#2618: Raymond Burke

Raymond Leo Burke is a prelate of the Catholic Church – bishop, cardinal, and incumbent patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, former Archbishop of St. Louis, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and hysterically deranged and lunatic wingnut, conspiracy theorist and antivaccine activist. Even the Pope seems to recognize Burke as a frothingly raving lunatic. Burke is also the kind of guy who spends $25 million designated to helping poor people to construct gold-coated monuments in order to “raise spiritual devotion”. In addition to actively trying to ruin the lives of poor people, Burke is known for championing excommunication of anyone who disagrees with him on political issues and for asserting that real Catholics couldn’t vote for Obama in the 2008 election. He is also former chair of the advisory board of the Institute for Human Dignity – yes, Steve Bannon’s group (Burke resigned when that connection became publicly known in order to tend to his career in the Catholic Church), and he has arranged prayer- and fasting-activism to protest signs of tolerance toward people of other religions, in particular toward “pagan” practices among Indigenous groups in various countries.

 

To most people, Burke is best known for his response to the sex abuse scandal among Catholic priests. He blamed it on “women”. In particular, he blamed it on the perceived “feminization” of the Catholic Church by “radical feminism” in the church (he didn’t mention examples or try to define “radical feminism”): radical feminism has “assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalized” and forced men to wear dresses led to a lack of emphasis on issues ostensibly important to men, like sex chivalry. That’s apparently why pedophile priests assault young boys. He did not, for obvious reasons, try to explain the causal relationship in further detail.

 

No fan of same-sex marriage, Burke has called such marriage “a work of deceit, a lie about the most fundamental aspect of our human nature […] There is only one place these types of lies come from, namely Satan. It is a diabolical situation which is aimed at destroying individuals, families, and eventually our nation.” Yes, he’s strong on melodrama and correspondingly thin on details in his attempts to explain things. He then suggested that parents should not allow their children to have contact with sexually active gay people and discourage them from attending family gatherings such as Christmas parties. He has also suggested that gay marriage is a sign of “end times”.

 

In 2019, Burke and German cardinal Walter Brandmuller wrote a letter to the pope calling for an end to “the plague of the homosexual agenda,” which they blamed for the sexual abuse crisis in the Church (whatever suits them at the moment, apparently), and claimed that the homosexual agenda was spread by “organized networks”. Burke has also compared embryonic stem cell research to slavery – apparently scientists are using the stem cells as “slaves”.

 

He really let his true colors fly in his take on the COVID-19 pandemic, however, going full-on conspiracy theorist: According to Burke, “the mysterious Wuhan virus” is being used by “certain forces ... to advance their evil agenda” and force people to become “subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset’, the ‘new normal’, which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear.” And as for the vaccine, Burke denounced it as “state-mandated microchipping” that “violates the integrity of citizens”. He also invoked the tired and utterly dumb “aborted fetal tissue” gambit. And criticized social distancing for good measure.

 

Then, of course, he got COVID-19, and was put on a ventilator.

 

Diagnosis: A pitiful excuse for a human being, flailing conspiracy theorist and otherwise fairly unoriginal as a cartoon villain, Raymond Burke is a thoroughly evil man. But he’s managed to sustain a significant career in a huge organization that seems to tend to struggle to weed out rot, and though he comes across as a natural target for pointing and laughing, he enjoys plenty of power and influence. This is a guy who has ruined lives, and who will continue to do so. Dangerous.