Cardinal
Raymond Burke
Explains It All For You
What
year is it?
Well,
it would seem to be 1952 in the mind of Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke. The recently demoted Cardinal (he got the
shaft after publicly challenging Pope
Francis’ more tolerant approach toward LGBT people) shared his rather retro
views with the website ‘The New Emangelism: Drawing Men to Jesus Christ and His
Catholic Church’ on what is wrong with the Catholic Church and your jaw will
drop once you hear what he has to say.
But
before we begin, take a moment and check out that website name: ‘Emangelism’? (Roll eyes here.)
I don’t
know about you, but if I hear one more over-privileged Caucasian male whine
about being marginalized or discriminated against I am going to put on a pair
of kinky boots, take to the pavement, and scream my head off.
Burke (who
actually has been recently marginalized by his boss, the Pope), proffered the
following thoughts:
·
That
the forces of “radical feminism” have brought the once-mighty Church to its
knees, leading to a “fluffy,” feminized view of sexuality and made way for
generations of pedophile priests.
·
That
the Church needs to return to its male-centered roots and stop catering to
“women’s issues” in order to regain its once robust standing in the world.
Oh hell,
let’s let the man’s own words hang his sorry misogynistic, homophobic ass.
“I
think there has been a great confusion with regard to the specific vocation of
men in marriage and of men in general in the Church during the past 50 years or
so. It’s due to a number of factors, but the radical feminism which has
assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very
marginalized.”
“Unfortunately,
the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the
Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing
critical issues important to men; the importance of the father, whether in the
union of marriage or not; the importance of a father to children; the
importance of fatherhood for priests; the critical impact of a manly character;
the emphasis on the particular gifts that God gives to men for the good of the
whole society.”
“The
goodness and importance of men became very obscured.”
“I
recall in the mid-1970’s, young men telling me that they were, in a certain
way, frightened by marriage because of the radicalizing and self-focused
attitudes of women that were emerging at that time. These young men were
concerned that entering a marriage would simply not work because of a constant
and insistent demanding of rights for women. These divisions between women and
men have gotten worse since then.”
“Making
things worse, there was a very fluffy, superficial kind of catechetical
approach to the question of human sexuality and the nature of the marital
relationship.”
“The
gift of human sexuality is turned into a means of self‑gratification often
at the expense of another person, whether in heterosexual relations or in
homosexual relations. A man who has not been formed with a proper identity as a
man and as a father figure will ultimately become very unhappy. These poorly
formed men become addicted to pornography, sexual promiscuity, alcohol, drugs,
and the whole gamut of addictions.”
(The Church itself has become)… “very
feminized. Women are wonderful, of course. They respond very naturally to the
invitation to be active in the Church. Apart from the priest, the sanctuary has
become full of women. The activities in the parish and even the liturgy have
been influenced by women and have become so feminine in many places that men do
not want to get involved.”
“We can
also see that our seminaries are beginning to attract many strong young men who
desire to serve God as priests. The new crop of young men are manly and
confident about their identity. This is a welcome development, for there was a
period of time when men who were feminized and confused about their own sexual
identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these disordered men
sexually abused minors; a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.”
On girls as altar servers: “Young boys don’t
want to do things with girls. It’s just natural. The girls were also very good at altar
service. So many boys drifted away over time. I want to emphasize that the
practice of having exclusively boys as altar servers has nothing to do with
inequality of women in the Church.”
On masturbation: “Young men may begin
to engage in the sexual sin of masturbation. Men have told me that when they
were teenagers, they confessed the sin of masturbation in the confessional and
priests would say, ‘Oh, that’s nothing you should be confessing. Everybody does
that.’ That’s wrong. These are sinful acts. They need to be confessed along
with other types of sins, whether the sins are foul language, lying, stealing,
or whatever it might be. The denial of sin was a breakdown in the sense of what
is demanded of men as men of Christ.”
“We
have to be very clear with men about purity, chastity, modesty and even the way
men dress and present themselves. Men’s behaviors and dress matter, for it
affects how they relate to the world and it affects the culture. Men need to
dress and act like men in a way that is respectful to themselves, to women and
to children.”
His
advice to fellow clergy?
“First
of all, be manly yourself. In other words, cultivate your own manly qualities,
because the priest is first and foremost the spiritual father; he is a man. You
need to have manly qualities of selflessness, chivalry and discipline to avoid
situations improper for a priest. A priest must have the manly confidence and
credibility to be a spiritual father to his flock, giving clear firm guidance
with kindness and charity.”
Had
enough? Did all that crap induce your
gag reflex yet?
All
this Ernest Hemingway bullshit spewed by a man who, while working at the
Vatican, donned a $20,000 jeweled hat for one prayer service and a cape with an
elaborate 20-foot train that cost more than $30,000 for another. His taste in ceremonial garb did not escape the
attention of his superiors, for ‘Queen Burke’ was indeed chastised for it.
I mean,
I like a good show as good as anyone, but $30,000 for a single costume? Just think of all that could have been done
on behalf of the poor with that money.
And all
this concern from a man who, while he was the Cardinal of St. Louis, imported
predator priests into his diocese from other areas in order to shield them from
investigation. In a report from the organization Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests (SNAP), Burke was found to be “reckless, deceptive and callous
regarding predator priests, vulnerable kids and wounded victims”.
Keep in
mind, historically; it has been in the best interest of the Catholic Church to
keep their congregations subservient and poor.
In the past, women have toiled in the background, providing the
community lifeblood of small congregations going for generations. It has also been in the Church’s best
interest to keep these women barefoot and pregnant: what better means of
finding new congregants than getting them fresh out of the oven?
It
matters not.
People
like Burke and those who would actually come up with the term ‘Emangelism’ are
powerless cranks unwilling to get with the program.
It’s
2015, folks.
And it
is time to grow the fuck up.
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