Comments on Pope Francis Burke is widely viewed as a leader of the conservative wing of the church, and
de facto leader in the United States to those who opposed the reforms under Francis. Francis spoke favorably of Burke in 2017, saying, "I do not see Cardinal Burke as an enemy." He also called Burke "an excellent lawyer." In an interview with
The Wanderer on January 10, 2019, Burke denounced Francis's
September 2018 Holy See–China Agreement. He said that it was "in effect[...] a repudiation of generations of martyrs and confessors of the Faith in China". Burke also criticized the notion of "synodality", in which authority is removed from the pope and placed in the hands of bishops. "In listening to the Pope, one is given the impression that he is giving more and more authority to individual bishops and Conferences of Bishops. But this is not the Catholic Church", Burke said. He accused promoters of synodality of attempting to effect a "revolution" in the church, the end of which would result in Catholicism being practiced differently in various countries, to the overall detriment of the church. The declaration states that "the religion born of faith in Jesus Christ" is the "only religion positively willed by God," seemingly alluding to the
Document on Human Fraternity signed by Francis on February 4, which stated that the "diversity of religions" is "willed by God." Following recent changes to the
Catechism of the Catholic Church to oppose
capital punishment, the declaration states that the church "did not err" in teaching that civil authorities may "lawfully exercise capital punishment" when it is "truly necessary" to preserve the "just order of societies".
Abortion and embryonic stem-cell research During the
2004 presidential election, Burke stated that he would not give
communion to
John Kerry or other Catholic politicians who publicly support legalized
abortion. "One of the problems I have is bishops who say to me, 'Well, this is unheard of in the church's practice.' Actually it goes back to
St. Paul in the
(First) Letter to the Corinthians, when he says: The person who eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ unworthily eats and drinks condemnation unto himself," he said. He also wrote a
pastoral letter saying Catholics should not vote for politicians who support abortion or other "anti-life" practices. Burke later clarified his position, stating that one could vote for a pro-abortion politician and not commit a mortal sin, if one believed there was a more significant moral issue than abortion at hand, but he also stated that he could not think of any sort of issue that would qualify. In a September 2008 interview, Burke said that "the
Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party
of death', because of its choices on bioethical questions", especially elective abortion. When
Sheryl Crow, who advocates for embryonic stem-cell research, was scheduled to perform at a
benefit concert for the
Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in 2007, Burke stated that to have the hospital host Crow would give "the impression that the Church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching." He asked that her invitation be privately removed and resigned from the board on April 25, 2007, when Crow's performance was confirmed. In 2008, Burke urged
Saint Louis University to take disciplinary action against its head
basketball coach,
Rick Majerus, after Majerus publicly supported abortion and embryonic stem cell research at
a campaign event for Democratic Senator and
presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton. Burke stated: "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everything the Catholic Church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic Church." Saint Louis University supported Majerus's right to publicly expound on his own personal views when made at an event he did not attend as a university representative. The bishops' failure to do so, Burke said, "is weakening the faith of everyone. It's giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion." Two months later in May, Burke stated, "Since President Barack Obama|[Barack] Obama clearly announced, during
the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion,
embryonic-stem-cell research, and
same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience." During the election, Obama had not officially called for same-sex marriage, but had advocated same-sex
civil unions. In February 2013 Burke commented on the
Irish abortion debate, stating that, in accordance with canon law, priests should exclude politicians who support abortion from receiving the Eucharist. Burke has stated that not simply politicians but anyone who supports abortion cannot receive Holy Communion. "I can't imagine that any Catholic wouldn't know that abortion is a grievous sin, but if they don't, once they've been told, then they either have to cease to support abortion or accept the fact they are not a Catholic in good standing and therefore should not present themselves for Holy Communion," he said. In 2017, Burke said that
Donald Trump's victory in the
2016 United States presidential election was a win for
anti-abortion causes.
Role of women in the church and priest shortage In June 2008, Burke as the Archbishop of Saint Louis applied an
interdict, which excludes a person from church ministries and the
sacraments, to a
Sister of Charity, Louise Lears, judging her guilty of three grave canonical offenses against the Catholic Church's faith and teachings. Lears, a pastoral worker and educator, had publicly stated her belief that all of the church's ministries, including the priesthood, should be open to women. Lears received the interdict after attending an ordination ceremony, which the church does not recognize, of a woman to the priesthood at a Jewish synagogue by the
WomenPriests movement. In January 2015, Burke gave an interview to an organization called the New Project. The group was formed to confront what it calls a "man crisis" in the Catholic Church. In the interview, Burke is sympathetic to the group's concerns that men are being driven from the pews because of the "feminization" of the Catholic Church. Burke criticized what he saw as the excessive role of "
radical feminism" in the church. He said that it has "assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalized" and led the Church to deemphasize issues important to men, such as chivalry and sacrifice. In addition to decrying "radical feminism", he specifically criticized the introduction of
female altar servers as an unwelcome sign of the "feminization" of the church and a disincentive to boys to serve at the altar and start on the path to ordination. "The introduction of girl servers also led many boys to abandon altar service", Burke said. "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."
Homosexuality Burke is a strong critic and opponent of moves to soften attitudes towards homosexuality and to permit greater acceptance of gay people within the church. In a 2013 interview, Burke said that
same-sex marriage "is a work of deceit, a lie about the most fundamental aspect of our human nature, our human sexuality, which, after life itself, defines us. 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." In an interview in October 2014, Burke referred to gay relationships as "profoundly disordered and harmful", stating that parents should not "expose [their] children to that." He suggested that parents should not allow their children to have contact with sexually active gay people and should discourage them from attending family gatherings such as celebrations at Christmas. He has described homosexuality as an "ailment" which is not genetic but largely depended on a person's environment. Shortly after he argued that Pope Francis had never said that positive elements could be found in homosexual acts, adding that it was "impossible to find positive elements in an evil act." Archbishop
Eamon Martin of Armagh distanced himself from Burke's remarks, urging individuals "to try to be respectful and inoffensive in language" wherever possible. In August 2017, Burke said that Cardinal
Reinhard Marx's assertion that Germany's recent legalization of same-sex marriage should not be a major concern for the Catholic Church there showed how the church lacked "the clarity and the courage to announce the Gospel of Life and Divine Love to the radically secularized culture". He alluded to
diabolical errors spreading from society to Church leaders, raising concerns that the "
end times" were nearing, and once again stating that homosexual acts were sinful. He insisted that the correct approach would distinguish between the love for the person and the hatred Catholics "must always have for sinful acts". In 2019, Burke chastised some of his fellow bishops for their perceived failures in keeping church teaching. He believes there are "pressure groups" within the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) which have been attempting to soften the church's attitude on homosexuality, including trying to remove the description "intrinsically disordered" from the discussion of homosexual acts in the Catechism, a change which Burke said is "not possible". Burke went on, "There is definitely within the hierarchy of the United States an element which is not coherent with the Church on these issues." He then criticized prelates who "promote Fr.
James Martin ... within their dioceses". He alleged that Martin "is not coherent with the Church's teaching on homosexuality" and said that such promotion is "an indication to us that there is a serious difficulty within the hierarchy that must be addressed". In February 2019, Burke penned an open letter with Cardinal
Walter Brandmuller addressed to
Pope Francis calling for an end of "the plague of the homosexual agenda", which they blamed for the sexual abuse crisis engulfing the Catholic Church. They claimed the agenda was spread by "organized networks" protected by a "conspiracy of silence".
Divorce Burke has opposed any hypothetical change of church doctrine that would permit civilly divorced Catholics who are validly married to remarry or receive the Eucharist once they have entered into a second civil marriage. In 2013, he co-authored a book with cardinals
Gerhard Ludwig Müller and
George Pell on the subject. An interim document from the
2014 Synod of Bishops softened the Catholic Church's language on gay people, contraception and divorced and civilly remarried people. Burke said that the response showed that "a great number of the Synod Fathers found it objectionable." In an interview with
The Catholic World Report, Burke said the document "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Catholic Church) and gives the impression of inventing a totally new, what one member of the Synod called 'revolutionary', teaching on marriage and the family." Burke went on to say, in an interview with
BuzzFeed News, that if "Pope Francis had selected certain cardinals to steer the meeting so as to advance his personal views on matters like divorce and the treatment of LGBT people", he would not be observing his mandate as the leader of the Catholic Church. In an interview in the German daily
Die Welt on April 24, 2015, concerning the
Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Burke renewed his criticism of German Cardinal
Walter Kasper, whose "merciful" solution for remarried divorcees who wish to receive communion was discussed at the 2014 Extraordinary Synod. “We are bound by the Magisterium. But some Synod Fathers, above all Cardinal Kasper, want to change it. So I had to make myself very clear. Clashes at Synods, incidentally, are nothing unusual. Think of the early Councils, the
Arian heresy, for instance, when
Athanasius even became physically aggressive”, Burke recalled. He also mentioned that Pope John Paul II had ruled out women's ordination “once and for all”. The four cardinals submitted the
dubia in private, followed by a public letter ("Seeking Clarity: A Plea to Untie the Knots in
Amoris Laetitia") in November 2016, asking Francis to clarify various points of doctrine. The first
dubia asked about the reception of the sacraments by the divorced and remarried. The public letter asked about fundamental issues of the Christian life and referenced Pope John Paul II's encyclical
Veritatis splendor. In April 2017, following no reply to their letter, the cardinals requested a meeting with Francis, but there was no response to this request. On April 7, 2018, Burke, along with Brandmüller and Schneider, participated in a conference rejecting the outline proposed by German bishops to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist. Citing
chapter 19 of the Gospel of Matthew, he disputed the notion that anyone, including the pope, had the authority to accept divorced and remarried Catholics as full members of the church. During the conference, Burke expressed the belief that a "public correction" of a pope in error can take place after a private one has been ignored or rejected. "As a matter of duty, the pope can be disobeyed," Burke said. He added that "the Roman pontiff can dispense with the law only for the purpose of preserving its purpose, and never for subverting it." In an interview on September 6, Burke said that he shared fellow
dubia signatory Caffarra's "profound sadness" that the
dubia never received a response, and wondered whether such sadness contributed to his death. "The dubia must have a response sooner or later," Burke said. "It's a simple response: Yes or no. That's all. It's not complicated."
Palliative care and euthanasia At a July 23, 2011, conference on end-of-life care sponsored by the
St. Gianna Physician's Guild, Burke argued that suffering does not cause a person to have less meaning in his life, nor does it give the government the right to decide if that person should live or die, saying: "No matter how much a life is diminished, no matter what suffering the person is undergoing, that life demands the greatest respect and care. It's never right to snuff out a life because it's in some way under heavy burden."
SSPX reintegration In 2012, during negotiations between the traditionalist
Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which is in a canonically irregular status with the
Holy See, Burke expressed optimism that the society's members would reconcile themselves with the Vatican. He referred to the society's members as people who "have the Catholic faith and the love of the sacred liturgy". The talks eventually failed. In July 2017, Burke said that SSPX was "in schism" and that it was "not legitimate to attend Mass or to receive the sacraments in a church" of theirs, and that faithful Catholics should avoid SSPX liturgies. He criticized Pope Francis's openness towards SSPX, stating that "There is no canonical explanation for it, and it is simply an anomaly", because while they were not
excommunicated, they also were not in full communion with the Catholic Church.
Views on the Mass In a July 2007 apostolic letter,
Summorum Pontificum,
Pope Benedict XVI authorized wider use of the
Traditional Latin Mass, which had largely fallen out of use with the reforms of the
Second Vatican Council and the introduction of the
Mass of Paul VI, or Novus Ordo. Restoration of all or some parts of the traditional Mass have been supported by Burke as part of a "reform of the reform", modifying what he sees as deficiencies in the implementation of the newer Mass of Paul VI. In 2012, Burke said the following regarding the liturgical changes that took place after the council: In 2017, Burke referred to
Summorum Pontificum as "the most splendid contribution of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI". Over the years, Burke has frequently offered the traditional form of the Mass, including regularly celebrating ordinations for the ICKSP and the
Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, both traditionalist groups whose priests offer only the older form of the Mass. In March 2011, Burke said that too many priests and bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant, when they are actually "serious abuses" that damage the faith of Catholics. He criticized a perceived lack of reverence in the way the modern liturgy is sometimes conducted, stating "If we err by thinking we are the center of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith." At the same time, Burke is known to wear lavish regalia and "is one of the few cardinals who dons cappa magnas, the long trains of watered silk that can look like scarlet lava flowing down from his throne" as well as "velvet gloves and extravagant brocades". In a 2015 interview, Burke reiterated his concern that man has become center of Mass, saying that "In many places the Mass became very priest‑centered, it was like the 'priest show.' This type of abuse leads to a loss of the sense of the sacred, taking the essential mystery out of the Mass. The reality of Christ Himself coming down on the altar to make present His sacrifice on Calvary gets lost." In June 2025, Burke said that he had petitioned the recently elected
Pope Leo XIV to remove the restrictions that Pope Francis had placed on the Traditional Mass. Following this petition, on August 23, Leo XIV received Burke in a private audience, reportedly to discuss the Latin Mass. In October, he celebrated a Latin Mass at
St. Peter's Basilica.
Antinomianism At the 2012
Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome, Burke criticized "
antinomianism", the belief that
grace exempts Christians from obedience to
moral law. He described antinomianism as "among the most serious wounds of society today". He blamed it for the legalization of "intrinsically evil" actions such as abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, and same-sex marriage.
Islam and immigration In a 2016 interview, Burke said there is "no question that
Islam wants to govern the world" and that he feared "being forcibly under an Islamic government". In his subsequent book,
Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ, Burke says: Archbishop
Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said that Burke's remarks were unhelpful at a time when Europe was still wavering in the aftermath of a series of terror attacks by
Islamist terrorists. Before the 2016 United States presidential election, Burke met with
Steve Bannon, a close advisor to Donald Trump. The pair met several more times, and Burke was for years a strong ally of Bannon. In 2013, Burke was named president of the board of advisers to Bannon's
Dignitatis Humanae Institute, an academy set up by Bannon to train right-wing Catholic activists. In June 2018, Burke condemned
the family separation policy of the Trump administration, saying, "A solution to the situation has to be found which avoids this practice of separating small children from their parents, that's clear." In May 2019, Burke said that "to resist large-scale Muslim immigration in my judgment is to be responsible" and "a responsible exercise of one's patriotism"; he cited a book called
No Go Zones: How Sharia Law is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You, by former
Breitbart News reporter
Raheem Kassam, in support of his contention that immigration of Muslims to Europe and the U.S. was harmful. Burke said that Muslim immigration was because Christians were "no longer ready to defend the moral law" and expressed fears of
demographic shift because "Christians are not reproducing themselves."
Clergy sex abuse In March 2010, in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal in Europe, Burke said that the Vatican needed to prepare a document that outlined a set of explicit guidelines rooted in canon law on sexual abuse cases. He said that would guide bishops and their local tribunals worldwide in determining how to report these cases to the Vatican. The goal was to speed up the process for delivering justice to victims. Changes would also be made to a policy that provided for high levels of secrecy in the process. In August 2018, Burke described ongoing
sex abuse scandals in the church as "an apostasy from the faith". He added that "principally, it starts with the idea that there can be legitimate sexual activity outside of marriage, which of course is false, completely false". Burke called for Catholics to pray and perform acts of reparation in the midst of the crisis. In January 2019, Burke said that "lay faithful who are well-prepared" in dealing with sexual abuse cases "should be called upon to investigate and help get to the bottom of" the church's clergy abuse problem, while also stating that any group of people investigating abuse cases must ultimately report and answer to the pope. Burke said that the gifts that he received from Bransfield were "generous", but "not lavish", and that he had donated the money to charity.
COVID-19 conspiracy theory, anti-vaccine In December 2020, Burke criticized global responses related to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to it as "the mysterious
Wuhan virus", he said that the virus is being used by "certain forces ... to advance their evil agenda" and to 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." In August 2021, Burke raised objections to
COVID-19 vaccination. He has denounced
vaccine mandates and compared them to
"state-mandated microchipping". Burke has also criticized
social distancing. On August 28, Burke said that he had been transferred out of the
intensive care unit and that his health condition was improving. On September 26, Burke announced that he been moved from the hospital and was making slow but steady progress in his rehabilitation from COVID-19 and he hoped to be able to resume normal duties in several weeks.
Synod on Synodality On July 10, 2023, Burke was one of five cardinals–alongside Brandmüller,
Robert Sarah,
Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, and
Joseph Zen–who signed a letter to Francis expressing concerns that the upcoming
Synod on Synodality would undermine traditional church teaching, particularly on matters related to sexuality, the role of synodality in the church, the issue of whether teaching could change with time, and the ordaining of women as priests. The letter posed a series of questions which the Pope was asked to clarify. Francis responded one day later. The cardinals found his response unsatisfactory and concerning, and wrote him a second letter, dated August 21, in which they rephrased their questions so that they could be answered simply as "yes" or "no". Francis did not respond, and in October the cardinals made the letters public.
Reception During the Francis papacy, Burke was frequently regarded as "the leader of the pope's conservative opposition." His conflicts with Pope Francis and the Vatican have been seen as symbolic of an ongoing large-scale conflict "between a more progressive Vatican and the American church". On the contrary, Burke's views have also won him admiration. Friends and supporters have characterized him as a kind and humble man who has done much good for Catholicism by defending traditional Catholic principles. Archbishop
Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said that he had long been "inspired by his charity, intelligence, humility and sheer goodness coupled with his simple, child-like devotion to our Lord,
our Blessed Mother, and all the saints." Journalist
Sohrab Ahmari described him as "a man of iron principle—and of intense prayer. A bona fide Roman holy man. A towering canonist. A fearless defender of orthodoxy. A champion of our liturgical patrimony. A churchman who understands that ritual and beauty should never be distant." ==Honors==