Bishop Raymond Burke on His New Pastoral

Oct 05 2004 - Inside The Vatican news archives

The archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, answers ITV's questions on his landmark October 1 pastoral letter on politicians and abortion, and discusses the upcoming US presidential election

By Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz

Archbishop Raymond Burke started a controversy when, in January of this year, he issued a pastoral letter and a notification in the Diocese of La Crosse (Wisconsin) telling pro-abortion politicians there they could not receive Communion if they did not publicly recant their position. That was when he was the bishop of La Crosse.

When he was transferred to St. Louis, he made headlines when he said that he would deny Communion to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) if Kerry were to campaign within Burke's archdiocese.

The controversy has carried on through the year because of the presidential campaign and because Burke and others have also talked about voters who vote for pro-abortion candidates.

On October 1, the Memorial of St. Therese of Liseux, the archbishop issued a pastoral letter to the flock of his archdiocese giving them Catholic teaching on the key issues of the day to keep in mind when they go to the voting booth this November. In an exclusive interview, Archbishop Burke talks with Inside the Vatican about his letter, voting, politicians and his relationship with other bishops.

Inside The Vatican: Do you find it in the least ironic that the Eucharist has become a hot topic in the secular United States in a presidential campaign?

Archbishop Burke: Yes, I do in one sense; you wouldn't think it would be (an issue). But in another sense, it has to be when you have Catholic politicians who are knowingly and in a public way, taking positions that are contrary to the moral law. In one sense it surprises me, in another sense it doesn't.

ITV: With your notification to Catholic politicians in the Diocese of La Crosse, you started a huge debate among the U.S. bishops. A few have supported what you said and did by doing the same themselves, but the rest are divided among those who simply say that it's up to the politician's own conscience or who say they can't make any statement at all, or those who say nothing at all. How do you view this division? It's obviously not good, but is there a good effect to it?

Archbishop Burke: I think so. To me the difficulty is a misreading of Canon 915 ["Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion"], which has its source also in opinions of canon lawyers which, I think, are erroneous.

I think that the good result of it is that the whole question of the worthy disposition to receive Holy Communion is being very much underlined. People are coming to an understanding that we can't claim some right to receive Holy Communion; I've heard people use that language which is very misguided. The Eucharist is always a gift to us which we must be disposed to receive worthily. The good thing in it, I think, is that people are becoming much more conscious about something that St. Paul addressed back in the early days of the Church and that is, how do you come to the Holy Eucharist, and in what state of mind are you to approach Communion? If you are not one with Christ in your life, especially with regard to serious moral questions, then you sin against the Body of Christ by receiving Holy Communion in that state.

ITV: I'm curious about what this has done to your relationship with your brother bishops. How did this go over at the June USCCB meeting? How were you received? Were you heard at all?

Archbishop Burke: I certainly was able to speak my mind and people listened respectfully. I don't know how many agreed or disagreed with what I had done and what I said in the meeting, but at least I was able to speak my mind. I think it's clear that Cardinal [Theodore] McCarrick and his committee did not accept at all what I had done in La Crosse and believed that it should be viewed as the action of an individual bishop. I think that's what's fairly clear to me, and I think clear to everybody.

I suppose that what is involved here is the question of a bishop's relationship to the conference of bishops. I think in some people's minds there's a notion that has developed which I think is wrong and also I think damages very much the exercise of the episcopal office. And that is that a bishop cannot take action in such a question even if he is convinced in his conscience that he must without it first being studied by the conference of bishops and there being some kind of action taken at the conference level. If we follow that line, then in any kind of really critical question of pastoral direction or correction, the individual bishop anymore doesn't act - and that's harmful to the flock.

As I understand from my study of the whole nature of conferences of bishops, their purpose is to help bishops to organize joint pastoral action and I think the conference of bishops has been very helpful. I think, for instance, of coordinating our work on teaching Natural Family Planning. I think of a lot of other...

ITV: Migration issues....

Archbishop Burke: Oh, migration issues and so forth; those have been very much helped by us working together. But I don't think it's the intent of the bishops conference to subsume the teaching office of the individual bishop, and also his office of disciplining, of applying Church discipline, his governance of the diocese.

And I'm not saying that the conference is doing that necessarily, but I think this could be the impression that is sometimes given.

So I did what I knew in my conscience I needed to do as Bishop of La Crosse and I didn't do it to embarrass any other bishop or to be a challenge to the conference of bishops. I believe it was something that, as a bishop, I was obliged to do; it didn't depend on the conference of bishops.

ITV: One of those who was subject to you in La Crosse, Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), wrote an article in America responding to your article in America, said the difference between you and he is that he is a John Courtney Murray kind of Catholic, while you are not. I'm not sure what kind of Catholic that leaves you as, but how would you respond?

Archbishop Burke: I'm not an expert on Father Murray's writings, but in my discussions with people who know Father Murray's thought well, they tell me that that's an absolute distortion; that he would never understand freedom of religion to be a so-called license in politics to act outside of the moral law. In fact, he would have been someone who would have very much insisted on the political order founded on the natural moral law.

I think where the confusion enters in, and I have...well, I shouldn't comment on that...where the confusion comes in is that people see any intervention on the part of a person who's Catholic to be a confessional act, or an effort at confessionalism, in the sense of forcing the whole nation to follow certain religious doctrines or practices. But this isn't the case and I've insisted on this repeatedly. It's a question of upholding the natural moral law. The fact that I'm a Catholic doing that doesn't change the fact that if our civil law does not have its foundation in the moral law, then the common good will not be served.

And I think that's where Congressman Obey and a number of other people, even in terms of my latest pastoral letter here, people are saying it's a question of Church teaching. And it is Church teaching because obviously the Church also teaches the law that God has written in our hearts. But it's not a confessional teaching; it's not something that's peculiar to the Catholic faith. It's a part of the moral heritage that belongs to everyone.

ITV: Some say this is a particularly American issue, it doesn't come up in Europe or anywhere else around the world and even the Pope has given Communion to a pro-abortion Italian politician.

Archbishop Burke: The issue would have to be an issue in any country that has Catholic politicians in public office. They're obliged to uphold the moral law or they simply cannot receive Holy Communion. The Doctrinal Note [on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life], which was published, not just for Catholic politicians or Catholics in the United States but for the whole world, makes it clear that Catholic politicians are obliged to uphold the moral law in their political activity. I'm quite sure the Doctrinal Note doesn't talk about Canon 915, but its application flows naturally from that teaching in the Doctrinal Note, which is nothing new.

I don't know about this claim that the Pope gave Communion... The one thing that has to be said in all of this is that the Holy Father or any bishop when he is giving out Holy Communion, he doesn't know everyone who is presenting himself or herself for Holy Communion and so he might have given Communion to someone who shouldn't have received Holy Communion because he was not in full communion with the Catholic Church or was engaged in some public and obstinate sin, but he didn't do it knowingly. In other words, he didn't know who the person was.

I think it was in Time magazine this summer or so, maybe it was even June, that this picture appeared of the Apostolic Nuncio (to the U.S., Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo) giving Holy Communion to John Kerry and apparently, it was on the occasion of the installation of Archbishop [Sean] O'Malley as Archbishop of Boston. But I'm sure that the Apostolic Nuncio didn't know the whole situation with Senator Kerry and at that point, the archbishop certainly had even taken his office yet, so he couldn't have admonished Senator Kerry as he did later on.

ITV: Did anyone at the Vatican read your letter before you published it?

Archbishop Burke: No, not that I'm aware. I don't think so, because there were no drafts floating around.

ITV: Some in your flock are claiming that you are interfering in the voting process, telling them how to vote. How do you respond?

Archbishop Burke: I'm not telling anybody how to vote in this sense: I'm not telling them for whom they should vote. But I am telling them how to vote in the sense of what are the moral requirements for the right exercise of the right to vote. In other words, I'm setting forth for them the moral considerations of which they have to take note in voting. But I'm not telling them for whom they should vote.

People have to read the pastoral letter - there isn't anything in the pastoral letter which is new; it's all what the Church has taught perennially. Then it's a matter of their conscience. In that sense, I suppose to put it simply, I'm telling them how to vote in the sense that I'm telling to vote according to their conscience and helping them to form that conscience correctly.

ITV: So now that they know in their conscience what the Church teaches, now they need to act according to their conscience.

Archbishop Burke: Exactly. That's my obligation as a bishop in such serious matters to present the Church's teaching.

ITV: So you would reject the charge that you are supporting the Republican party by what you wrote.

Archbishop Burke: Absolutely right, I reject it. It's not a question of supporting one party or the other. And people have told me I'm a hypocrite and that I really secretly am. That's not true. What I set forth is the Church's teaching.

ITV: Given what you wrote, does a Catholic really have a choice this year? Obviously, John Kerry is out of the question. But Bush has his problems, too, if he's elected...

Archbishop Burke: Yes, I have my difficulties with President Bush, too.

ITV: If he is elected and then taken out of office somehow, Dick Cheney, who supports gay "marriage," becomes president.

Archbishop Burke: Yep.

ITV: And Bush also supported pro-abortion Sen. Arlan Specter in the Pennsylvania primaries over pro-life Rep. James Toomey showing that when it comes to political expediency, he is willing to eject his pro-life stand. And he is the first president to authorize federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. So what, then, does a Catholic do?

Archbishop Burke: I know there are some Catholics who have just thrown up their hands in this whole matter and said, "I'm not going to vote for anybody because there's nobody who upholds the moral law in its integrity." My response to that is you have to look for the candidate who will restrict as much as possible evils such as procured abortion, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, same-sex "marriage," euthanasia. It's better to support a candidate, and I'm not telling people to vote for Mr. Bush or not, but you have to look for the candidate who will most restrict these evils. Then, at the same time, we need to insist with those who are elected to office that they uphold the moral law and address these questions, whether it be about embryonic stem cell research or whatever it might be.

ITV: In your letter you claim no particular wisdom in voting matters. But some people might look to you anyway. What about voting for a candidate in, say, the Constitution Party who is 100 percent pro-life? Is that a realistic kind of thing? It becomes a matter of prudential judgment on the part of the individual voter. But here's a person who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting into the White House. Is that basically like not voting at all?

Archbishop Burke: Basically it is. I used the term in the pastoral letter "viable candidate." But again, it has to be somebody who is going to limit these evils. If you have two candidates who are both...

ITV: Who are equally bad?

Archbishop Burke: Yes, exactly, both in favor of all of these positions which we view as intrinsically evil, well then you'd be in a position in which you wouldn't be able to vote at all.

ITV: You have an interesting phrase that becomes almost a refrain in the letter ­ "Christians without borders." Six times you say we have to love without boundaries. Why do you introduce this concept here and how does it relate to life issues?

Archbishop Burke: It's basically the teaching that's contained in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The radical nature of Christ's teaching is that charity with Christ now has no borders, has no boundaries. In other words, you cannot exclude an individual or a class of people from your charity, from your concern, your solidarity. I keep repeating it because there is that tendency in discourse about the common good to exclude a certain class of people, for instance the unborn, or those who are seriously ill, the aged, or embryos. So I keep repeating that so that people realize the radical nature of our vocation to love as Catholics.

ITV: In your pastoral letter you begin with a story about a Bavarian sacristan's remembrance of the Nazi era. Are you making an equation here between what's happening in the US and what happened then? Or are you saying we're headed down that path or possibly headed down that path?

Archbishop Burke: What I'm doing here is I'm saying this situation is instructive for us because here was a situation in which a government was attacking a whole class of people, actually several classes of people, and somehow the general citizenry became cooperators in that. And we have to recognize that in the question, for instance of abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, whatever it might be, a class of people are being excluded from the care for the common good. And we're responsible for that. And that's the reason I use that example.

I don't think it's a question of if we're heading down that way. I mean, it's a fact that 40 million unborn children have been aborted since 1973. In some way, and I make the point at the end of the letter, too, even as Catholics we have to ask ourselves, "What have we done?" If all Catholics would join those Catholics and other people of good will who were working to promote the respect for human life, this situation wouldn't be what it is.

ITV: You also bring to mind your own final judgment. Is that something which is just not on people's minds today, even on bishops' minds?

Archbishop Burke: I can't comment on anybody else, but I know this - it's on my mind everyday. That should be on every Catholic's mind. Part of our day is supposed to be at the conclusion of each day we make an examination of conscience and we pray the act of contrition because we realize that we have to give an account of our stewardship of God's gifts when we die and God may call us at any time.

I think in the general population and even, sadly, among Catholics, perhaps because of poor catechesis or whatever, there has been first of all a loss of the sense of sin and if there's been a loss of a sense of sin, the corollary to that is the loss of the sense of the final judgment.

ITV: One final question ­ would you care to tell us how you plan to vote?

Archbishop Burke: (Laughs) I'm going to vote in accord with the principles that I set out in my pastoral letter. How's that?

ITV: That's good.

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Szyszkiewicz is a frequent contributor to the Catholic press in the United States. He is formerly editor of The Catholic Times, newspaper of the Diocese of La Crosse.

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Inside the Vatican is a monthly magazine with its main editorial off ices in Rome. This article may be freely reprinted, in whole or in part. For more information about Inside the Vatican magazine, visit the web page at: http://www.InsideTheVatican.com . The above document is at http://archives.insidethevatican.com/news/index.php?fdate=20041005&window=showfile#085602