St. Louis archbishop named to two Vatican posts

Pope Benedict XVI named St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to two Vatican offices Tuesday, increasing Burke’s already prominent stature in Rome.

Burke, a canon lawyer by training, was one of eight cardinals and archbishops worldwide who Benedict named to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which interprets canon, or church, law.

The archbishop was one of three Americans and one of only two archbishops named to the council. The other men assigned to the council were all cardinals, four of them the heads of Vatican dicasteries, or agencies — an indication of the faith the Vatican has in Burke.
– St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Reporter’s Notebook: Pope may present a softer touch during U.S. visit

This New York Times profile does a good job of capturing the mood of American Catholics as the Pope’s U.S. visit get closer. I would suggest you give it a read and compare some of the main points of the article with the recent religious research by Pew Forum.

Click here for Times story.

On a related note, many of you may remember the visit of Cardinal John Foley, the former head of communications for the Vatican, to Columbia in February. He appears in the Times articles discussing Pope Benedict’s approach to doctrine.

“I like the line that good morals, like good art, begin by drawing a line,” said Cardinal John P. Foley, an American who served for years as the Vatican’s chief of communications. Benedict, he said, “is more classical art than expressionism,” adding, “He is not the Jackson Pollock of the ecclesiastical world.”

I sat down with the cardinal during his visit and asked him about his experiences in his long career with Pope John Paul II and other world leaders and figures. He recounted many stories including the day he prayed in a cell at Auschwitz with the former pope and another instance in which he joined him for dinner with Italian actor and Academy Award Winner Robert Benigni.

Click here for past coverage.

Click here for audio of Foley recalling some intimate meetings with the Pope John Paul II.

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Christian priest killed in Iraq

A Syrian Orthodox priest was killed by a silenced pistol outside his Baghdad home Saturday, The New York Times reported.

The killing marks the second time a Syrian Orthodox priest has been killed this year.

Speaking from the heavily barricaded cathedral, Archbishop Hawa said: “This tragedy came as a surprise to us because we did not receive any threat. He was still in his religious garments so we believe they followed him from the market to his house and killed him. The most important point is that he was killed because he was a religious man.”

But the archbishop said the “hand of the devil” was directed at all Iraqi sects, Muslim and Christian alike.

“Educated people, scientists, those who are working for the benefit of the country are all targeted,” he said. “If we lose one from our sect, 100 will be lost from other sects.”

— The New York Times

The recent violence against Christians in Iraq can be attributed to the U.S. decision to disband the Iraqi army in 2003, said Abu Noor, an Iraqi quoted in the article.

“All educated people are targeted,” he said. “It is the fault of the Americans.

“When they discharged the army, everything was lost,” he continued, referring to the decision by the American occupation authority to dismiss the entire Iraqi Army in 2003. “These people had no work and no money to live, so of course they will go into gangs. And a weak government with no police detectives, how can they manage?”

The invasion had caused only harm for Iraq’s Christians, he said.

“I heartily believe that we were living better under the old regime. No one could threaten the Christians then.”

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St. Louis archbishop excommunicates two more board members of embattled parish

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke declared two members of the St. Stanislaus Kostka church board excommunicated from the Catholic church in letter declarations sent to the homes of the parishioners Monday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

In the letters, Burke said the board members were guilty of the crime of schism and had excommunicated themselves from the church.

The recent excommunications came on the heels of three more declared by Burke last week. Rose Marie Hudson, 68 of Festus, and Elsie Hainz McGrath, 69 of St. Louis, were ordained as priests in an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests in November. The ordinations took place in a St. Louis synagogue, and the women and a bishop in the organization, Patricia Fresen, were charged with schism by Burke.

In his four years as St. Louis archbishop, Burke has publicly declared 12 Catholics excommunicated.

— The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Iraqi archbishop dead after kidnapping

The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul last month as he drove home after afternoon Mass was discovered Thursday buried in a southeastern area of the city.
— The New York Times

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