Posted on 07/21/2011 4:53:01 PM PDT by NYer
From Italian journalist Marco Tosati on the Vatican Insider of the Italian daily La Stampa comes this.
Raymond Leo Burke, the “great puppeteer” of American appointees
The appointment of Chaput to the Diocese of Philadelphia confirms Burke’s role as the Pope’s trusted man in the US
marco tosatti
romeThe nomination of Charles Chaput, Native American bishop from Denver, to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirms Raymond Leo Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as Benedict XVI’s top advisor in the United States. One of the first signs of his role as a bridge between the influential United States Conference of Bishops and the pontifical apartment was the appointment of Timothy Michael Dolan as successor to Cardinal Edward Egan in New York.
Dolan, who is currently conducting a vigorous and efficient battle against the increasingly anti-Catholic positions of the New York Times (which a few months ago refused to publish his reply to a polemical article against the Church) is certainly in sympathy with Burke, and with the American bishops who must face new initiatives from the Obama presidency every day. ["Efficient" is perhaps more a more optimistic adjective than I would have chosen.]
Raymond Leo Burke tried to warn anyone in the Vatican who wanted to listen (as well as those who turned a deaf ear) that Obama would be a disaster for traditional values – family, marriage, abortion, and so on – but no one believed him. [That seems to be the case.] Bertone was optimistic, and L’Osservatore Romano, the voice of the Secretary of State’s office (and, especially at this time, the Secretary of State himself), had given an impressive welcome to the first African-American President.
Burke, a man accustomed to calling things as he sees them, and “saying” more than “praying,” [I don't believe that is an accurate characterization. in the first place. Moreover, in the Italian original we find "abituato a dire pane al pane", which is part of a saying "dire pane al pane e vino al vino", which is like saying "call a spade a spade".] showed no hesitation in expressing his opinions, to the point where the Secretary of State received [beware] a courteous request to stop releasing interviews that were negative and critical toward the new President. [I don't know who did this translation but it is not great. The Italian says that a request arrived from the Secretariate of State. Rather different, no?]
Perhaps someone will start to believe Burke, now that the American ambassador to Rome (just like his colleagues around the world) has, at Washington’s behest, become a promoter of gay parades and other events – even in Pakistan – where Benedict XVI is represented in a vulgar and offensive manner.
But someone (or Someone with a capital “S”) in the Vatican holds the frankness and clarity of vision of the head of the Vatican Supreme Court, in high esteem.
Someone knows – and benefits from – his deep knowledge of people and things overseas, and his ability to identify solutions in terms of candidates for dioceses that are gradually freeing themselves [sigh... liberersi... "fall vacant", not "freeing themselves"...], in a Church still shaken by the financial and public relations aftershocks of the paedophilia scandal.
Charles Chaput was initially supposed to be appointed as Archbishop of Chicago, [Oh?] replacing the ill Cardinal George in the great lakeside diocese. But fortunately, the head of the diocese still feels able to manage his role with dignity and efficiency, when his illness is not acting up. Thus it is not at all certain when he will need to be replaced.
This uncertainty has not escaped many in the Curia: it is believed, especially by Burke, that Chaput will shortly be assured a diocese that will rather rapidly (some sources say a Consistory will be held at the end of this year or the beginning of the next) [I'll believe it when I see it.] win him the cardinal’s berretta. [How does a cardinal's berretta or beretta differ from that of an ordinary priest or bishop? For proper liturgical use of the beretta, try this.]
According to rumours flying around, behind the Leonine Wall during John Paul II’s pontificate, and in the first years of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, one of the great “puppeteers” of the appointment of overseas bishops was the current prefect of the Pontifical Household, Archbishop James Michael Harvey. He seems to still be hanging onto the role, but – if one believes certain sources – it has been greatly reduced with the arrival of Raymond Leo Burke. The next few months brings a deadline for many American bishops; then we will see what influence the new prefect for bishops – Canadian Marc Ouellette – and Burke himself will have in changing the episcopal face of the Stars and Stripes.
This chatty Italian style doesn’t transfer well into English, unless you are 16. And in many points – I pointed to a few – the translation was just plain wrong. But the essential message is clear. Marco Tosati believes that Card. Burke is guiding the important appointments for the USA.
I direct you back to two proposals I made about the appointment of bishops.
PROPOSAL 1: Stop, now, and say a prayer to the guardian angels of those who must make these decisions.
PROPOSAL 2: If your diocese is presently “sede vacante“, for each minute of gossip and even of speculation – which will go on anyway – spend 10 in prayer.
These are difficult times. The devil is abroad and has great wrath. The appointment of bishops is always important and difficult.
The bigger the see, the more important the choice, as we have seen to our great consternation.
Ping!
Perhaps we should begin emailing Archbishop Burke now in hopes he can help the pope select solidly orthodox catholic bishops to replace ours.
I really wish people would quit idolizing Burke. Even his fans here in StL will tell you he had WAY too much zeal for ceremony and made some massively bad personnel moves we’re still paying for. At least one priest really hated the way Burke used to address him which was pretty formally. His appointment to Rome, I have it from more than one source, was to get him out of the USA before there was a revolt. Up until the last year, I’d say Rigali had more pull, truth be told. Too bad people in Rome are starting to fall under Burke’s spell. Yeah, he’s great one on one, I hear (wouldn’t know because I’m laity), but he gives sermons that go around in circles and never seem to land and he really has a thing for ceremony.
My, my, knickers in a not, eh? Why don’t you tell us what you really think?
So one priest thought he was too formal. And you don’t like ceremony. Ergo, Burke is trash?
Given the absolute lack of and hatred for ceremony in most American parishes, we could do with an awful lot more ceremony. Burke simply does what Catholics did for centuries, before they Protestantized.
No one has problem with ceremony before a football game or at a wedding. But in the Church? God forbid that a prelate try to raise the level of ceremony from minus 3000 to positive 3 and a half.
I’m sure you consulted sources on all sides of these issues, so your “more than one source” have to be absolutely authoritative.
I have two dozen sources who think eggzackly the opposite of what you think of Burke. Some of my sources are pretty high placed. And at least two of them are from St. Louis. Make that three.
But if throwing a nutty, as Fr. Z would say, makes you feel better, then I’m happy for you.
Absolutely correct. He was as Orthodox a Catholic in beliefs and convictions as one get, but he was generating all kinds of unhappiness with those that he worked with.
Too bad people in Rome are starting to fall under Burke’s spell. Yeah, he’s great one on one, I hear (wouldn’t know because I’m laity), but he gives sermons that go around in circles and never seem to land and he really has a thing for ceremony.
I think, just like Law, that the Vatican can use individuals for their best, at their best. If they cannot do something well, put them into a position where that something is not a significant portion of their duties.
Make no mistake; I would probably strangle Cardinal Law with my own hands if I ever met him in person. And Cardinal Burke has created enmity in his own duties.
BXVI is the most intelligent and perceptive Pope we have had in a looooooong time. I think that he understands his people well. Look at the chess game of bishops in the US that he is winning hands down.
My sources are from the Chancery, the Seminary, more than one former Cathedral sacristan, the REALLY high level executive assistant circuit and the Office of Sacred Music, not to mention watching it all happen for years. I don't know where yours are from, but seminary staff and faculty know a lot.
One of the great cultural aspects of this city is that we are pretty laid back. Our closest cultural sister city in the US is New Orleans. We're very much more like a lot of places in Europe I've visited. Formality doesn't even happen when the mayor is in the building. Maybe the governor, but he's not a stickler, truthfully. Burke was formal to the point of making people uncomfortable. He didn't know how to assimilate. At all. As for the ceremony - good ceremony is perfectly majestic and no one has any problems with it, but there is such a thing as letting it rule a little too much. Seriously. There are some things - like the archbishop's entrance half an hour before any big event to Bruckner's Ecce Saccerdos with a special hooded cape thing which is CARRIED by the servers - that just are over the top (I've only ever watched this from the choir gallery). I've heard tales from the seminary about some other stuff.
Now that he's been gone for a while, his fans, and there are quite a few still in various archdiocesan offices, still love him for being very orthodox and true to the church, but even they recognize that there were some virtues that could use some work. Say, humility. He was here for Corpus Christi and Mass was an hour and fifty minutes long. Seriously. The sermon would have made a great academic paper on the Eucharist and developed all points very thoroughly, but was a little much for Sunday Mass. And what's really funny about it is that our new choir director who knows every nook and cranny of liturgy keeps mumbling about the papal something or other that says Mass should be no more than an hour.
There's other things that happened behind the scenes that I know because I do have low friends in high places that I would not divulge on a public board like this, and there are legit reasons why. For the sake of the whole church, Burke belongs on the high court. He truly does, not as a sitting bishop. He does not know how to be an administrator at all. Some people just don't and unfortunately, no matter how much we would prefer it to be otherwise, bishops and archbishops need to know how to be administrators and make distinctions between what's really important and what is not.
Absolutely correct. He was as Orthodox a Catholic in beliefs and convictions as one get, but he was generating all kinds of unhappiness with those that he worked with.
The exact phrase I heard from one of my friends was "They had to get him out of Dodge." AND that it was not the promotion it was made out to be.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. And the pudding that Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Ouellette are dishing out is rapidly losing that heretical and apostate flavour that the USCCB has had for many years.
Seems to me that the hierarchy could use several hundred more like him.
Dear me. Corpus Christi Mass lasted 1 hour and fifty minutes. Terrible. Just terrible.
The great festivals of the Church, when done with pontifical solemnity ought to last about that long.
You say Burke doesn’t know how to be an administrator.
Well, you apparently don’t know much about levels of ceremony or what is normal for a great feast celebrated by a bishop.
They have real short, laid-back services at Willow Creek or any of a dozen neighborhood megachurches. Why don’t you join them?
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