only 72% of Anglican priests ordained in the 1960s are still believers in God, and I suppose we should have no reason to believe that similar percentages exist in the Catholic Church. Undoubtedly, some of them have reached the highest levels of the Church.
Why would we need to reassess papal infallibility when the pope has said nothing infallible? Infallibility is limited to teaching ex cathedra on matters of faith. Last time an infallible statement was made it was Pius XII in 1950 defining the Assumption of Mary as dogma. That was a traditional belief around for hundreds of years but not defined until there was dissent about it. That's typical of how the Church operates.
DeleteI would suggest, as did Ross Douthat in the NYT (he's one of the few good ones the Times has), that ‘this pope may be preserved from error only if the church itself resists him’. And despite the amount of controversy, I believe that most observers consider JPII's statement about the male priesthood to have been an infallible one.
DeleteSo weird...came downstairs in elevator this morning with some creepy delivery dude who was wearing a cape and who, when I refused to acknowledge the fact he was wearing a cape (really not a big deal in SF anyway), insisted on telling me he was wearing a cape and shoving his phone in my face so I could see the superhero "movie" he had just filmed. Big red cape. Very odd. Beware of dudes in capes. Or something.
ReplyDeleteI don't read pope news anymore. It's all so stupid and pointless.
LOL! You are kidding? That is hysterical. I haven't been following Pope Francis news as much either.
DeleteSeriously. But I've lived here long enough that it seemed pretty par for the course.
DeleteI like Francis. The reports are crazy-making.
My money is on the Argentinian...he would come at you smiling and looking benign and then you would get a right hook which would knock you on your back (of course he would pick you up and dust you off and then apologize and then sit you down to talk about things and get an ice pack for you...) Burke wouldn't muddy his hands in such things..he would have an underling do the dirty work...
ReplyDeleteThe one to take all comers would be JPII, that was one TOUGH SOB!
Love the video..(where the hell do you come up with this stuff.) Why does the guy in back have a frog head on.
The video is from Arrested Development - Buster.
DeleteAgree with you, MM. I read Burke's tenure as head of the Apostolic Signatura ended in 2013, after five years, and the Holy Father chose not to renew him for another five. Like Terry has already said, Popes can do what they want when it comes to shuffling staff around. Some cry foul, others could care less, and others agree and move on.
DeleteI read this on another site and copy/paste here:
"The word "removed" is misleading. His tenure was up in 2013 after serving for five years in the Apostolic Signatura and he was not re-confirmed. An amusing read is had when folks claim he was fired, demoted, ousted.
If he is a faithful son of the Church and loyal to Pope Francis as he himself claims, he will go wherever he is sent for the greater glory of God and the Church."
Life is what one makes of it...just like Papa Francis, I am sure Cardinal Burke will make the most of it and then some.
My prayers for both and especially for those who are angry/bitter over this bit of news.
I've read articles in which he says something to the effect that he's disappointed but is a faithful son of the Church so will serve where he's assigned. On the bright side, he has more time to write and speak.
DeleteI think he's being moved because he's a polarizing figure for those who don't follow Church teaching; they look at him and cry because the big, mean Church. Put someone else in position and they'll forget that Church teaching is the same. Burke will have a little vacation and some time to write.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely blunt - I think the cappa with the ermine and the one wearing the galero photos got him sent to a warmer climate. For someone who said 'Carnival is over' I think it maybe was too much for Francis. ;)
DeleteI should add - I really do think media - esp. social media is intensifying the drama surrounding this story - my post here is playing to that - not to the real news.
DeleteFrancis can arrange his cabinet as he sees fit, and Burke isn't being silenced - yet - he's just getting a new job.
Oh, please, you know the problem was your handbag photoshop!
DeleteWhat?
I was afraid of that.
DeleteI think it was the handbag too :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not into the cappa magna myself, but we must recall that Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph and gave him a coat of many colors (or a "long ornamented tunic" in the NAB). Joseph's brothers saw this and "they hated him so much they could not say a kind word to him". (Gen 37:4 NAB)" Of course they exiled him to a strange land.
ReplyDeleteAnd Joseph made a huge comeback.
Frank - that is a wonderful insight - truly inspired. Thanks very much - I never would have thought of that.
DeleteFor me, the really disturbing thing is not that he removed him from the Signatura, but that he appointed him to a minor, unimportant post usually given to an aged cardinal as a ceremonial post. Francis has to know that it is a public humiliation for Burke, akin to moving an editor at a prominent newspaper to the job of paper delivery boy. It just seems really ugly and heavy-handed to me.
ReplyDeleteSelf-delusion is as admirable as blatant deceit.
ReplyDeleteCan you be less opaque?
ReplyDelete